Washington is expected to resume negotiations with Kirk Cousins on a long-term deal after the free agency period slows down, team president Bruce Allen says (via Tarik El-Bashir of CSNMidAtlantic.com). Washington used the franchise tag to cuff Cousins earlier this month and the QB inked the ~$20MM tender. That tender wasn’t cheap, but it doesn’t seem like an exorbitant price to pay for one year of Cousins in the wake of the deals signed by quarterbacks Brock Osweiler and Sam Bradford.
Cousins, 27, became Washington’s full-time starting quarterback for the first time last season, earning 16 of his 25 career starts in 2015. The four-year veteran finished the regular season on a tear, completing 74% of his passes for nearly 1,200 yards, 12 touchdowns, and a 134.0 quarterback rating over the final four weeks of the year.
That end-of-season run helped Cousins cement his standing as a quarterback Washington couldn’t afford to lose, but his first 12 games weren’t too bad either. For the season, Cousins thew 29 touchdowns against 11 interceptions, led the league in completion percentage (69.8%), and helped Washington win its first division title since 2012.
Apparently, Washington was only interested in giving Cousins a franchise tag and the $17.7MM transition tag was not a consideration.
“We thought the best thing to do was the franchise tag,” Allen said, according to El-Bashir. “It made it clear where we stood with him. We had told his agent that’s what we were going to do.”
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.