Each year, The Athletic’s Mike Sando compiles quarterback tiers and Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins has been elevated to tier two going into 2023.
Sando has been doing these tiers for the last ten years, comprising of 50 different NFL personnel.
The 2023 Quarterback Tiers results are here, complete with commentary from the 50 NFL coaches and executives who were granted anonymity to share unvarnished evaluations. This year, the 50 league insiders who placed 30 veteran quarterbacks into tiers included eight general managers, 10 head coaches, 15 coordinators, 10 executives, four quarterbacks coaches and three involved in coaching/analytics.
For the second time, Cousins was in tier two of the rankings out of his eight appearances. Sando describes tier two as the following:
A Tier 2 quarterback can carry his team sometimes but not as consistently. He can handle pure passing situations in doses and/or possesses other dimensions that are special enough to elevate him above Tier 3. He has a hole or two in his game.
That does a good job of describing Cousins, who was the last quarterback in tier two behind Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford and Deshaun Watson.
One executive hit the nail on the head with Cousins, where he is excellent one game and questionable the next.
“People have him down in Tier 3 and I’m like, ‘No, no, no, no, no,’” an exec said. “But the guy is a riddle. He plays almost flawlessly in the second half in the biggest comeback in the history of the league (against Indianapolis), which almost no one can do, and then one month later, in the playoffs, he’s got fourth-and-8 on the last play of the game and he’s hitting the checkdown five yards short of the sticks with the defender all over the receiver.”
You can make solid arguments about having Cousins above or below other quarterbacks on this list, but he’s placed in about the right spot. Anywhere between 8-15 depending on the week is right.
