The Washington Redskins placed their non-exclusive tag franchise tag on QB Kirk Cousins Tuesday, according to Grant Paulson.
Recent reports mentioned that Washington was debating between using their franchise or transition tag on Cousins. However, it appears as though they would prefer to prevent him from putting together an offer sheet from another team.
Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports reported last week that the Redskins were offering Cousins as much as $15 million annually in a long-term contract.
However, Ian Rapoport reported that Cousins is looking for “at least” $19 million per year in his next deal.
The franchise tag will run the Redskins $19.953 million fully guaranteed for the 2016 season, but won’t prevent them from negotiating a long-term deal that would reduce this figure and offer them some additional cap space
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.
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 have him featured in our Top 100 – 2016 Free Agents list.
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