Kirk Cousins Fantasy Overview

2025 Role & Results

Production & Fantasy Finishes

Cousins averaged 205.5 passing yards per game across eight starts for the Falcons, but that leaned heavily on one spike game against Tampa Bay. He threw for 373 yards and three of his 10 TDs vs. the Bucs, which propelled him to a QB4 finish for the week.

Cousins cracked the top 12 only once more in Week 16 at Arizona, when he scored his first rushing TD since 2022.

Usage & Role

Cousins played a conservative style, finishing 28th among 42 qualifiers in deep-throw rate (9.7%) and 30th in average depth of target (7.3).

His total volume wasn’t spectacular either, at 31 attempts per start. That ranked 16th among QBs with at least eight starts.

Efficiency & Regression

Cousins looked like a QB in decline, setting career lows in:

• completion rate (61.7%)
• TD rate (3.7%)
• yards per attempt (6.4)
• passing success rate (44.3%)

Offensive Context

Atlanta didn’t supply an ideal environment, finishing seventh in pace but 17th in plays, 21st in pass rate, and 26th in pass rate over expected.

Bijan Robinson and Kyle Pitts both played 17 games. Drake London missed five, including two during Cousins’ starting stretch. Notably, Cousins’ huge game against the Bucs came with London sidelined. (Although 44 pass attempts and a positive matchup certainly helped.)

The Falcons were serviceable up front, finishing 14th in ESPN’s pass-block win rate and 15th in Pro Football Focus pass-blocking grade.

Injury History & Durability

Cousins brought no meaningful durability concerns until a 2023 right Achilles tear. He made it back for Week 1 of 2024 and has avoided any injury-related absences since.

2026 Opportunity & Projection

Projected Role & Competition

Cousins is the favorite to start Week 1 after taking most of the first-team reps in offseason practices, while HC Klint Kubiak has talked about sitting No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza in a “perfect world.”

That would be an unusual (but not unheard of) situation. From 2016-2025, there have been eight QBs selected first overall. Of them, only two didn’t crack the Week 1 starting lineup.

Eventually, we expect Mendoza’s talent to win out. Our projections have Cousins down for only four starts.

Supporting Cast

This unit should look better with a healthy Brock Bowers, who played through a Week 1 knee injury last season that eventually cost him five games. Still, he led the team with 64 receptions.

Bowers’ health is vital, given this group’s WR depth.

Tre Tucker returns after leading Vegas in receiving yards in 2025. But that campaign turned up poor efficiency marks, including 1.26 yards per route run and 0.16 targets per route run.

The Raiders signed former Viking Jalen Nailor to a three-year deal with $23 million guaranteed. But he’s never been a full-season starter, spending his first four seasons behind a combination of Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, and Adam Thielen.

Jack Bech brings nice size (6’1, 214) and the promise of a second-year Round 2 pick. Still, his rookie year turned up only 20 catches for 224 yards in 16 games.

Round 6 rookie Malik Benson and 2025 Round 4 pick Donte’ Thornton add speed but look merely like rotational pieces.

With better health, the O-line should improve on its finishes of 28th in PFF pass-blocking grade and 30th in adjusted sack rate. LT Kolton Miller and G Jackson Powers-Johnson return after injury-wrecked 2025 campaigns. The Raiders also added Tyler Linderbaum, a major center upgrade after his fourth-place finish among 41 qualifiers in PFF run-blocking grade.

Coaching & Offensive Scheme

Cousins spent three seasons with Kubiak in Minnesota, including a strong 2021 campaign with Kubiak calling plays.

The Vikings posted a 60.1% pass rate that year, ranking 21st league-wide, and finished in the same spot in pass rate over expected. Cousins threw for 4,221 yards, 33 TDs, and just 7 INTs that year, topping league average in both completion rate (66.3%) and yards per attempt (7.5).

But that was five years ago, and Cousins had Justin Jefferson. This Raiders passing game offers little to get excited about beyond Bowers.

Ashton Jeanty gives Vegas a potentially strong backfield foundation, which could push Kubiak toward the formula he used in Seattle last year. The 2025 Seahawks finished 30th in pass rate and 27th in pass rate over expected. That kind of low volume would make it tough for Cousins to deliver fantasy value.