Kirk Cousins Can Complete Task of Beating All 32 NFL Teams in 2023
Only four quarterbacks in NFL history have ever beaten all 32 of the league's teams. It's basically a Mount Rushmore of modern QB greatness: Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and Brett Favre.
Beating all 32 teams is a feat that requires great QB play, good surrounding circumstances, longevity in a starting role, and playing for multiple teams in one's career (because you can't beat the team you're on).
Five quarterbacks have beaten 31 teams: Aaron Rodgers, Alex Smith, Russell Wilson, Kerry Collins, and Ben Roethlisberger. Everyone but Collins on that list is only missing the team they spent much or all of their career with. Roethlisberger spent his entire career with the Steelers. Rodgers' Jets won't play the Packers until 2024 or 2025. Wilson lost to the Seahawks in his first game with the Broncos and won't face them this year. Smith went 0-2 against the Chiefs as the 49ers' quarterback before joining Kansas City. Collins never played for the Dolphins, but strangely went 0-5 against them in his career.
Kirk Cousins, who is one of four QBs who have beaten 30 out of 32 teams, is the only quarterback with an opportunity to join the all-32 list this season.
The two teams Cousins has yet to beat are the Chiefs and Bengals, who are both on the Vikings' 2023 schedule. They'll host the Chiefs in Week 5 and take on the Bengals in Cincinnati in Week 15. Beating both will require pulling off sizable upsets against the defending Super Bowl champions and the team they beat in the AFC title game last season, but it's at least theoretically possible.
Cousins isn't that far off from already being on the list. The Vikings lost to the Matt Moore-led Chiefs in 2019 when Patrick Mahomes was out, then lost an OT thriller to the Bengals in Week 1 of 2021. The defeat included a controversial ruling that Dalvin Cook fumbled the ball late in overtime. With Washington, Cousins threw for 458 yards in a TIE against the Bengals back in 2016 and lost to Smith's Chiefs by nine in 2017.
This year, Cousins has a chance to finally cross both teams off the list. Importantly, he beat the Vikings in 2016 with Washington and is 2-0 against Washington with the Vikings. The team he's beaten the most among his 72 wins as a starter is the Lions, who he's 8-3 against.
Mahomes is the only other active starting quarterback to beat 30 teams (Joe Flacco and John Elway also did it). He can get to 31 with a win over the Vikings, but would have to go somewhere else and beat the Chiefs to get to 32.
There are five active starters who have beaten at least 28 teams. None of them have the opportunity to complete the full set this year. Those are Matthew Stafford (29), Ryan Tannehill (29), Lamar Jackson (29), Josh Allen (28), and Dak Prescott (28).
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