The Las Vegas Raiders signed Kirk Cousins to be a bridge quarterback, but he's turning out to be more than that.
Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins has achieved some remarkable things in his long career -- he is the king of getting paid, after all -- but he’s accomplished something with the Raiders so far that many thought impossible.
Cousins now has seven straight victories as a starter, per a report from Charean Williams of Pro Football Talk, and his three straight wins for the Raiders have virtually eliminated the talk of rookie quarterback Fernando Mendoza as a starter.
For the moment, anyway.
Cousins has been in this role before, of course. He started 14 games for the Falcons in 2024 before they turned to first-round rookie Michael Penix. Cousins also started eight games last year when Penix was injured.
The Raiders are off to a 3-0 start, and coach Klint Kubiak said he’s “just worried about playing the next game.” Cousins will start, and the coach also delivered his familiar refrain about Mendoza being ready when his number’s up.
But Cousins has won a total of seven games in a row, which is currently the NFL’s longest active streak. It’s a remarkable development, and according to Williams he can become the first quarterback since the 1970 merger to win four consecutive games for two teams in the same streak.
Cousins is sort of doing this as a game manager, and he’s doing it without a genuine deep threat. Receiver Tre Tucker has shown the potential to develop into that, but for the moment Cousins is strictly adhering to Kubiak’s offense and his knowledge of that from prior experience. Cousins has thrown nine touchdown passes and three interceptions and his passer rating of 107.2 ranks eighth, per Willaims.
The quarterback has also mastered the art of giving out bland quotes over the years, and he talked about proving himself every single week in the NFL. This is exactly what Kubiak wants, and the two are working in lockstep.
This won’t last. Sooner or later the Raiders will lose, possibly as soon as this Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. Cousins will have a rough game or make a bad play at a crucial moment, and the crescendo of media howling about starting Mendoza will start to build once again.
But Kubiak and Cousins are in the process of restoring credibility to a franchise that lost it completely in the last half decade, and that makes this a great story right now. The Raiders are a viable NFL team again, and they’re actually fun to watch.
