Kirk Cousins, Washington Break Off Contract Talks

ESPN’s Adam Schefter says talks have broken off.

However, if a long-term deal can’t be reached the Redskins may use the franchise tag on Kirk Cousins.

Instead of anointing the quarterback who’s coming off his first full season as the unquestioned starter a franchise quarterback, the Redskins might be much better off just giving him the franchise tag.

Cousins and his breakout 2015 season has left the former Michigan State and Holland Christian High School star in a great bargaining position as a free agent come March 9.

For the Redskins’ part, the franchise tag is a giant safety net.

Schefter said Cousins is “the safest bet of any quarterback available on the market” and doesn’t believe the Redskins have any other potential quarterbacks in mind.

The only Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks in the last 10 years not making $20 million are Peyton Manning (with the Colts and Broncos) and Tom Brady.

But that doesn’t mean those teams out there are willing to give him the fat contract he wants. The sample we have of Cousins playing like a franchise quarterback is far too small to draw any strong conclusions.

According to a new report on Tuesday night from Mike Florio over at Pro Football Talk, the two sides in fact are still talking as they try to come to a new agreement.

“We feel comfortable with it because Kirk has said he wants to be a Washington Redskin, and we felt we want him to be our starting quarterback, so we have some time and those things usually work out”. In a tweet Wednesday morning, he told Washington exactly what it needs to do with Cousins – pony up and open the wallet. If he does leave, however, I think Houston or Los Angeles are very real possibilities.

Washington would like to sign Cousins to a long-term deal but are only prepared to do so at the right price. By letting Cousins go to free agency, the Redskins would again have to go through the grueling process of drafting, developing, and molding a young quarterback into their system. That’s their call. My guess would be that they franchise him, but there’s enough of a discrepancy on his value that there’s not going to be a long-term deal that gets done at the [NFL scouting] combine, before the combine, right after the combine. Before that, Cousins threw 24 touchdowns and 27 interceptions in his first 20 career appearances.