Gregg Rosenthal analyzes Raiders' decision to name Kirk Cousins their Week 1 starter 'The NFL Report'
NFL Daily host Gregg Rosenthal talks about the Las Vegas Raiders' decision to name quarterback Kirk Cousins their Week 1 starter on "The NFL Report."
Video Transcript
I guess what seemed inevitable is now official.
Kirk Cousins will make his 168th career regular season start week one for the Raiders.
Clint Kubiak made the announcement this morning with very little fanfare.
I'm really happy with all three of our quarterbacks, and, you know, Kirk's had a really good off-season, very good camp, and he's earned it.
You talked a lot about continuing to develop Fernando.
Now that Kirk is named the starter, how do you make sure that he's still getting those meaningful reps in?
Yeah, there's a, you know, just early, early work, late work, more meetings, plenty of time on the field in between drills with, Coach Sullivan and Coach Sinoco.
You know, every, every player that, that is, you know, not starting the first game, then they're helping us on the look team.
You know, we're just trying to find every edge we can find to continue to get him better and his teammates better.
With Kirk being the starting quarterback, is there any expectation for Fernando to play, play at all this year?
I would work to Miami first.
It's on to Miami, but Greg Rosenthal, the game is actually in Vegas.
Greg Rosenthal, star of NFL Daily, the podcast.
Go check it out wherever you get your podcasts.
I, I don't think it's a surprise Kirk Cousins, i- is it?
I mean, this is where we are going, right?
The fact that it was a question this late before week one to me felt like a bigger surprise, and I think was telling, Andrew, because I think despite the numbers, Fernando Mendoza showed a lot in the pre-season, and they test drove him in a way that made them understand he's actually more advanced than we expected.
It's what they saw in practice.
So I'm carving out a unique space, Andrew, in the Take-o-sphere, and that's that Kirk Cousins is actually better than you think right now.
I think he looked much better in year two with Atlanta, and that he's a pretty solid bridge quarterback.
And yet, there's not much point in seeing him start more than four or five games.
I know the schedule is brutal, but what is the point of having Fernando Mendoza when he's shown this much this early sitting and waiting?
So I think we'll only have to wait about four or five weeks till, till we see Mendoza.
All right, let's put the schedule up because I think K- Clint Kubiak took this long merely because he's a new head coach and didn't wanna commit to anything.
I think he's known it's gonna be Kirk Cousins for a while.
Look at the schedule, figure this out, and let's say they beat the Dolphins.
Are they gonna beat the Chargers?
Maybe they beat the Saints.
Are they gonna beat the Chiefs?
Like, what are you gonna start him week five in New England?
Like, w- where- Sure where do we get Mendoza?
New England's fine.
There's no perfect spot.
You wanna start him against the Jets after you get past the Rams gauntlet, that's fine.
But the schedule is absolutely brutal.
They play so many of the best defenses in the NFL.
After that list, they play Seattle.
They're at San Francisco.
They're at Denver.
I think the, the Browns defense could be pretty good.
There's no soft spots, and it reminds me of a quarterback that played in the Super Bowl just a couple years ago.
And everyone was saying, Andrew, "Oh, you can't start Drake May against the Texans.
How dare you do this?
It's gonna ruin his career."
And you know what?
He had his share of struggles his rookie season, but despite awful stats, you could tell he was that dude.
It didn't ruin him.
And he had a bad coaching staff.
This is a coaching staff I think that's gonna be around for a while.
I think he's gonna get better by playing football.
So week four, week five, somewhere in that area makes a lot of sense to me.
Yeah, I, I buy that.
Cam Ward started last year and Caleb Williams started a couple of years before that, two years ago.
The last number one overall pick quarterback to not start week one was Baker in 2018.
He started week four after he came off the bench for Tyrod.
They beat the Jets.
He caught the pass, all that.
Went to Vegas and, got the short end of a horrible spot in the fourth quarter and Hugh Jackson lost.
But Baker threw for like 400.
Thank you, Greg Rosenthal.
But you're not bitter.
I'm not.
You're not.
I'm not bitter.
It was only eight years ago.
I am over it.
