Kirk Cousins' Instant Fantasy Reaction After Week 3

Everyone who disregarded a long-term quarterback controversy in Washington may soon be eating their words.

Kirk Cousins' second appearance of 2014 began much like his first, as the former Michigan State star threw for 427 yards and three touchdowns in Sunday's 37-34 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

Cousins began his afternoon with eight straight completions and had racked up well more than 100 yards in the first 15 minutes. Washington's two opening drives each went for more than 10 plays and 80 yards, with Cousins hitting fullback Darrel Young for the game's opening score and wideout Pierre Garcon for the second.

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With open receivers all over the field, Cousins picked apart the Eagles secondary with passes long and short. His third touchdown was an 81-yard pitch and catch to DeSean Jackson, who promptly taunted his former team by punting the "Fly Eagles Fly" celebration. 

A fourth-round pick in 2012, Cousins was forced into the lineup last week after Robert Griffin III went down with a dislocated ankle. Griffin's long-term prognosis is still up in the air but some saw his injury as addition by subtraction after Cousins looked more comfortable running Jay Gruden's system in the preseason.

“It’s important that you’re well prepared each time you go out there and you know what you’re going to do and you don’t lay an egg,” Cousins told reporters this week. “Each opportunity is very, very big.”

Of course, many (including yours truly) pointed to the fact Cousins' career has been filled with enough eggs to make an omelet prior to last week. Departed Washington coach Mike Shanahan gave Cousins the last three games of 2013 as a starter, each coming against teams that ranked in the NFL's bottom half of pass defense.

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Cousins responded by performing like arguably the worst quarterback in football. Football Outsiders' DVOA metric measured him to be 45th among the 45 passers who had at least 100 attempts. His final stat line read 854 yards, four touchdowns and seven interceptions. For his career Cousins had averaged an interception once every 20.3 passes—roughly Eli Manning's 2013 season on repeat.  

The larger sample indicated he was just plain bad at football. Coming into this week I advised against Cousins, citing said sample. (It's worth noting that Cousins threw a pick and had a couple others that Philly defensive backs could have come down with.)

While I'm still more comfortable having another option available, Cousins is playing himself into top-15 consideration. His controlled, somewhat conservative style is never going to make him an elite fantasy option. This week was closer to an anomaly than an expectation going forward.

If Gruden can get production similar to Andy Dalton (without an A.J. Green-level superstar), then he should be happy. 

Cousins is going to increase the value of Niles Paul and Jordan Reed (when he returns) and likely hurt the value of Jackson, who was targeted 11 times but caught five balls Sunday. 

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There is some value here and it's hard to not be encouraged by his performance so far. That said, he was hitting wide-open receivers against a terrible Jacksonville secondary and Philadelphia came into Sunday ranked 17th in pass defense DVOA, per Football Outsiders.

Cousins might be improved from his 2013 self. He sure looks it so far. Given Griffin will be out for a long time, we'll get to find out. In fantasy leagues, though, he's still not much more than a bye-week replacement or QB2 in two-quarterback leagues.

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