The Redskins have officially named QB Kirk Cousins their Week 1 starter, per insider Dianna Marie Russini.  There have been conflicting reports about whether Washington is ready to move on from QB Robert Griffin, but this obviously speak volumes to the franchise's current confidence in him.  The former #2 overall pick has looked skittish and has taken a beating in preseason action.  We wouldn't rule out the possibility of RG3 making starts this year, but he's not worth rostering in redraft leagues.  Neither is Cousins, outside of 2-QB setups.  The 27-year-old is sitting on a career 59% completion rate with 18 TDs and 19 INTs.  Despite a couple of big games last year, Cousins isn't a trustworthy fantasy play.

ESPN's Dianna Marie Russini reported via Twitter Saturday morning, "Sources say the plan is not only to start Kirk Cousins tonight in Baltimore, but also week 1 against Miami." That comes after a goofy situation with Robert Griffin's concussion where the team deemed him cleared to return before an independent doctor said RG3 needed more time. The Washington QBs look like a situation to avoid if you're drafting today or any time over the next couple of weeks. As for the surrounding offensive players, Cousins proved last year that he can put up numbers in HC Jay Gruden's offense. He'll be worth DFS consideration, though we probably wouldn't use him Week 1 against a talented Dolphins defense.

Redskins HC Jay Gruden said that QB Robert Griffin is the team's starter "right now."  It's a lukewarm endorsement from a coach who benched RG3 last season.  Griffin will head to training camp as the favorite to be under center Week 1, but he could lose that spot to Kirk Cousins or Colt McCoy.  It's the 1st time in Griffin's NFL career that he's not locked in as the starter.  Perhaps that will provide the spark to get RG3's game back on track.  We can't consider him anything more than a QB2 gamble in 2015 fantasy drafts.  Griffin has been lasting until at least the 14th round in most March MFL10 drafts.

Washington HC Jay Gruden said today that QB Robert Griffin III will start Saturday's game against the Eagles. Colt McCoy is expected to miss the game because of the neck injury that knocked him out of Week 15's loss to the Giants. Griffin took 7 sacks and lost a key fumble after taking over for McCoy but also threw for 236 yards and a TD and ran for a season-high 46 yards. You'd have to be in bad shape to use RG3 in a season-long fantasy lineup next weekend, but his matchup with the Eagles could mean some sneaky value in tournaments on daily fantasy sports sites.

Redskins HC Jay Gruden said Monday that QB Colt McCoy will get the starter's reps in practice this week.  It looks like he's passed QB Kirk Cousins on the depth chart.  McCoy went 11-of-12 for 128 yards and a score on Sunday, but a chunk of that came on WR Pierre Garcon's run-after-the-catch TD.  As for QB Robert Griffin, Gruden said, "I can't rule him out. But he's still got a long way to go... He's got to be 100 percent."  The entire Washington passing game will be tough to trust if McCoy ends up under center, especially against a Cowboys pass defense that's been surprisingly good.

Redskins QB Kirk Cousins was benched at halftime of Sunday's game against the Titans.  He went 10-of-16 for 139 yards, 0 TDs and 1 INT in the first 30 minutes.  Washington entered the break trailing 10-6.  Cousins was replaced by QB Colt McCoy, who connected with WR Pierre Garcon for a 70-yard TD on his first possession.

Washington QB Robert Griffin III dislocated his left ankle against the Jaguars, the team has announced.  No timetable has been offered up for his expected return, so we'll have to wait and see if surgery is needed and how long Griffin will be out.  Kirk Cousins looked good against a bad Jacksonville D.  If that continues, the team will have little reason to rush its starter back.  Matchups against the Eagles and Giants the next 2 weeks make Cousins an immediate fantasy factor.

Washington QB Robert Griffin left in the middle of the 1st quarter Sunday after suffering a left leg injury.  RG3 went down awkwardly on the sideline after making a scrambling completion to WR DeSean Jackson.  He went to the locker room on a cart, with a cast on his leg and seemingly fighting back tears.  Kirk Cousins took over and threw a TD pass to FB Darrel Young a few plays later.

Update: The injury is reportedly to his left ankle, which bent awkwardly near the end of the play as he went out of bounds.  Washington has ruled Griffin out for the rest of the day.

The Redskins have "no plans" to trade QB Kirk Cousins, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.  "He's not going anywhere."  Cousins has expressed his desire to head elsewhere to fight for a starting job.  But he'd only bring back a mid-round pick in a trade.  He's more valuable to Washington as an insurance policy behind Robert Griffin.  Cousins didn't help himself by completing 47% of his passes with 1 TD and 3 INTs over the final 2 games of 2013.

ESPN's Adam Schefter hears that Redskins QB Kirk Cousins is "open" to being traded.  Duh.  The 'Skins  have publicly committed to Robert Griffin as their starting QB.  So unless the 25-year-old Cousins wants to continue holding a clipboard, he'll need to get out of Washington.  The question, of course, is whether the Redskins are willing to trade Cousins.  They need a quality backup behind the injury-prone RG3.  We'd ultimately bet on Cousins sticking around in Washington at least for 2014.  He won't hit the free-agent market until 2016.

On his 1st day as Redskins HC, Jay Gruden put to bed any ideas of a QB controversy.  "Robert Griffin III is the starter," Gruden said. "There will be no competition."  So that's 1 less question we need to answer about Griffin's 2014 fantasy outlook.  We're curious to see what type of offense Gruden installs, whether it takes advantage of Griffin's strengths and how long it takes him to get comfortable in it.  We'll also see if Washington puts QB Kirk Cousins on the trade block.  They'd be wise to keep a capable backup behind an injury-prone starter.  And Cousins hurt his trade value by completing just 47% of his passes with 1 TD and 3 INTs over the last 2 weeks of the season.

