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NFL Preseason is typically when the physicality ramps up. Defenses are more eager to simulate their full strength against receivers, tight ends, and quarterbacks. There are obviously upsides to this, but Kirk Cousins doesn't seem to appreciate it when some players go over the line a bit. In the past few weeks, he has called for certain players and teams to chill out a bit since the games do not count yet. The Las Vegas Raiders, Houston Texans, and even Maxx Crosby got blasted after the veteran quarterback had enough.
Cousins calls out Raiders, Texans, and Crosby for extreme physicality during NFL preseason
Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season is around the corner. Plenty of teams are practicing the schemes they formulated in the offseason and starting to turn the dial up on execution. Kirk Cousins understands that, but he made a plea to a lot of squads he was facing. He asked them to calm down a bit when taking him down.
Cousins specifically asked Maxx Crosby, the rest of the Raiders defense, and the Texans not to be too harsh with his arm. The 14-year veteran wants to stay on the field for a long time, and all this roughness during the NFL Preseason does not seem to be helping, via Adam Hill of The Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"My elbow got hit. I joke with Maxx, and I say, ‘You can touch me anywhere you want, just don’t touch my arm.’ You want to bump me in the ribs? Fine. I think if anything, hitting me in the hips or the ribs is actually good because it simulates what I need to feel. I’ve got some scars from some hits in real games where helmets go into armpits and things, and it ruins your season. So, I was just asking Crosby to just stay off the arm, and I had to remind the Texans as well," the Raiders quarterback declared.
Notably, Cousins sustained a shoulder injury back in the 2024 NFL season. Since then, his numbers haven't been the best. During his last two years with the Atlanta Falcons, he also got sacked 41 times. At one point, the quarterback even led the league with 16 interceptions back in 2024 because of how bad his arm situation was.
"I might as well just take the red jersey off because you’re playing with, sometimes, an understood rule that if it’s not understood, then what are we doing?" Cousins added.
The Raiders quarterback does have a point here. He did wear a jersey, which meant that the no-contact rule was in place during their NFL preseason joint practices and drills. Yet, Crosby, the Raiders defense, and the Texans were all still fairly rough in taking him down. It all came to a head when Crosby and Cousins had to be benched from team drills a few weeks back.
Hopefully, this plea to the Raiders and other defenses would help Cousins and the other quarterbacks during the NFL Preseason. It's one thing to have their season cut short during the 17-game campaign, but not getting to experience it all after a lengthy offseason is a different kind of bummer.
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