The Washington Redskins find themselves in a situation that could make or break the team’s future. The organization just recently placed the franchise tag on quarterback Kirk Cousins for the second consecutive year. That move will cost the team $23.94 million in 2017 if they cannot come to terms with Cousins on a long-term deal before July 15.
The problem is, without a long term deal in place the Redskins would be looking at a choice of either having to tag Cousins for a third time in row in 2018 (at $33 million), or let him walk next year and get nothing in return.
To say the pressure is on for the Redskins front office to get a deal done now would be an understatement.
Media hype has confused the facts
Much of the hype the media has talked about in regards to this subject for the last few weeks is the combination of both posturing by the team and Cousins agent, and the football world being without interesting news. The real story is Kirk Cousins' agent was never going to move to the next stage of this process until the team placed the franchise tag on him. In an age where most players run from the tag and towards a long-term deal, Cousins and his agent run towards it. You have to admire their confidence in the idea of playing with no future years guaranteed if Kirk were to get injured in said tagged year.
The boldness of the Cousins camp has given them all the leverage in this situation.
Redskins and Cousins talking about new deal at combine
On NFL Network Thursday morning, Cousins agent Mike McCartney said the two sides met Wednesday night at the NFL combine in Indianapolis. McCartney said he sat down with the Redskins main salary cap guy, Eric Schaffer and that the two sides were working hard moving things into a positive direction towards getting a deal done.
McCartney went on to say, “The Redskins did say something about, this guy is worth 24 million. Kirk didn’t ask for the tag. I didn’t ask for it,” said McCartney. “Still, it’s a heck of a commitment from the club. And we view it that way.”
The #Redskins were discussing a long term deal with Kirk Cousins worth $20M per year, per source. Cousins's tag is worth about $24M in '17.
— Master Tesfatsion (@MasterTes) March 2, 2017
According to the most recent reports, the Redskins and Cousins camp were discussing a long-term deal worth more than $20 million a season.
Overall terms of the deal as far as length and bonuses are unknown as of now, but some have hinted that Andrew Luck's 6-year, $122 million ($87 guaranteed, $24.6 a year) contract from last year could be used as an example to what the final deal may look like.
The Redskins essentially have two options in terms of how they can handle things at this point. Since letting Cousins walk after 2018 and receiving nothing in return cannot be an option, they must either trade him now or pay the man what his true market value is. Hopefully, the Redskins choose the option that best fits the franchise and gives the organization the best chance to succeed in the near future.
