Bruce Kluckhohn/Associated Press
Kirk Cousins: Silencing his criticsAfter a slow start to the season, Kirk Cousins has been playing lights out since Week 5, defeating noted boogeyman narratives that have haunted his career (such as an inability to beat winning teams and win prime-time games). Cousins' case for MVP starts with his accuracy, especially relative to the difficulty of his passes. Cousins has completed 70.6% of his passes this season, which is +7.2% above expectation (best in the NFL). Cousins' performance has been no fluke. He has excelled when not pressured, which is the metric we can expect to be most stable going forward. Cousins has the highest TD rate (7.5%) when not under pressure and trails only Russell Wilson in passer rating (121.0). Cousins has also completed 48.6% of his deep passes (third-highest rate in the NFL), throwing 7 TDs with 0 INTs on such passes. Play-action has been critical to his success, as he's throw 12 TD passes when using play-action (five more than any other QB).
(From above link)
