Is the Clock Ticking On Kirk Cousins As the Raiders QB1?

Rich recorded this edition of Overreaction Monday after what he called the wildest weekend of football he can remember, college and professional combined. Georgia and Alabama. Kentucky and LSU. UCLA beating Oregon. And then every NFC East game going down the way it went down.

Chris had a reminder of just how strange Sunday started. Jacksonville's opening kickoff return for a touchdown was called back, a fight broke out at midfield, and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. was ejected before a single snap. As a post circulated around the show pointed out, it wasn't even the quickest a Trotter has been thrown out of a game. His dad was ejected after a pregame fight against the Falcons. And the weekend ended with a Tua interception in overtime after the Ravens erased an eight-point deficit.

With that, Chris pulled out his sheet of hot takes, and Rich ruled on each one.

**Seattle's repeat chances and Kenneth Walker**

Chris started with the game of the day in Seattle, which he called a heavyweight match between two NFL powerhouses. His take: "Seattle's repeat chances evaporated the second Kenneth Walker left in free agency."

Rich said Chris was hitting on something real, but he wouldn't go that far five weeks in. "They miss Kenneth Walker," he said. "Oh, without question." He pointed to George Holani's fumble, with Brady pointing out on the broadcast that there were only two points of pressure on the football, and a fumble inside Seattle's own 1 that led to two points for the 49ers. It was one of seven combined turnovers, and the 38 combined points off turnovers were the most since the Saints and Lions combined for 42 in October 2017, a game Rich noted was not for first place in the most heavyweight division in football.

Seattle's run game was always going to be tested without Walker, especially with Zach Charbonnet not healthy to start the season. The Seahawks drafted Jadarian Price 32nd overall, a Notre Dame teammate of Jeremiyah Love, and Rich recalled Marcus Freeman telling the show he urged Price to stay in school. Price landed in what looked like a perfect spot and got hurt.

Rich then made the comparison he'd floated on the flagship show. The Seahawks are now in the position the Vikings were in last year. Minnesota chose a different way of building its roster and let Sam Darnold walk, and Darnold went somewhere else and won the Super Bowl. Seattle paid Rashid Shaheed and others but let Walker go, and now Walker is with an undefeated team and already halfway to 1,000 yards. Rich's ruling: overreaction for now, but something to point to months from now if Seattle still can't run the ball.

**Mike Evans, the 49ers' MVP**

Chris's next take: Brock Purdy is still the odds-on MVP favorite, but Mike Evans is the 49ers' MVP through five weeks.

Rich couldn't argue. He brought up Fred Warner's postgame praise and what it means to have another OG in the building, the kind of thing that invigorates everyone from the locker room to the front office. Evans is the perfect piece for a Kyle Shanahan system, the same way McCaffrey was and still is, along with Purdy and Kittle. And the 49ers keep winning like a Mad Lib, Rich said: they just lost "fill in the blank proper noun," and they keep chugging along. Evans' three receiving touchdowns already match his total from last year, when he played only half the season.

Rich noted the 49ers are managing Christian McCaffrey's workload to keep him fresh for the war of attrition to come, and he was seen massaging a hamstring on the sideline. But the bottom line is 5-0, including 3-0 in the division. The Rams game in Melbourne was technically a Rams home game, Rich said, no matter how much Niner fans joke about packing SoFi. Next up is a Monday night home game against Washington, and Rich figured the Commanders "will understand if they have the lead or an opportunity to win with seconds to go how to close the game out."

**Is the clock ticking on Kirk Cousins?**

Chris turned to the Raiders after two straight losses: "With their season at an inflection point, the clock is ticking on Kirk Cousins' status as QB1."

Rich laid out the logic. The Raiders are still trying to win games this year. "If they feel that Cousins is suddenly diminishing and is the reason why they are losing," and the drop-off to the rookie isn't appreciable, "then that's the way that Cousins will get sat," Rich said.

The schedule is the problem. The next two games are at home, which is good news, but against the Bills and the Rams. Rich said 3-4 still wouldn't be the end of the world. After that come the Jets, the 49ers, Seattle at home and a trip to Denver. If the Raiders are two or three games under .500 by then, Rich said, the stretch of at Cleveland, a bye, and home games against the Chargers, Denver and Tennessee before trips to Arizona and Kansas City "would be a great spot to get Fernando Mendoza's feet wet."

Chris argued Mendoza looked pretty good in his brief appearance. Rich was unmoved. "It was garbage time," he said. "He fogged up a mirror. Congratulations." He'd only consider a change if Cousins' arm strength or production started to fade. "You're not going to look at some of these veterans who are putting their asses on the line and say, 'We're going already with the kid,'" Rich said. He also noted that Akbar Gbajabiamila's prediction, that the Raiders would win their first three, lose the next three and surprise everybody by beating the Rams, is still on track, though Gbajabiamila also predicted a 12-5 finish. Rich expects Cousins to take the bullets over the next month before the kid goes in.

**Do the Broncos have a Bo Nix problem?**

Chris skipped the 0-5 Chargers, "they are what they are," and went straight to Denver: "It doesn't matter who calls the plays, Rich. The Broncos have a Bo Nix problem."

