By Jerry Beach



After several seasons of uncertainty regarding his future, Kirk Cousins will officially become a free agent next week at the age of 29. His resume to this point? 59 regular season starts. Base statistics that indicate competence at a position where competence is richly rewarded. Not to mention periphery stats that offer hints he could develop into something more as he hits his 30s.



Whichever team ends up with Cousins will be betting and hoping the similarities with Neil O’Donnell stop there.



Cousins is the first healthy, in-his-prime starting quarterback to hit the free agent market since O’Donnell did following the 1995 season. In February 1996, O’Donnell, fewer than five months shy of his 30th birthday, signed a five-year deal for $25 million (at the time making him the fourth-highest paid player in NFL history) with the Jets, who were looking for their first franchise quarterback since Joe Namath. But O’Donnell...