4 reasons why Kirk Cousins is (probably) just a clone of Alex Smith

They’re good, but not good enough to win a championship

Both Kirk Cousins and Alex Smith have had impressive regular-season and playoff performances during their NFL careers. But for whatever reason, the play of these two quarterbacks has never been able to translate into their teams celebrating a Super Bowl victory at the end of a season.

Cousins has only been to the divisional round of the playoffs once in his career and that was back in 2019 when the Vikings faced the 49ers. In that matchup, Minnesota’s quarterback had a performance to forget as he threw for just 172 yards, one touchdown, and one interception while getting sacked six times.

Compared to Cousins, Smith had similar numbers and a similar lack of success in the postseason during his time in the NFL. Smith started under center in seven playoff games during his pro career and his teams only won two of them.

During these postseason matchups, he had some impressive performances (accounted for four total touchdowns in both the 2011 divisional round and the 2013 wild-card game). But he had some underwhelming postseason performances as well (passer rating under 80.0 in both the 2016 and 2017 divisional-round contests).

Cousins and Smith proved multiple times during their careers that they are capable of helping a team reach the playoffs. But when they’ve entered the postseason, reaching the Super Bowl has proven to be too large of a goal to accomplish.