Kirk Cousins has been viewed by many people as a mid-tier quarterback during his career as a starter, but Patrick Mahomes feels the Minnesota Vikings signal-caller does not receive enough credit.
Mahomes, Cousins and Marcus Mariota sat down for a joint interview during the Netflix documentary series “Quarterback,” which was released last week. One of the questions that was asked is who is the most underrated quarterback in the NFL. Mahomes immediately pointed to Cousins, who was sitting to the Kansas City Chiefs star’s left.
“I think this guy right here,” Mahomes said. “You look at Kirk over here, man. He wins every year, puts up great stats, did it in Washington, does it in Minnesota. Talk to any other quarterbacks in the league and they’re gonna say the same thing.”
We asked Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota who they think most underrated quarterback in the NFL is. pic.twitter.com/R6dMDwSS9T
— Netflix (@netflix) July 20, 2023
Mariota agreed. He said he has been on a few teams where coaches showed tape of Cousins for teaching purposes. Cousins was flattered and said any compliment from his peers “beats any compliment coming from anybody else in your life.”
Cousins did not want to choose himself, of course, so he cast his vote for Jimmy Garoppolo.
Cousins may be underrated in that he has been a solid starting quarterback for the better part of eight years now. He has an impressive career passer rating of 97.8 and has thrown for more than 4,000 yards in seven of his eight seasons as a full-time starter. You could certainly do a lot worse than Cousins as your starting QB, which is why the former fourth-round pick has made more than $200 million in his career.
The flip side, of course, is that Cousins has just one playoff win. He has been widely criticized for his poor performances in primetime, though he exorcised some of those demons last year.
Cousins would be viewed a lot differently if he led Minnesota on a deep playoff run, but he clearly appreciated the compliment from a former MVP.
