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Redskins and Cousins are Playing a Dangerous Game

Cousins and the Redskins take their stare-down into 2018.

With the NFL’s franchise tag deadline coming and going Monday at 4 p.m. EST, it’s now clear that quarterback Kirk Cousins will play at least one more season for the Washington Redskins under the franchise tag.

This is the second straight season Cousins and the Redskins couldn’t work out a long term deal. Cousins will early $23.943 million guaranteed this season after pocketing $19.953 on the franchise tag last season. In his four years before 2016, he’d made a total of $2.573 million. So, you know, it’s pretty good to be him right now.

According to the Redskins’ twitter, the team made an offer to Cousins on May 2 that would have made him the second highest paid player in the league in average salary per season with $53 million guaranteed (the highest for a quarterback in history) and $72 million if he got hurt. Washington claims they never got a single counter offer from Cousins’ agent this year. So what gives?

First off, Cousins is probably doing some math. By season’s end he will have, in two seasons, collected $43.896 million from the Redskins in guaranteed money. That’s just $10 million less than they were offering in guaranteed cash for what I presume was a 5-to-6 year contract. If the Redskins decide to use the franchise tag on Cousins again next year (and they won’t), they’ll have to caught up $35 million. If they use the transition tag (which is much more likely), they’d owe him $28.7 million. And that’s only if another team doesn’t sign Cousins to a megadeal the Redskins are unwilling to match.

So from Cousins’ standpoint, there was no point in signing a contract with $53 million guaranteed when, over the next two seasons (with the transition tag), he’ll make $52.643 in guaranteed money without the long term deal, and still have Washington on the hook. Cousins could, conceivably, play his entire career on one tag or the other and rake in the dough.

But that only works if Cousins is as good as he’s been the last two seasons. What if he isn’t? Let’s face it, catastrophic injuries happen and if Cousins goes down, even with an injury he can recover from a year later, any chance of a $$28 million payday is off the table.

Cousins will also have to perform this season with an entirely new set of wide receivers and a new offensive coordinator, Matt Cavanaugh, who replaces quarterback guru Sean McVay. If Cousins can put up a 67 completion percentage, 4,500 yard, 25+ touchdown, -12 picks season with this year’s Washington team, he can write his own check. But if he doesn’t, he’ll get to test the free agent waters and maybe they aren’t as hospitable as he thinks.

NFL.com asked five personnel executives from teams that played the Redskins where they would rank Cousins and all five said as a Top 15 quarterback, but not in the Top 10. If Cousins was paid the same as the 15th highest paid QB (Ryan Tannehill), he’d make $19,25 million a season. According to the Redskins (and who knows how true that shit was), they offered him significantly more than that.

Cousins’ leverage all comes from how much he could be worth on the open market. Derek Carr just got a new contract that pays him $125.025 million over five seasons at about $25 million a year. Carr, unquestionably, would have gotten more than that as a free agent. Can Cousins say the same? I don’t know.

Cousins has made some serious bank betting on himself, but in those past two seasons he’s had the players and coaches on the squad that made that a safe bet. Now, you could argue he’s practically on his own. And what good does any of it do if the Redskins miss the playoffs again?

Washington probably would have been smart to take a quarterback early in this last draft like Brad Kaaya out of Miami just as some insurance, but they didn’t. Behind Cousins they have Colt McCoy (who played really well in five starts in 2014) and Nate Sudfeld (who is worthless). They don’t have any up and coming talented quarterback on the roster like the Green Bay Packers (Brett Hundley) or New England Patriots (Jimmy Garoppolo). They’ve gone in almost too much with Cousins.

So what if Cousins is decent this upcoming season, but doesn’t hit the marks he has for the previous two. Frankly, to me, that’s the most plausible scenario. The Redskins play in a tough division with two returning playoff teams that are both superior to them personnel-wise and, I’d argue, coaching wise too. Their old offensive coordinator could be building a team in Los Angeles that could steal a Wild Card spot. The Minnesota Vikings, Arizona Cardinals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers all seem to have an edge on Washington in the Wild Card hunt. I mean, nobody is picking the Redskins to win the NFC East this season, are they?

If that does happen and Washington lets Cousins hit free agency, they could still land him back by just beating his best contract offer. It might be the smartest play at this point, but the team would be absolute fools to let another draft go by again without picking some insurance.

More trouble for Elliott?

Late last week ESPN’s Adam Schefter revealed the Dallas Cowboys and Ezekiel Elliott are preparing for a short suspension stemming from a domestic violence allegation last off-season that was tossed out of court. While still stewing on that, Elliott seems to have been involved in an altercation at a Dallas bar Sunday. He was not arrested, but it made the news Monday nonetheless.

Dallas police told the NFL Network they are investigating an alleged assault that took place at the Clutch Bar and Restaurant in Dallas. The police did not mention that Elliott was a suspect, only that he was present a the scene. The Cowboys and Elliott’s representatives have declined to comment, but, of course, the NFL piped up.

“We are away of the matter and looking it it to understand the facts,” the NFL said through spokesman Brian McCarthy.

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Written by Adam Greene

Adam Greene is a writer and photographer based out of East Tennessee. His work has appeared on Cracked.com, in USA Today, the Associated Press, the Chicago Cubs Vineline Magazine, AskMen.com and many other publications.

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