Jets

Jets Could Offer Kirk Cousins $60M In First Year To Sign?

February 20, 2018

Brian Costello of the New York Post reports that league sources believe the Jets are going to be particularly aggressive in their pursuit of QB Kirk Cousins this offseason.

According to Costello, the belief around the NFL is that the main issue for the Jets isn’t about the money it will take to sign him, but whether he wants to play for them.

Interestingly enough, Costello adds that many around the NFL view the Jets as the favorites to sign Cousins because of the cap space they have available.

Costello says that many think Cousins could be in line for a five-year, $150 million contract that includes a large portion guaranteed. One league source who spoke to Costello speculated that the Jets could front-load the contract and offer Cousins $60 million guaranteed in the first year of the contract.

On Monday, Rich Cimini reported the “badly” want to sign Cousins and sources have told him that New York is “willing to pay whatever it takes.”
Before that, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reported that there’s talk in league circles that the Jets could be willing to offer Cousins a fully guaranteed contract and the other suitors may have no choice but to follow suit.

Cousins, 29, is a former fourth-round pick of the Redskins back in 2012. He played out the final year of his four-year, $2,572,688 rookie contract that included a $472,688 signing bonus when Washington elected to use the franchise tag on Cousins that paid him $19.953 million fully guaranteed for the 2016 season.

The Redskins franchised him for the second year in a row this last year and he made $23.94 million fully guaranteed for the 2017 season.

In 2017, Cousins has appeared in all 16 games and thrown for 4,093 yards while completing 64.3percent of his passes to go along with 27 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He’s also rushed for 179 yards and four touchdowns. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 20 quarterback out of 40 qualifying players.

We have him featured in our Top 100 – 2018 NFL Free Agents list.