The Las Vegas Raiders surprised many in April by signing veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins to a one-year, $20 million deal, given that the franchise was widely expected to — and ultimately did — select Heisman Trophy winner and Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick in the NFL Draft.
So far, though, the move has paid dividends; Cousins has been solid, and the Raiders have taken advantage of a fairly soft schedule to start out 3-0, matching their win total from last season. Mendoza will likely still take the field at some point in 2026 — his status as the future franchise quarterback hasn’t changed — but the pressure for Las Vegas to throw him out there immediately has diminished significantly.
The Week 4 matchup between the Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs pits the only pair of division rivals with 3-0 records against each other, so it has become an unexpectedly marquee game, especially if Las Vegas can keep up this form for the rest of the season. Cousins, too, has played himself into fantasy viability: he’s still owned in just 14% of Yahoo Sports fantasy leagues, but he’s been one of the most frequently-added players in advance of Week 4.
Results and Usage
Through three weeks, Cousins has completed 67.4% of his passes for 661 yards, and he’s tied with the San Francisco 49ers’ Brock Purdy for the league lead with nine touchdown passes. Cousins also ranks ninth in passer rating and 11th in net yards per attempt, and he’s been QB9 so far. He still struggles some with interceptions and his 50.5% on-target percentage is a below-average figure, but he’s been good enough to take any pressure off of Mendoza. By Pro Football Focus’ standards, he ranks 21st among 37 qualified quarterbacks.
His advanced numbers are also pretty impressive. Per the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, he actually ranks 12th in completion percentage over expectation, and it’s not solely the result of a conservative game-plan; among the 11 quarterbacks ahead of him, only seven have had higher average aggressiveness. Plus, his top target, Brock Bowers, managed 0.7 more yards per catch than expected in his first game back from a meniscus trim, so he should be able to rely on continued help from Bowers. Wideouts Tre Tucker and Jailen Nailor have both lost yards relative to expectation, but if they regress towards their production last season (when both gained yards relative to expectation), that could benefit Cousins further.
Kubiak’s offense is run-oriented in the aggregate, as Las Vegas ranks just 20th in pass attempts per game and the Seattle Seahawks ranked 29th last season, but it’s still slightly more aggressive than the offense Chip Kelly and Greg Olson called for Geno Smith last season. His system and Cousins’ skill set also allow for more deep shots than the Raiders tried last season with Smith under center, and while he has not been great on such throws, his willingness to throw them provides Kubiak with more optionality than Kelly and Olson had.
Future Outlook
With Mendoza developing in the background, there’s never a guarantee that Cousins will remain the starter for the entire season, but if he keeps playing like he has and Las Vegas keeps winning, it could be difficult for the team to make the switch. All parties involved have repeatedly iterated that the plan is for Cousins to stay under center, so as long as he stays healthy, he should continue to be fantasy-viable. He’s had a fairly light schedule so far — the teams he’s beaten rank 16th, 21st, and 23rd in FPTS per game allowed to quarterbacks — but even against more difficult opponents, he should still be a consideration in deeper leagues.
Cousins’ production could be somewhat sustainable. He should continue to benefit from Bowers’ health; it should come as no surprise that Cousins’ best game of the season came in his first contest playing with Bowers, as he’s been at his best on throws between zero and nine yards down the field, where Bowers, too, has historically been at his most effective. Plus, Ashton Jeanty, the sixth overall pick in 2025, has not lived up to expectations so far, but he was excellent in Week 1 before being hampered by ankle injuries in both Weeks 2 and 3. The Raiders’ offensive line has improved, jumping from 28th in PFF’s pass blocking grades to 10th so far this season after they signed Spencer Burford and Tyler Linderbaum in the offseason.
Although he has a difficult matchup on paper — the Chiefs have given up the fewest FPTS per game to opposing quarterbacks — he should still have the opportunity to provide some fantasy value. Kansas City has faced some pretty mediocre signal-callers this season in Bo Nix, Daniel Jones, and Malik Willis, all of whom have posted worse PFF grades than Cousins. It could be the result of a small sample size, too, as the Chiefs allowed merely the 13th-fewest FPTS per game to quarterbacks last season and lost both of their starting corners. Second-year pro Nohl Williams and rookie Mansoor Delane are off to good starts, but I’d still wait a while before elevating them to the levels of the departed Trent McDuffie and Jaylen Watson. He doesn’t have the ceiling of a top-10 starter this week, but starting him wouldn’t be a matchup-losing decision, either.
