Kirk Cousins Turned Down Three-Year, $90M Fully Guaranteed Contract From Jets

Kirk Cousins documented the free agency process this offseason that led to him signing a fully guaranteed contract with the Vikings.

A clip from the first episode of “The Path To Minnesota” shows Cousins on the phone with his agent, Mike McCartney, and explains to his wife, Julie, that the Jets offered a three-year, $90 fully guaranteed contract.

Instead of taking the highest offer, Cousins and McCartney use it as leverage in their negotiations to get a better deal out of the Vikings, who were offering him $25 million a year at the time.

Here’s the clip:

https://twitter.com/YahooSportsNFL/status/1034579008262823936

In the end, Cousins walked away with a three-year, $84 million fully guaranteed contract from the Vikings, so it’s not as though he left a ton of money on the table. But it’s clear Cousins felt the Vikings were the better fit for him and the $6 million difference was negligible, especially when you factor in tax rates.

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 at the cost of $23.94 million fully guaranteed for the 2017 season before agreeing to the three-year, $84 million contract with the Vikings.

In 2017, Cousins 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 had him rated as the No. 20 quarterback out of 40 qualifying players.