Redskins' Cousins: 'I think I'll always be' a work in progress

Having been hit with a franchise tag designation that kept him off the free-agent market under a $19-million salary, Kirk Cousins entered the regular season facing high expectations.

The Washington Redskins quarterback would, at the very least, need to match his breakout 2015 campaign to both justify that move and earn himself consideration for a long-term deal this winter.

After a disappointing performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 1, head coach Jay Gruden suggested that his young signal-caller is still a work in progress.

Cousins agrees, but - with reference to a conversation with a certain all-time great - he also thinks there shouldn't ever be a time where that's not the case.

"I think I'll always be," Cousins said, according to Master Tesfatsion of The Washington Post.

"I don't think that Year 16, if you're fortunate enough to play that long, I don't think you feel like you've had it figured out. When I asked Tom Brady after the game last year, 'When did it click for you?' In a sense, I asked him, 'When were you no longer a work in progress?' His answer was what I would echo here, and that it's still clicking.

"You've never figured it out. You've never arrived. The minute you think you have is probably when you’re going to be gone. I'm going to keep working, keep going, and I understand that. I think I'll always view myself as a work in progress, and I think that’s how other people can view it too."

Cousins completed 30 of 43 pass attempts for 329 yards in the season-opening loss, but he threw two costly interceptions and wasn't able to find the end zone.

He and the Redskins will set out in search of their first win when they host the division rival Dallas Cowboys for a Sunday afternoon matchup in Week 2.