Rich asked whether that meant it was Stidham time. Chris didn't go that far. The debate went back and forth: Nix was a top 10 fantasy quarterback last year and almost went to the Super Bowl, but people watching the All-22 say he's not seeing the field or pushing the ball downfield. Rich said Nix did try to push it more against the Chargers and had some success, and that it was really the Chargers' quarterback and offense that lost the game more than Denver's won it. Nix now has three fourth-quarter comebacks this season, the most in the NFL, but the question is how he's doing it.

Rich does think Sean Payton calling plays is an improvement, with all due respect to Davis Webb. "The guy who's in charge is calling the plays," he said. "They're three and two as opposed to the other way around."

**Marvin Harrison Jr. to Houston**

After the halftime break, Chris celebrated the end of "our long national nightmare." Marvin Harrison Jr. has been traded to the Texans, and Chris predicted he'll have more touchdowns the rest of the year than anyone on the Cardinals.

"Oh, that's ridiculous, man," Rich said. Chris brought up reports that Arizona nickel-and-dimed Harrison over a training machine he wanted. Rich asked whether Michael Wilson or Kendrick Bourne needed that machine, since Bourne has been producing. He agreed a change of scenery was clearly necessary and that the move will help Harrison and the Texans, but more touchdowns than anyone on the Cardinals? "Why don't you just throw the word combined in there since you're already off the rails?"

Rich pointed out that C.J. Stroud isn't the reason Houston is 1-4. Nico Collins missing two weeks didn't help, and the run game has been nonexistent, with David Montgomery leaving with a groin injury after 11 rush yards. Harrison and Collins could make a terrific one-two combination. But first, Rich said, baby steps. "Let's find out if Marv's got a current valid passport." His first game with Houston is in London against the 4-1 Jaguars.

**Will an NFC East coach be gone in 2027?**

Chris combined the London madness and the Washington meltdown into one take: one of these NFC East head coaches who cost his team a win won't be back in 2027.

"I don't think that's an overreaction," Rich said. He walked through Nick Sirianni's kickoff with eight seconds left, when Ameer Abdullah's 53-yard return set up a 57-yard game-winner. Rich assumed Sirianni wanted the ball booted "to freaking Liverpool." Then the Commanders "took their beer and held it and slammed it down." Rich said that in his 57 years of watching football, he can't imagine seeing anything like Washington's ending again. "Absolute horror movie," he said, where you can see the killer standing there and you're asking why they aren't moving faster.

He doesn't think Dan Quinn gets fired now. But if this season goes like last season, that ending will be the first item on the list when management sits down. "It would be a surprise if they're both back," Rich said.

Rich also wanted to credit Sirianni for everything before those final eight seconds, which he said may have been Sirianni's most impressive coaching performance as an Eagle. The Eagles had a guard who is 5-foot-11 and looked like Jose Altuve in the team photo, four different offensive linemen, their fourth running back and their third, fourth and fifth receivers. They averaged 0.1 yards per rush before contact and ran for 22 yards on 18 attempts. After Lane Johnson retired and Cam Jurgens was traded, nobody thought they'd win. "And they almost won it," Rich said. "Penthouse to outhouse, man."

**Is the NFC North the best division in football?**

Chris praised the Packers' beatdown of the Bears and declared the NFC North the best top-to-bottom division in football. Rich wanted him to say the Packers will win it. Chris wouldn't.

So the two of them talked it out, eliminating divisions one by one. The NFC East went winless in Week 5. The AFC East has the Dolphins, who Rich noted are just the second team in the last 60 years without a lead in any of their first five games. The Cardinals take the NFC West out of it, the Chargers do the same for the AFC West, and the two Souths don't qualify. The only challenger is the AFC North, where all four teams have three wins. Rich felt like a Who Wants to Be a Millionaire contestant, almost phoning a friend, but in the end: "I'll buy it."

**The Jameis experience**

Chris's last take was that as long as Jameis Winston is their quarterback, the Giants are the most fun team to watch in the NFL. Chris described the second half in the pouring rain as Winston deciding, "Screw it. I'm throwing to Malik Nabers every single play. Stop me." It was awesome, the studio agreed, and also a little like rubbernecking. The studio added that Cam Skattebo, Arvell Reese and Isaiah Likely are entertaining too, and that John Harbaugh, soaking wet on the sideline, probably signed up for a young quarterback to coach up rather than a walking heart attack.

Rich thinks the Giants could win the division. They're in front, and they're the only team in it not stepping all over themselves. He even noted that his Michigan kicker, who had a very nice first month, missed two in the rain.

**Tweets of the week**

The first tweet came from Mitchell Riley, who demanded Rich personally refund the $18 he spent on Colston Loveland in his auction draft. Rich refused. He said Loveland was the second tight end on everybody's board, that he was outstanding in college and as a rookie, and that he has no idea what's happened this year, with Loveland catching two passes for five yards against the Packers. Rich would rather blame whoever makes the rankings. "Everything's Matthew Berry's fault," came one suggestion. Another blamed Field Yates.

The real tweet came from Delmar Dennis: the NFC East is the new NFC South, and some team in that division will finish 8-9 or worse. With a tie already on the board, the show tweaked it to ".500 or worse." Rich ran through the evidence one more time. The Cowboys lost at home to an 0-4 team starting an undrafted rookie free agent. The Eagles, missing everyone worth a damn on the offensive line except Jordan Mailata, lost on an inexcusable special teams gaffe. And the Giants and Commanders tied.

"Can't say that's an overreaction," Rich said. It was the first take he bought. And he is still not paying anyone for Colston Loveland.