The Buccaneers didn’t “like that” in 2015. And the Bucs certainly didn’t “like it” from Kirk Cousins in Thursday night’s 36-30 loss to the Falcons. Even Drake London knows all about his quarterback’s trademark phrase.
Tampa Bay has now been on the wrong end in two of the quarterback’s most memorable games. On Thursday, Cousins (509 yards) became the first player in the Super Bowl era to pass for 250 yards in a game both before halftime and after halftime. He also didn’t throw a pass with his team in the lead.
Jay Gruden was Washington’s head coach for the first “You like that?” game in 2015, when Cousins led Washington back from a 24-0 deficit in a 31-30 win over the Bucs. Three years later, the Vikings let Cousins sign as an unrestricted free agent with Minnesota before the 2018 season. It wasn’t without something in return, however.
“At least we got a 3rd round supplemental draft pick for Kirk,” Gruden tweeted Thursday night.
Washington wound up trading that pick, which through the NFL’s secret recipe to cook up compensatory selections for teams with net losses in free agency became the 96th-overall selection in the 2019 draft. Buffalo gave Washington a pair of fourth-rounders to move up and draft tight end Dawson Knox.
Gruden’s club got Alex Smith to start at quarterback in Cousins’ absence. Kansas City, which had ironically made an earlier trade with Buffalo to move up and draft Patrick Mahomes in 2017, dealt Smith to Washington. Mahomes won the MVP in his first full season as the Chiefs’ starter and Smith’s career ended later in that 2018 season with a broken leg.
Writer Michael Silver recently released a fascinating book revealing behind-the-scenes details of the backstory leading up to Cousins’ Washington departure.