According to Rich Cimini, the “badly” want to sign free agent QB Kirk Cousins and sources have told him that New York is “willing to pay whatever it takes.”
Cimini writes that the Jets are hoping to convince Cousins that he’ll have a chance to win in New York because there are still some obvious roster deficiencies.
Part of New York’s recruiting pitch, according to Cimini, will be to stress his familiarity with the offensive system on top of paying him big money.
Should the Jets ultimately miss out on signing Cousins, Cimini expects New York to lower their sights to a stop-gap option such as re-signing Josh McCown and then target a quarterback prospect in the draft.
Cimini lists Case Keenum and Tyrod Taylor as other fallback options for New York this offseason.
Over the weekend, 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.
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