Kirk Cousins threw two interceptions in Thursday night’s loss to the Giants, continuing an alarming trend that began with Cousins’s very first NFL game: He throws too many interceptions, and when he throws interceptions, Washington loses.
Cousins has eight career games with multiple interceptions, and Washington is 0-8 in those games. Cousins now has a whopping 23 career interceptions.
How bad is that? Consider that Cousins has the exact same number of career interceptions as Washington second-string quarterback Colt McCoy and Washington third-string quarterback/scout team safety Robert Griffin III. But McCoy has thrown his 23 interceptions in 831 career pass attempts, and Griffin has thrown his 23 interceptions in 1,063 career pass attempts. Cousins has thrown just 514 passes in his career.
When it comes to throwing interceptions, Cousins compares unfavorably to some of the worst quarterbacks in recent NFL history. Cousins’s career touchdown-interception ratio is almost exactly the same as that of Jaguars draft bust Blaine Gabbert: Cousins has thrown 21 career touchdown passes and 23 interceptions, while Gabbert has thrown 23 touchdown passes and 24 interceptions.
Cousins also throws interceptions at a worse rate than Raiders draft bust JaMarcus Russell: Cousins and Russell both have 23 career interceptions, but Russell threw 166 more passes than Cousins has thrown.
Washington coach Jay Gruden insisted after Thursday’s loss that there is no quarterback controversy, and he’s sticking with Cousins. But if Cousins keeps throwing picks, Gruden may decide he has no choice but to pull him, because Gruden’s own job could be on the line if his hand-picked quarterback keeps throwing interceptions.