Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com reports that nothing has changed between the Redskins and QB Kirk Cousins in the hours leading up to today’s deadline to negotiate with franchise players.
- Breer adds that Cousins will play out the 2016 season under the franchise tag before being in line to test the free agent market in 2017.
- Mike Garafolo mentions that the Redskins’ best offer to Cousins included $16 million per year and $24 million in guarantees.
A few weeks ago, the two sides tried to see if they could make some progress on an extension, but it’s clear that Washington would prefer to see more from Cousins before committing a huge contract to him. Likewise, Cousins is fine betting on himself this year in the hope of being paid like a franchise quarterback.
The expectation is that Cousins will be targeting $43.89 million over the first two years of any new deal, which breaks down to his $19.95 million franchise tender in 2016 and a 20 percent raise in 2017 worth $23.94 million.
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 time in signing. Cousins now stands to make $19.953 million fully guaranteed for the 2016 season.
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.
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