Kirk Cousins Caught in Web of Redskins' Dysfunction
In the Big Apple, we all think Eli Manning gets no love. But the veteran New York Giants quarterback has never faced a level of dysfunction that currently plagues the locker room of the Washington Redskins. In the Nation’s Capital, quarterback Kirk Cousins continues to be scapegoated as the ‘Skins have limped out to an 0-2 start.
According to Dan Steinberg of the Washington Post in an article written on Sept. 20, 2016, the media cannot agree if Cousins is the problem or not. “Coach Jay Gruden’s response to the early-season struggles of Kirk Cousins have struck me as the mostly honest, off-the-cuff ruminations of a man who thinks his quarterback can and should be better, and who isn’t sure why that isn’t happening,” Steinberg says.
Dysfunction of Talking Heads
Unfortunately, know-nothings like Michael Wilbon and Stephen A. Smith have jumped on the “dump Cousins” bandwagon. While spewing their simplistic views, both find time to take up the cause for Robert Griffin III. “From afar, the answer that jumps out of my mouth is that Coach Gruden makes excuses for Kirk Cousins that he didn’t dare make for Robert Griffin [III], who he ran out of town, who he treated like garbage publicly,” Wilbon says. He conveniently forgets the fact that former coach Mike Shanahan first soured on RGIII.
With Stephen A. Smith, it’s always a special kind of criticism. “Do you see how understanding Jay Gruden is, but how he picked apart and dissected RGIII, threw him under the bus, told everybody. I mean, he didn’t just sit there and say RGIII was playing bad; didn’t he dissect everything from the three-step drop to the five-step drop, and how he wasn’t reading through his progressions?”
But Mr. Smith obviously did not look at Griffin’s stat line against the Philadelphia Eagles. He was 12 of 26 for 190 yards and an interception. His completion percentage was 46.2 percent and his quarterback rating was 55. In addition, Griffin got hurt again, even after he was counseled in Washington to avoid taking needless hits.
But we digress.
Locker Room Dysfunction
It’s often difficult to figure out the agenda behind locker room dysfunction. Are players trying to rid themselves of a coach? Is someone angling for a new contract? Or is it just mindless chatter picked up by the media?
Mike Florio of NBC’s Pro Football Talk reported on Sep. 18, 2016 that an anonymous source indicated multiple offensive players were unhappy with Cousins. Florio doesn’t name a source or sources, and it doesn’t take a genius to see that Cousins has to improve.
Cousins has at least one ally in the locker room. Defensive lineman Ricky Jean Francois wants the anonymous sources to come clean. “If anybody really got something to say about Kirk in this locker room, my locker right here,” Francois said in a Washington Post report on Sep. 21, 2016. “I ain’t gonna come anonymous.”
Fanning the Flames of Dysfunction
It probably was not the wisest move for current New York Giants’ linebacker Keenan Robinson to weigh in on his former team. Robinson’s cleansing moment has become bulletin board for a rudderless team.
“When I was there, three out of four years, it was the same thing,” Robinson said according to Jordan Raanan of ESPN. “Once they get down, they start pointing fingers. And that is true. That is what happens.
Robinson said he was offered a long term deal to stay in D.C. after the 2014 season but declined. Something about that statement doesn’t pass the smell test. Then Robinson adds the inflammatory comments that break one of the NFL commandments, “Thou shall not speak ill of another team’s locker room.”
This is how a rallying cry is born. And if the Redskins join ranks on Sunday, and have their quarterback’s back, we can all thank Mr. Robinson for creating a problem.
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