For a big chunk of his career, Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins has been pretty helpful to fantasy football managers. In six of eight seasons from 2015 to 2022, he finished as a QB1 (meaning he was top-12 in overall fantasy points) and he even had four top-10 finishes.
Before suffering a torn Achilles in 2023, Cousins was the QB6 in fantasy. The last two years with the Atlanta Falcons weren't as good as he worked his way back from that injury, was benched, and was not the opening-weekend starter last season.
To the surprise of no one, though, Cousins will be the Raiders' starting quarterback until rookie Fernando Mendoza is deemed ready to take over. Of course, there's a wide range of possibilities there, but Cousins could start a lot of games during the 2026 NFL season.
In Week 1, the Raiders will take on the rebuilding Miami Dolphins. It's a favorable matchup for all of Las Vegas' fantasy-relevant assets, with league format and such as obvious considerations when it comes to starting anyone this side of Brock Bowers and (a hopefully healthy) Ashton Jeanty.
That includes Cousins.
Kirk Cousins should be on the fantasy football radar more than he is
As the final fantasy drafts for this year have taken place and the start of the season arrives on Wednesday night, Mendoza is actually rostered in more ESPN and Yahoo! leagues than Cousins is. Clearly, folks aren't buying into any Cousins hype.
As of this writing, Cousins is rostered in 2.8% of ESPN leagues and 4% of Yahoo! leagues. Mendoza is rostered in 9% and 11% of leagues on those respective hosts. People are banking on Mendoza taking over sooner rather than later and being a valuable asset.
Not that anyone should be tripping over themselves to draft either of the Raiders' quarterbacks in the most typical re-draft leagues, but those roster rates could arguably be flipped.
Stashing Mendoza stands to prove difficult in 12-team leagues with a typical roster size if he's not starting within the first month of the season or so.
After that soft season-opening matchup against the Dolphins, the Raiders could be forced to throw the ball plenty in Week 2 against the Los Angeles Chargers. Week 3 against the New Orleans Saints could be a sneaky high-scoring game.
Then comes Week 4 back at home against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Assuming Cousins starts the first four games of the season, he is in line to put up viable fantasy stat lines. The ceiling isn't high, since what little running ability he ever had is gone, but there's also a viable floor that gives him a level of appeal in 2-quarterback/superflex leagues for as long as he's the Raiders' starter.
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