Kirk Cousins couldn't unseat RG3, could he?

Ask people around Washington what they think of Kirk Cousins, and the response usually comes back positive. A nice guy, always forthright with questions, a good worker. 

Yes, but how does he play?

That's where things get confusing.

Ask people around the country what they think of Cousins and the answer invariably comes back: interceptions. Four of them, precisely, in a single Monday night massacre when the Redskins hosted the Giants. They came early and often and were ugly. The Giants put up six touchdowns in a 45-14 drubbing. 

But after Robert Griffin's shoulder stinger/concussion combo on Thursday night, the rumblings around town have some wondering once more if Cousins could be the better option.

Not that he wants anything to do with the question.

"I don't know, I guess the coaches make those decisions," Cousins told CSN Washington. "I just play and do what I can. That's what [the coaches] are paid to do. Watch the tape and do what they do."

Watching the tape will reveal a quarterback who has gone 20-for-26 over two games for 245 yards and a touchdown in the equivalent of one game. He rushed for another in Cleveland.

The question of whether one can truly assess Cousins' (or Colt McCoy's) contributions, owing to the lack of first-teamers opposite, is a legitimate one. There obviously is some difference between the quality of competition in the third quarter of a preseason game and the starters in a divisional contest in October.

But there is still no question that the Redskins' offensive eleven was a better organized, more fluid and confident group under the backups' tutelage than under their presumed starter's.

Jay Gruden is left with a series of not-so-good options under center, the same options he has faced since being named head coach last offseason. He has made that decision publicly already, and long ago, in favor of Griffin. Griffin, who is 6-of-13 for 44 yards and a cavalcade of malicious hits, six of them courtesy of Detroit's swarming rushers against a mournful Washington front which are alleged to be its starters.

Should the anointed find himself injured again, which is as distinct a possibility as any in the NFL, Gruden would be left with what he described in the spring as a wide-open competition. Until then, Cousins, last season's No. 2, is building on what he said was a promising camp.

"I look back at OTAs [and minicamp], I had a 70-percent completion percentage," he said, now the holder of a 76.9 rate as of Saturday morning. "I only had two interceptions the whole [offseason]. I felt good about what I did then. I feel good about what I'm doing now. I worked really hard this offseason and I continue to look at what I can get better at. I feel like I'm showing steps. It's a process, like I said. It's not perfect. But every day, every week, I'm trying to build on what I'm learning and continue to go where I want to go."

Where that is, Robert Griffin's fragile corpus and Jay Gruden's decision, will dictate.