Denver Broncos: Comparing the impact of Case Keenum vs. Kirk Cousins

Conclusions

We will reserve any final judgments for the end of the season, but with three games to play, it looks like the Broncos’ investment in Keenum has been about what everyone thought it was going to be and the Vikings’ investment in Cousins has fallen short.

For both teams to have a similar win percentage at this point in time indicates that Cousins is not elevating the level of play of his team, and Keenum absolutely is.

Now, neither player has been perfect this season. In fact, both have looked downright bad at times.

The ‘market value’ for quarterbacks at this point in time is obscene, and Cousins had a lot of leverage going into free agency somehow, despite the inclusion of Keenum and a draft class which featured five first-round picks.

Supply and demand in the NFL is trumped by a franchise type of quarterback entering the prime of his career.

The only issue is, Cousins has not proven himself to be a franchise quarterback, which has to be defined more in terms of winning than putting up big stats.

That doesn’t mean Cousins isn’t a good quarterback, but The Broncos paid Keenum $25 million guaranteed to get them where they are today. The Vikings invested $84 million.

That’s a substantial difference.

It’s definitely still early and there are plenty of chapters yet to be written in this saga for both players, but it looks like the Broncos got the much better deal considering both teams are on the outside looking in at the playoff picture with three games left to play in 2018.