Are Readsking Talking About Tagging Kirk Cousins Again

One yr ago, the Washington Redskins told Kirk Cousins to await on a contract. Then they complained about his refusal of a team-friendly deal and having to pay Cousins $xx million in 2016 under the franchise tag. Ane twelvemonth later? Cousins told the Redskins he wanted to wait. So in truthful Redskins fashion, on Monday the franchise released a grousing statement, bemoaning the lack of a team-friendly, long-term deal – sealing it with language seemingly meant to frame Cousins equally greedy.

Accept it all in, folks. Because you may never see a franchise quarterback negotiation this screwed up again. One year ago, the Redskins smacked Cousins with a negotiating stick and expected him to like it. A yr later, the franchise handed him the negotiating stick and so complained when he returned the favor.

That's what this all amounts to. The Redskins botched the Cousins talks in one case. So twice. And president Bruce Allen topped it off with a argument that might as well have been written on the muddy diaper he filled up when talks failed.

"[D]espite our repeated attempts, we accept not received any offer from Kirk's amanuensis this yr," Allen'south statement read. "Kirk has made it clear that he prefers to play on a year-to-year basis. While we would accept liked to work out a long-term contract before this season, we have his determination."

Note the linguistic communication: "We take his determination."

Now consider all of this: In 2016, the Redskins undermined their contract talks with poor incremental offers that were never on par with Cousins' marketplace value. And so Washington put the franchise tag on him and asked Cousins to justify a ameliorate deal – which he did, while the market for quarterbacks connected to ascent. Now in 2017, the Redskins tried to clean up that mess by repeating the same negotiating tactic, offering Cousins a squad-friendly, six-year contract with but ii years of guaranteed money.

Bruce Allen has been with the Redskins since the 2010 season. (AP)

The telling breakup: Cousins' new bargain would have paid him $53 million guaranteed over the first 2 seasons. The problem? If the Redskins intend to keep him, that's basically the same amount Cousins is getting no thing what: this year's franchise tag ($23.ix million) plus the 2018 transition tag ($28.7 one thousand thousand).

To put it more precisely, the Redskins offered Kirk Cousins $324,080 more in guaranteed money than he is already slated to get under the adjacent two tags. For that $324,080 in actress coin, Cousins would be trading off whatsoever shot at free agency and also locking in 4 additional non-guaranteed contract years of his prime.

In the NFL agent industry, that's a sucker bargain, and Cousins' own agent doesn't even need to say it. His competitors were and so incredulous on Monday that the Redskins logo could have been replaced with an eye-roll emoji.

And truth be told, why wouldn't Cousins desire to wait one season anyhow? Barring a significant drop-off in play, he's got a gratis amanuensis marketplace that is going to be tilting in his favor should he e'er be cut loose, to the indicate that information technology's conceivable more than than one NFL team will offering Cousins a acme-three quarterback bargain with $25-$30 one thousand thousand in salary and $70-$eighty meg in guaranteed money. He'southward bet on himself this far. What's another flavor?

And lest anyone forget, the Redskins aren't exactly a portrait of calm lately. The franchise just lost its top two broad receivers in free bureau. It also fired general manager Scot McCloughan a few months ago in the ugliest of fashions – with someone from the inside sliding anonymous grapheme assassinating quotes into The Washington Post. And not that long ago, the organisation didn't seem all that sold on Cousins existence their guy anyway, this despite spending several seasons patiently bending over backward for Robert Griffin Three during his downwardly spiral.

Kirk Cousins has chosen not to respond to the Redskins offer. (AP)

So maybe Cousins will exist doing a footling assessing of his ain the next eight months – much the aforementioned way the franchise felt the need to measure him in 2016. Maybe he wants to see what a sturdy commitment looks similar, or how the encephalon trust reacts when he hits a rough patch. Or maybe he'd just like to become a season without some anonymous proposition to the media that the franchise might exist but fine with Colt McCoy as the starter.

If that's what Cousins is seeking – a longer expect at how the squad embraces him – then you can be sure that Monday was another eye-opening moment. Await no further than the Pittsburgh Steelers, who failed to get a long-term deal done with Le'Veon Bell Monday and reacted with this:

"Unfortunately, we were unable to hold to terms on a long-term contract with Le'Veon Bell prior to today's deadline," Steelers general managing director Kevin Colbert said in a statement. "Le'Veon is scheduled to play this twelvemonth under the Exclusive Franchise Tag designation. We will resume our efforts to address his contract situation following the 2017 flavor."

No mention of money. No shady reaction to what Bell didn't have. Just a simple "we didn't get it done" and a move forth toward the season.

Meanwhile, the Redskins and Bruce Allen took another route and another shot. He no longer has the negotiating stick, so he used a news release instead. Information technology backfired, just another fault-filled iteration in what will go down as one of the nigh botched quarterback negotiations in NFL history.

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Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/redskins-totally-botched-kirk-cousins-contract-debacle-235254094.html