WASHINGTON — Sixteen games may not be enough time for Kirk Cousins to disprove his critics’ skepticism, neither in how he came to be the Redskins starting quarterback this season nor why he remains.

For some, the argument against Cousins is as plain as a preference toward Robert Griffin III, the former face-of-the-franchise who’s been humbled by dressing only once since being deposed as the starter in preseason.

Others point to Cousins’ inconsistency, an argument one has to look no further than to his past four games to validate. Against the Jets, Buccaneers, Patriots and Saints, Cousins has passer ratings of 57.9, 124.7, 68.4 and a perfect 158.3, respectively.

They can look to his interceptions, of which he’s thrown nine in 2015, to argue — albeit possibly lacking total context of each game — the Redskins have lost every game in which Cousins has thrown at least one interception.

And yet, the 4-5 Redskins are second in the NFC East — holding a tie-break advantage over the also 4-5 Eagles — a feather in the cap for those who say Cousins gives Washington a chance to compete each week.

For ESPN’s Bomani Jones, his argument is a bit more nuanced. He’s been critical of D.C. media’s coverage of Cousins all season, even before then, really, questioning why Cousins, in his opinion, has received softer treatment than Griffin and — perhaps more importantly — wondering why?

And Jones shows no signs of letting up.

i just wanna know if the talk show hosts in d.c. have started saying they have the better qb. my guess is that starts wednesday or so. — bomani (@bomani_jones) November 17, 2015

As the Redskins fell to 2-3 coming off an overtime loss to the Falcons, Jones explained to The Post’s Dan Steinberg his skepticism is rooted in that coverage, asserting a multi-layered position which touched on the manner in which Griffin lost the starting job, how Griffin was seemingly vilified as Cousins was praised, and surmised a racial undertone may be at play.

The part that got me, though, was how Griffin became the villain, primarily for not being the same after a catastrophic injury that seemed to be preventable. It’s an odd reason to hate someone so much, but here we are. Now, when Griffin was rushing back, my guess was he thought the head coach was looking for a reason to start his backup. Some argued that was paranoid thinking from Griffin, as the team had mortgaged its future to trade for him, so there was no chance Mike Shanahan or anyone else would not give Griffin his job back when he was ready. Fast forward to 2015, where the deposed Shanahan tells the world Kirk Cousins might become a Top 10 quarterback, and it looks like Griffin had the right idea. So most of my interest started there. … It now continues because, other than the Tebowmania epidemic of 2011, I’ve never seen fans and media root so hard for someone as mediocre as Cousins. And as someone who is willing to acknowledge the fact that the black quarterback, even in 2015, remains a provocative notion, I can’t pass up the chance to explore why, in 2015, things look so similar to how they did when the Oilers ran Warren Moon out of town for “Commander” Cody Carlson.

After the Redskins’ 47-14 dismantling of the Saints on Sunday, a game in which Cousins completed 20 of 25 passes (80%) for 324 yards and four touchdowns, one might understandably ask critics if they are willing to reconsider their positions on Cousins.

This was a topic of a conversation between Jones, Dan Le Batard and Le Batard’s father (affectionately called “Papi”) on ESPN’s “Highly Questionable” on Monday afternoon.

Papi: So which one of you experts would like to apologize to Kirk Cousins first? Jones: I mean, maybe it’s going to be that guy. Now, look, we’re not going to knock a guy for playing against the defense that was in front of him. However, when Marcus Mariota lit up the Saints, we said, ‘Wow. The Saints are bad.’ When Eli Manning lit up the Saints, we said, ‘Wow. The Saints are bad.’ When Kirk Cousins does it, that doesn’t mean we turn around and say, ‘Wow. Kirk Cousins is good.’ Especially not in a game where, out of his 324 passing yards, 263 came after contact — it was like layup lines out there. You can’t say anything bad about Kirk Cousins, but this doesn’t change very much. Le Batard: This is the first time in the history of the league that any defense entrusted with stopping people has allowed three consecutive weeks of four touchdown passes and zero interceptions, and he just mentioned the names that have done it: Eli Manning, throws a lot of interceptions; Kirk Cousins, throws a lot of interceptions; Mariota is a rookie. Everyone is doing it to these guys. Papi: Kirk, they’re not going to give you the credit until you get to the Super Bowl and win the Super Bowl, then they’ll find an excuse. They’ll say, ‘Well, he got lucky,’ you know. ‘He doesn’t deserve to be there, but he got lucky.’

The Redskins are 4-1 against teams currently with losing records, 0-3 against teams with winning records and lost to the 5-5 Giants. Four of their seven remaining games are against teams who currently have losing records — they also play the Panthers (9-0), Bills (5-4) and Giants.

A lot of clarity could come from those final games, to all sides of the Redskins QB argument. Until then, one would be wise to assume Jones will stand firmly in the pocket delivering criticism, taking on any and all defenders.

Follow @ChrisLingebach and @1067TheFanDC on Twitter.