Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, citing a source with knowledge of the situation, reports that the Redskins and franchise QB Kirk Cousins are at an impasse and won’t be able to bridge the gap before the upcoming deadline.
According to Florio’s source, there are no negotiations between Cousins and Washington right, and talks are not expected to pick up in the coming days.
Florio points out that the starting point in contract talks is clear, as Cousins will be targeting $43.89 million over the first two years of any new deal. This breaks down to his $19.95 million franchise tender in 2016 and a 20 percent raise in 2017 worth $23.94 million.
There was some recent optimism that the two sides would at least try to get a deal done before the July 15 deadline.
However, it’s become increasingly clear that the Redskins want to see another year of Cousins before committing a big-money extension to him.
Cousins, 27, played out the final year of his four-year, $2,572,688 rookie contract that included a $472,688 signing bonus and was in position to be the best available quarterback in this year’s free agent market before he was tagged.
Washington elected to use the franchise tag on Cousins, which he wasted little in signing. Cousins now stands to make $19.953 million fully guaranteed for the 2016 season, but this won’t prevent them from negotiating a long-term deal that would reduce this figure and offer them some additional cap space.
In 2015, Cousins threw for 4,166 yards while completing 69.8 percent of his passes to go along with 29 touchdowns and 11 interceptions over the course of 16 games. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 16 quarterback out of 37 qualifying players.
We’ll have more regarding a contract extension for Cousins as the news is available.
Looking for the latest NFL Insider News & Rumors?
Be sure to follow NFL Trade Rumors on TWITTER and FACEBOOK for breaking NFL News and Rumors for all 32 teams!
