Manish Mehta of the New York Daily Newsย reports that had the Jets hired former Seahawks DC and current Falcons HC Dan Quinn back in January, there’s a chance that they would have traded for Redskins QB Kirk Cousins.
Quinn reportedly planned to hireย Kyle Shanahan as his next offensive coordinator, and Geno Smith was not a part ofย Shanahan’s future plans.
According to Mehta’s sources,ย Shanahan would have wanted the Jetsย to trade forย Kirk Cousins, who worked withย Shanahan while in Washington a few years back.
Another interesting note fromย Mehta’s article is that Quinn reportedly wanted to hire former Buccaneers GM Mark Dominik in some capacity.
Withย Dominik working in their front office, Shanahan believed he could swing a deal for Cousins.
Of course, the Jets elected to hire Todd Bowles, which led to Smith getting another opportunity to show that he can be a starting NFLย quarterback.
Unfortunately for the Jets and Smith, he sustained a broken jaw that has opened the door for Ryan Fitzpatrick to open the year as the team’s starter.
There have been several rumors since the Redskins elected to takeย both Robert Griffin III and Cousins in the same draft. However, there really hasn’t been any indication that Washington was ever close to moving Cousins for draft compensation.
Cousins, 27, is entering the final year of his four-year, $2,572,688 rookie contractย and stands to make a base salary ofย $660,000 for the 2015 season. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next year, so it will be very interesting to see what kind of market he finds come next March.
In 2014, Cousins appeared in six games for the Redskins and threw for 1,710 yards to go along with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
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