Kirk Cousins

“It comes down to your decision-making and obviously you can get better and better as a decision-maker as you play, and get reps and go through experiences and learn but football's the same as life, you got to be a great decision maker to have success.”

“When you say was it you being silly or letting yourself go, or is it you being intense? I would say it was me being me. I would say that me being me is probably yes to all of that. So having fun, playing with passion, it matters to me, competitive.”

“I knew the statistics of playing pro football were 1% of 1%, so I just never planned on it.”

“I think at times where I fail as a leader is probably when I haven't allowed the Holy Spirit to lead and when I do allow the Holy Spirit to handle it - I think that's when I'm most successful as a leader.”

“I got a small window of time to be an NFL quarterback. Some day when I'm done playing I can sit back and look at what we accomplished, or how does it feel, or what's it like.”

“I think some of the best pieces of advice for me was when I talked to some of the great players who have had success in this league how much they emphasized the importance of rest, that you can't just go 100 miles an hour all 12 months of the year every day and just keep going. That is a recipe for burnout.”

“I really put the medical school thing on hold and really chased after my football dream. And I guess I'm still chasing. I'm eight years in the NFL, and I feel very fortunate to be where I am.”

“Ultimately, I've just got to keep playing football and try to do it the best I can and try to continue to be a high-level quarterback, and if I do that, trust that in the long run things will work out.”

“And I think at the end of my life, it's not going to be about what I did for myself, but what I did for others. Maybe it's staying after practice to do hand signals with the guys to help them get caught up to speed. To make it about others - I think that's what leadership is all about, quarterbacking is all about.”

“Every player looks forward to free agency.”

“Life is about balance. You don't want to live out of whack over here or out of whack over here. I want to win and be well compensated, and I think there's a balance to find. It doesn't have to be one extreme or the other.”

“I'll put it this way: I couldn't just go out the practice without looking at the playbook, without looking at notes. I wouldn't be able to do much.”

“I'm pretty much a .500 quarterback in my career so far and I don't think that's where you want to be, and that's not why you are brought in or people or excited about you.”

“I had a phenomenal six seasons in Washington and really can't say enough good things about my experience there. It's tough to move on from teammates, from everyone involved in the organization, from coaches and teammates, to the chaplain, to even friends in the community, our neighbors.”

“When you go to college, you're on your own. It's you and God. It's a question of what are you made of and how much is God a part of your life. So when I went off to college, I knew that was going to be the case.”

“If you're not plugged into something like Athletes in Action or Campus Crusade, it's difficult to keep your eyes focused on Jesus Christ because the world is telling you differently, and your sin-nature is telling you differently.”

“I think I play better when people say keep showing us what you've got, keep showing us. And whatever's going to get me to play at a high level is what I want to do.”

“The opportunity to play in the Big Ten was one that I could not pass up.”

“Sometimes you want to ease into the situation and maybe sit in the back row for a while and allow time to get adjusted and then speak up.”

“I used to tell people that in 2012 when I was trying to understand where am I most likely to be drafted and who are the three or four teams that have pursued me the most and it would make sense that they would pick me, I never thought of who would be least likely to draft me.”