Rain and wind will be a factor in today's Cowboys-Redskins game.  The chance of rain will increase throughout the afternoon, climbing up to 50% by 3 pm local time.  Winds of 13-17 mph are expected.  Those aren't ideal conditions for the passing games.  QBs Kirk Cousins and Tony Romo remain risk/reward fantasy starters.  RBs DeMarco Murray and Alfred Morris are both must-starts.

Making just his 2^nd NFL start (and 1^st this season), Cousins completed 29 of 45 passes for 381 yards, 3 TDs and 2 INTs.  Both of his INTs came on late throws over the middle, while he also lost 1 fumble.  The Michigan State product struggled early on, as Washington’s leaky O-line let him down.  He’d soon settle in and find Fred Davis (23 yards) and Pierre Garcon (53 yards) for impressive 1^st half TDs.  Cousins topped off his scoring with a late-game 6-yard quick-strike to Santana Moss.  Washington elected to go for 2 (and the win), but his pass couldn’t find the hands of Garcon in the back of the end zone.  Still, Cousins’ outing went about as well as fantasy owners could have hoped.  He heads home to face Dallas’ laughable defense, putting this new starter right back on the low-end QB1 radar. 

According to NFL Network's Jeff Darlington, Redskins players have been told that QB Kirk Cousins will start Sunday's game against the Falcons.  QB Robert Griffin will reportedly be a healthy scratch, leaving QB Rex Grossman as the backup.  HC Mike Shanahan is following through on his plan to "protect" RG3 -- even though Shanny played Griffin in all but 10 of Washington's offensive snaps prior to last week.  If his sophomore season is through, he finishes with a 60.2% completion rate, 7 yards per attempt, 16 TDs and 12 INTs.  All those numbers are worse than his 2012 marks.  Meanwhile, Cousins will be on the QB2 radar the rest of the way.  He racked up 329 yards, 2 TDs and 1 INT in his lone start last year and looked good this preseason.  He gets Atlanta's 26th-ranked defense this Sunday and Dallas' 31st-ranked unit in Week 16.

Fox Sports' Jay Glazer and NFL Network's Ian Rapoport hear that the Redskins' current plan is to start QB Kirk Cousins against the Falcons this weekend.  Both guys also believe Robert Griffin will have an opportunity to convince Shanahan to stick with him.  This sounds like a fluid situation for now.  We should have a good idea of Washington's Week 15 starter later today, though, when we learn who took 1st-team reps at practice.  Whoever starts will have a plus matchup against Atlanta's 26th-ranked QB defense.

Washington watched 4 players leave with injuries during Monday night's clash with Pittsburgh.  DT Barry Cofield broke his right hand, according to Redskins radio reporter Rick "Doc" Walker.  QB Kirk Cousins left with a sprained right foot.  WRs Leonard Hankerson and Aldrick Robinson departed with right knee and left thigh injuries, respectively.  No return timelines were immediately available for any of the 4 players.

With QB Robert Griffin on the sidelines, QB Kirk Cousins got the start in the Redskins' preseason opener Thursday night.  He completed 6 of 7 passes for 52 yards, highlighted by a 3-yard TD pass to TE Fred Davis.  "Against the Titans’ starters, he commanded the offense, threw on time, threw in rhythm and protected the ball," insider Rich Campbell noted " He took easy passes Tennessee’s coverage gave him, and he took advantage of how play-action opened the defense."  Cousins showed well in relief of RG3 last year and again looked capable of keeping Washington's offense afloat if Griffin misses time in 2013.  Fantasy owners with deep benches could add Cousins late in drafts as an RG3 handcuff.

Redskins QB Kirk Cousins is working to improve his zone-read game this offseason.  Cousins obviously isn't even in the same athletic stratosphere as QB Robert Griffin, but he still believes he can be successful in the zone-read scheme.  “A guy like me, I need to be much more perfect in my ball-handling and in my reads for it to work than maybe a Robert or a Pat White has to be,” Cousins said.  "I believe that if the coaches want me to, I can gain a comfort levels with these plays, where I can be fast enough to have them be effective. And once at least there’s a threat of those plays being run with me in the game, it does change a lot of things for a defensive coordinator. And so it’s worth it to explore what it would look like for me to be doing those things. But there’s no doubt I need to get more comfortable than I currently am, and that will be a focus this spring.”  If RG3 isn't ready for the start of the upcoming season, Cousins will be under center.  We doubt we'd see much of the read-option game out of him though.  Cousins rushed for negative 127 yards in college (sacks count against a QB's rushing yards) and ran a 4.93 40-yard dash at the Combine.

Redskins QB Robert Griffin (knee) is officially inactive for today's game against the Browns.  Rex Grossman will back up Kirk Cousins.  Expect a run-heavy game plan from Washington.

Redskins QB Kirk Cousins will start in place of Robert Griffin (knee) Sunday against the Browns. Players were reportedly informed of the decision in a meeting Saturday night. Given Friday’s news that Griffin hadn’t taken 1st-team reps in practice all week, this isn’t a total shock. Cousins has looked solid in relief of Griffin this year, but there’s no way you’re trusting him in the fantasy playoffs. The news also puts a sizeable dent in Pierre Garcon's upside. He's just a WR3 now. RB Alfred Morris figures to benefit most here with a rookie 4th-rounder making his first NFL start.