{"id":859082,"date":"2026-04-07T14:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/859082\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:32:16","slug":"is-kirk-cousins-the-answer-temporarily-for-the-las-vegas-raiders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/859082\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Kirk Cousins the Answer Temporarily for the Las Vegas Raiders?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/03\/17\/raiders-would-make-a-lot-of-sense-for-kirk-cousins\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Kirk Cousins officially signed with the Las Vegas Raiders<\/a> on April 2, 2026. This marks a significant shift for a franchise looking to stabilize its quarterback room under new head coach Klint Kubiak. <\/p>\n<p>Cousins will impact the Raiders in three ways.<\/p>\n<p>3 Impacts that Kirk Cousins Will Bring to Las Vegas<br \/>\nThe \u2018Bridge\u2019 to the Future<\/p>\n<p>The Raiders are widely expected to select Indiana quarterback and 2025 Heisman winner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/player\/_\/id\/4837248\/fernando-mendoza\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Fernando Mendoza<\/a> with the first overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. Cousins was brought in specifically to serve as the \u2018bridge\u2019 starter.<\/p>\n<p>Cousins provides a veteran presence that allows Mendoza to develop without being forced to start in Week 1. Given Cousins\u2019 history of having navigated through complex quarterback rooms in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commanders.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Washington<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlantafalcons.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Atlanta,<\/a> the front office views him as the ideal mentor for a franchise rookie.<\/p>\n<p>Offensive Continuity with Klint Kubiak<\/p>\n<p>Cousins has a deep history with Raiders head coach<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reviewjournal.com\/sports\/raiders\/how-klint-kubiak-has-navigated-his-first-two-months-as-raiders-head-coach-3733876\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\"> Klint Kubiak<\/a> from their time together with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vikings.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Minnesota Vikings.<\/a> Because of this, he is fluent in Kubiak\u2019s offensive schemes. The Raiders expect a much faster acclimation period than a typical veteran signing.<\/p>\n<p>After a 4-13 finish in 2025, the Raiders are prioritizing \u2018floor\u2019 over \u2018ceiling in the short term. Cousins offers a level of passing efficiency and pre-snap command that the team lacked last season.<\/p>\n<p>Financial Flexibility<\/p>\n<p>While the headlines noted a \u2018five-year, $172 million\u2019 deal, the actual impact on the Raiders\u2019 cap is relatively low. It is effectively a one-year $20 million guaranteed deal for 2026. Interestingly, the Atlanta Falcons are paying $8.7 million of his salary this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This means that the Raiders are only on the hook for $11.3 million in cash for 2026. The deal includes a two-year club option for 2027-2028 that the Raiders are unlikely to trigger if Mendoza is ready to take over. This essentially makes this a low-risk, high-reward veteran rental.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kirk Cousins officially signed with the Las Vegas Raiders on April 2, 2026. This marks a significant shift&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2065],"tags":[4955,90704,3619,7,294,8357,1744,393,2455,2454,6,525],"class_list":{"0":"post-859082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-las-vegas-raiders","8":"tag-2026-nfl-draft","9":"tag-2026-nfl-free-agency","10":"tag-fernando-mendoza","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-kirk-cousins","13":"tag-klint-kubiak","14":"tag-las-vegas","15":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","16":"tag-lasvegas","17":"tag-lasvegasraiders","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-raiders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}