3 reasons why Kirk Cousins is not a checkdown quarterback
By Dustin Baker
Pro Football Focus emphatically concluded Cousins is not Captain Checkdown.
He’s not even close to it.
In early June, Pro Football Focus published an analysis that examined the NFL as a whole from 2018 to 2019 and its checkdown culprits. Kirk Cousins was not near the top of the list. On third down, he ranked 16th-lowest on the list out of 41 total signal-callers evaluated. This mathematically places Cousins in the bottom half of the Captain Checkdown club on third down–a popular situation to use the checkdown tactic.
Guests of honor on the top 10 of the aforementioned list are the Houston Texans Deshaun Watson (checked down 8.9 percent of the time) and retired Indianapolis Colt Andrew Luck who, in 2018, found his checkdown valve on 8.2 percent of all pass plays.
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PFF calculated that overall, regardless of down, Kirk Cousins was not in its top 10 for checkdown throws in the last two seasons. At the rate and prevalence Cousins is speculated to be a checkdown king, he would probably need to be inside the top 10 to merit the moniker. He isn’t.