Cousins 3.0, he's going to sign the franchise tag

[Schneed10]

Cousins wants to be wanted. He wants an organization to commit to him, fully. Show him he's their guy.

The team is taking slow steps in that direction, but airing the May 2 contract details publicly is an obvious attempt to show the public that the team does want him and make Cousins look bad for turning it down.

That doesn't show that you are fully committed to him, that provokes resentment.

Allen is failing to recognize the immense leverage Cousins has, which is the direct result of kicking the can down the road and franchising him twice in a row. You can't offer the same guaranteed money Cousins would make in 2017 and 2018 under tags, and expect him to trade that for 6 years of being under the Redskins' control. It doesn't show you want Cousins, it doesn't show you're fully committed.

Reports say he's open to an extension next year. Maybe he is. But I don't expect his stance to change: I want an offer that recognizes my worth, demonstrating that the team is fully committed. I want to be wanted.

Next year he'll have even more leverage, and his opportunity cost will be even higher. It will take an even higher offer to demonstrate that he's wanted.

So I believe Cousins when he says it's not about money. I believe him when he says it's about being wanted. Nothing the Redskins have done over the past few years says: Kirk, we believe in you.

If they change that tune in February, and give him a huge deal commensurate with his leverage, then it will convey that he's wanted and he'll sign. If they don't, John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan will. And Bruce Allen will have kicked the can down the road and out of town.

[MTK]

I'm over it. At this point we should all be hoping that Kirk tears it up this year and takes us deep into the playoffs and leaves the team falling over themselves to give him a worthy contract next year.

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by MTK

I'm over it. At this point we should all be hoping that Kirk tears it up this year and takes us deep into the playoffs and leaves the team falling over themselves to give him a worthy contract next year.

No counteroffer from Kurt's team?

He doesn't want to be here.

[over the mountain]

Im a big Cousins fan and want him signed to a LTD .... but dang, paying 80-100M guaranteed and breaking the record books for the 10th or 11th best QB in the league just seems odd. I understand leverage, market demand, future salary cap inflation etc but this still feels like things are going off the rails.

After listening to pundits, posters here I think the BA statement was more pettiness. I understand the need to get your version out there first to set the narrative, but the very real by product of CYA is turning a portion of your fan base against your starting QB.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

No counteroffer from Kurt's team?



He doesn't want to be here.

Or he's just content maximizing his value with the tags and seeing how the market gauges his value next year. That seems to be the most likely answer to me. If he truly wanted out he could have not signed his tags and forced the team to trade him.

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by MTK

Or he's just content maximizing his value with the tags and seeing how the market gauges his value next year. That seems to be the most likely answer to me. If he truly wanted out he could have not signed his tags and forced the team to trade him.

You got injury risk and a performance risk, which to me was a slight drop off from 2015. You keep rolling the dice, you could crap out. Just saying.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

You got injury risk and a performance risk, which to me was a slight drop off from 2015. You keep rolling the dice, you could crap out. Just saying.

That's definitely the risk, injury more than performance if you ask me. I don't see his play declining dramatically enough to hurt him.

[metalskins]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

You got injury risk and a performance risk, which to me was a slight drop off from 2015. You keep rolling the dice, you could crap out. Just saying.

There's always a chance risk of injury, and there's always a chance Cousins has a bad season. However, I think even despite that, he'd get suitors willing to pay him.

[Chico23231]

Kirk Cousins: Needed more time to make long-term decision with team | ProFootballTalk

Im calling bullshit on Kurt's statement...

[Schneed10]

I think he just wants a team to commit to him and show him the love. If that's the Redskins then he'll happily take it. But that would take a major shift in behavior from the front office.

But Matty's right, what's done is done and all we can do now is focus on this season. I like how the defense is improved and I could see a good season coming as long as the offense figures out how to keep it rolling with the changes at receiver. I like our chances for a good year, actually. 16 games (plus playoffs?) is an eternity in the NFL, it's plenty of time things to turn positively between the Skins and Cousins. It's also plenty of time for things to sour, but I'm a glass half full guy.

Better running game, better defensive front, better red zone play? 10-6 is quite possible in my mind.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

Kirk Cousins: Needed more time to make long-term decision with team | ProFootballTalk

Im calling bullshit on Kurt's statement...

It was definitely a 'let me keep my options open' kind of move, no matter how he frames it.

Whether that's because he wants out, or because he wants Allen out, or because he wants to test the waters with Gruden as playcaller first, or because anything...

He didn't want to get married at this point. If he doesn't want out, he at least needs some convincing that DC is the place for him.

[sdskinsfan2001]

Originally Posted by FrenchSkin

I disagree.

(wow, did I really start a post disagreeing with The Schneed? How crazy am I?)

I can't imagine that a NFL player can hate a team he's been very successful on (and a city where his child's going to be born) to a point where he'd turn down millions of dollars he'd accept from another team. KC doesn't seem to be an irrational guy.

By the way, the optimistics we both were thought the deal would get done at a lot more guaranteed money than 53 M! I said 65, you said "Saturday, 5 years, $25M per, $75M guaranteed."

So to me this is just numbers. The offer wasn't high enough... He wants to see if the market says he's worth more.

My best hope is that we transition tag him, and match any offer made, so the Redskins would save face and be in a position to say "we didn't overpay him, it's the market price"...

But the BA's statement may very well be throwing KC under the bus to a point of no return...

The transition tag amount is high, but not too too bad, I'm just worried a team will front load a contract or put some poison pills in there where there's just no way we could match it then we lose him for nothing.

[Schneed10]

JP Finlay on Twitter:

Kirk Cousins again says it's not about $$. "If it was the case we would have sent a counter offer that was extremely high." Interesting.

[Schneed10]

More from JP:

Kirk Cousins on #Redskins offer: "If the best we can get is a 2 year deal I might as well just keep playing on one year deals"

Cousins on talks w #Redskins "Everything is trending in the right direction." Dude is pure class.

Cousins, “We all as players would love to see more guarantees...We'll never find out if a player doesn’t try."

So it's the guaranteed money. He wants to take it way higher, obvious he thinks the low guarantees favor NFL teams. It's not that he wants to be the highest paid, it's that he wants more safety.

[KI Skins Fan]

Originally Posted by Chico23231

You got injury risk and a performance risk, which to me was a slight drop off from 2015. You keep rolling the dice, you could crap out. Just saying.

Kirk has 43 million reasons ($$) not to worry about that. He is gambling with house money.