Troy Aikman said it during the broadcast. Justin Jefferson put the necklace on him after the game.
Kirk Cousins. Top 10 quarterback.
It’s a far different analysis when framed as “up” or “down” versus looking at all quarterbacks and picking the best 10. Chris Simms and I took up the latter effort on Tuesday’s PFT Live, attempting to identify the top 10 quarterbacks right now.
Simms suggested a consensus top eight (in no particular order): Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrow, Jalen Hurts, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert, and Matthew Stafford. So does Cousins deserve one of the final two spots?
Aaron Rodgers would likely get one if he were playing, but he’s not. Absent a clear indication that he’s coming back in 2023, he won’t be until next year at the earliest. Tua Tagovailoa, in my view, deserves one of those spots, even if other quarterbacks (like, say, Kirk Cousins) could indeed run the Mike McDaniel offense as well if not better than Tua does.
If we give Tua one of the spots, that’s nine. Currently, it comes down to Cousins or Dak Prescott or Jared Goff for the last spot.
Let’s drop Goff from that conversation. So it’s Cousins or it’s Dak. And currently, it’s close.
This could be the tiebreaker. Dak and the Cowboys were overwhelmed by the 49ers. Cousins and the Vikings found a way to beat San Francisco.
If we’re basing this on “right now,” maybe Aikman is right and Cousins gets the last spot in the current top 10.
But since it’s all “right now,” it could change by next week. Especially if the Vikings follow Monday night’s upset of the 49ers with a face plant at Lambeau Field.