Redskins Not Expected To Get Deal Done With QB Kirk Cousins Before Deadline

ESPN’s Adam Schefter mentioned during an interview with ESPN 980 Washington that he can’t see the Redskins getting a long-term deal done in time with QB Kirk Cousins before the July 15 deadline.

Interestingly enough, Schefter says that a team like the Browns may have been willing to pay him as much as $20 million per year on the open market this year.

“I think there would be teams willing to pay him if he were on the open market today more than Washington feels like it needs to pay him,” Schefter said. “If he were to hit the free agent market this offseason, I think a team like the Cleveland Browns would’ve given him $20 million a year, maybe more.”

This fits with what Albert Breer of TheMMQB.com mentioned last week, which is that the assumption right now is that Cousins will play out the 2016 season under the franchise tag.

Breer said that the parties have spoken to one another about a possible extension in recent weeks, and while talks are reportedly “amicable,” they’re also “going nowhere.”

Cousins reportedly views the $44 million he would get from being tagged this year and again in 2017 as the baseline for negotiations. Breer says that Cousins is targeting this sum of money over the first two years of a possible extension.

However, Breer says that the team has essentially told him that they would prefer to see him put together another strong season before allocating that kind of money to him.

Previous reports have said that Cousins could be targeting as much as $19 million per year in his next contract, so we’ll have to see how things go in the coming months.

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 in signing. Cousins now stands to make $19.953 million fully guaranteed for the 2016 season, but this won’t prevent them from negotiating a long-term deal that would reduce this figure and offer them some additional cap space.

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’ll have more regarding a contract extension for Cousins as the news is available.