Harrison Smith on contract: Going to see what we can do

Cousins gave that game away on back to back turnovers that resulted in 14 points in less than a minute.  Also, Wilson had more TD's and less turnovers.

I do think it was a mistake for Zimmer not to kick a FG... but I have a separate set of problems with him.  What I do think is telling is that when the game was on the line... Zimmer trusted his #2 and #3 RB's on 6 out of the 7 plays on that drive (because Cook didn't play most of the 2nd half) than his top earning QB who was "dueling" with a SB winning All-Pro QB?

To your point about Kirk and the defense being average since he's been here... that's simply not true.
 - 2019 - 5th fewest points against
 - 2018 - 9th fewest points against

So Kirk’s turnovers are boneheaded, but Russ throwing an Int on the 1 yard line to lose a SB makes him ok still? Despite Cousins 2int’s he still had the team in position to win in spite of the fact their UT/NG was literally tossing Dozier and Bradbury around like a rag doll all game!

I think people here greatly dismiss how impressive Kirk has been of late given the amount of pressure he repeatedly faces up the middle. Our OL is a constant sieve!

Last, don’t throw out 2018 stats on D to me. Perhaps you forgot we fired our OC mid season because he was making our D look so bad because our drives weren’t long enough. Zimmer had to “go back to basics” after the Rams game which if memory serves me was about game 4 or 5 because we couldn’t stop anyone. Stats are stats. If you want to throw defensive stats at me then I can tell you Statistically Kirk has been around a top 6/7 QB averaging 4000+ yards and less than 10 int per year…..But the haters will say that’s just “garbage time stats”. Can’t have it both ways. In most of Kirk’s tenure our D couldn’t stop anyone when it counted.

I absolutely Guarantee you SF would have taken him if we were willing to deal and they could have made the Cap issue work with Garapollo.

Kirk had 10 INTs in the first 6 games. I don't really care that he played well after that, because he had already "led" the team to a 1-5 record, and only with a playoff shot because of the playoff expansion. Later in the season, he didn't throw many INTs, but he had a bunch of fumbles.

Yeah, Wilson would like to have back that SB throw, and Pete Carroll might wish that he had called Lynch's number, but I dare you to find a string of six games where Wilson has personally played his team into a 1-5 record.

We can agree to disagree.  I'm not sitting here trying to argue Kirk is the greatest QB in the league, he isn't...he certainly has flaws but he also has his strengths and I'd argue he sits just below the top tier of QB's and has been held back by multiple factors not all on him.  My point is people want to condemn the guy because he hasn't taken us to a SB or another Championship game since he got here....but there is a lot more to us not getting there than QB play and many of the other people fawn over haven't really done much better.  Our coaching decisions and clock management have been questionable and our approach conservative, our OL has been a sieve, he's on his 4th OC in 4 years and only 1 was fired, and last our D has not looked anything like the D from the early Zimmer years.  9th in scoring as someone mentioned is not a dominant defense.

All you had to do is watch the SB this year to see what pressure does to a QB.  For all practical measures, few would argue Mahomes isn't one of the top 3 QB's in the league and he wasn't too impressive in the SB when he had little time in the pocket.  Look at the time Brady had in the pocket in SB....he had all day to throw.  Yes, I too think Wilson is better than Cousins, but my point is he certainly hasn't lit the world on fire of late.  And as for the weapons comment Metcalf and Locket are damned good and their Running game is always solid.  The one thing you can consistently count on from Seattle is physical football something I hope we are able to achieve this year. 

To get to the SB it requires a solid effort in all phases (our ST have been bad every year since we let Patterson go), it usually requires at least one side of the ball to be dominant while the other is at least above average (our D even when rated high on points allowed rarely dominates and also doesn't provide the benefits that typically accompany a strong D.  We play a bend don't break defense so we rarely give our offense a short field and our defense has never been strong on turnovers....something most good D's do.  So while our D is always horrible in scoring, it rarely puts points on the board and or provides the offense with an easy scoring opportunity), it requires your team to stay healthy, solid coaching and a little bit of luck along the way.  

Cousins isn't the perfect QB, he isn't the best QB in the league but anyone who thinks the reason we haven't gotten there is because of Cousins is kidding themselves and I'll still argue he is getting better.

That is my point exactly.  Yes he certainly was a contributing factor, but so were a lot of other people.  Let's see how well you play behind Dozier, Bradbury, Elflein and then Samia?  I think its no coincidence that once Cleveland became the starting G Kirk's play started to improve.  Not to mention I think it took several games for the offense to adapt to Kubiak's play calling and adaptations.  Remember....they didn't really have much of a pre season to adjust and while Kubiak was around as advisor the year before, our offense was still very different in 20 vs 19.   

40 of those points were a direct result of 2 Cousins safety's and several interceptions. 

The QB needs to give the team a chance to win... Cousins buried them early in the losses against GB and Atlanta... and gave away the Seattle game. 

I'm not saying Cousins was/is the only problem.  Just saying that he is getting paid like he IS the solution while being a borderline top 15 QB.