Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins has been getting jostled around a bit in practice, and he’s not all that happy about it. He got hit in the arm by Maxx Crosby in a recent Raiders practice that led to words and some shouting, and it happened again yesterday during the Raiders’ joint workout against the Houston Texans.
The contact with the Texans didn’t reach the same level as the Crosby fracas, but Cousins responded when Texans defenders closed in on him in the pocket in a way that sparked a response, according to Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk that referenced material from Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Cousins was wearing the typical red non-contact jersey, but he wondered why this kind of contact seems to happen so often given the rules implied by the jersey.
“I might as well just take the red jersey off because you’re playing with, sometimes, an understood rule that if it’s not understood, then what are we doing?” Cousins said.
The quarterback’s comments come off a slightly whiny, but Cousins probably doesn’t mind part given the point he’s trying to make. He’s 38 years old, so the bumps and bruises take longer to heal when they do happen, plus there’s nothing dumber in the NFL than getting a quarterback hurt in the preseason due to this meaningless kind of nonsene.
Cousins also knows full well why it happens. Chippiness is part and parcel of the NFL experience when it comes to rough-and-tumble play with the quarterback, and the Houston defense is known for being a feisty bunch. Joint practices have basically become a forum for bad behavior, with multiple sessions between different teams getting scrapped because they became little more than an excuse to brawl.
There was some other news related to this, though, as Texans coach DeMeco Ryans announcing that he’s changed his mind about playing his starters in tomorrow night’s preseason matchup against the Raiders.
Ryans was previously all-in on playing his starters, but that seems to have changed now that second-year receiver Jayden Higginst suffered a torn ACL during Tuesday’s session that will sideline him for the entire season.
Higgins was a big contributor for Houston last year as he tied for the team lead with six touchdown passes as a rookie last year, according to Simmons. It’s a typical pattern for a coach to show this kind of bravado, only to change his mind when a key player gets sidelined for an extensive stretch due to an injury.
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