Both overlooked coming out of college, Russell Wilson and Kirk Cousins have forged their own paths as quarterbacks in the NFL.
Wilson was a third-round pick to the Seattle Seahawks while Kirk Cousins was a fourth-round pick to the (then) Washington Redskins. Cousins wasn’t even the first quarterback selected by his team that year with Robert Griffin III being taken in the first round. Now, Wilson and Cousins are both $100 million quarterbacks that are both in the top 25 of the all-time passing yards chart.
When the Pittsburgh Steelers and Atlanta Falcons open up their season next week, they will do so with two quarterbacks who have an extensive history against each other. Russell Wilson and Kirk Cousins are both 35 years old and 12-year veterans of the NFL, they have played each other several times. But the history didn’t begin in the NFL. The 2011 college season was the beginning of their experience playing against each other in the Big 10.
Next Sunday will be their seventh matchup in the NFL and ninth overall including college. This will be the fourth combination of teams that they have faced each other head-to-head with. They also had a playoff game with Washington and Seattle, but Cousins only played the tail end of the game after Robert Griffin III was injured. For the sake of this exercise, we will ignore that playoff game.
Wilson has won four of the six games in the NFL and one of the two in college. In total, Wilson is 5-3 against Cousins.
On this slow Sunday, I wanted to dive back through their history before they begin the next step of their careers with new teams and add another chapter to their head-to-head history.
2011 – Wisconsin Badgers vs. Michigan State Spartans
Final Score: 37-31 Spartans
Russell Wilson: 14-21, 223 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT, 8 rush attempts, 30 yards, 1 TD
Kirk Cousins: 22-31, 290 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, 4 rush attempts, -27 yards
2011 – Wisconsin Badgers vs. Michigan State Spartans (Big Ten Championship)
Final Score: 42-39 Badgers
Russell Wilson: 17-24, 187 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT, 7 rush attempts, -5 yards
Kirk Cousins: 22-30, 281 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT, 1 rush attempt, 3 yards
2014 – Seattle Seahawks vs. Washington Redskins
Final Score: 27-17 Seahawks
Russell Wilson: 18-24, 201 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT, 11 rush attempts, 122 yards, 1 TD
Kirk Cousins: 21-36, 283 yards, 2 TD, 0 INT
2017 – Seattle Seahawks vs. Washington Redskins
Final Score: 17-14 Redskins
Russell Wilson: 24-45, 297 yards, 2TD, 2 INT, 10 rush attempts, 77 yards
Kirk Cousins: 21-31, 247 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 3 rush attempts, 4 yards
2018 – Seattle Seahawks vs. Minnesota Vikings
Final Score: 21-7 Seahawks
Russell Wilson: 10-20, 72 yards, 0 TD, 1 INT, 7 rush attempts, 61 yards
Kirk Cousins: 20-33, 208 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, 3 rush attempts, 5 yards
2019 – Seattle Seahawks vs. Minnesota Vikings
Final Score: 37-30 Seahawks
Russell Wilson: 21-31, 240 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT, 4 rush attempts, 13 yards
Kirk Cousins: 22-38, 276 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT
2020 – Seattle Seahawks vs. Minnesota Vikings
Final Score: 27-26 Seahawks
Russell Wilson: 20-32, 217 yards, 3 TD, 1 INT, 5 rush attempts, 58 yards
Kirk Cousins: 27-39, 249 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT, 1 rush attempt, 2 yards
2021 – Seattle Seahawks vs. Minnesota Vikings
Final Score: 30-17 Vikings
Russell Wilson: 23-32, 298 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT 3 rush attempts, 7 yards
Kirk Cousins: 30-38, 323 yards, 3 TD, 0 INT
