Redskins president Bruce Allen says the team has maintained a dialogue with Kirk Cousins‘ agent (Twitter link via Josh Keim of ESPN.com). Allen said he remains optimistic they can reach a long-term deal.
The Redskins have been publicly telling everyone that things are pointing in the right direction with Cousins, but it seems like the two sides are still oceans apart on a potential extension. Earlier this year, the Redskins proposed a five-year deal worth $20MM annually, but Cousins rejected that in favor of playing out the season on his one-year, $24MM repeat franchise tender. If the Redskins were to franchise tag him for a third consecutive season, he’d make a whopping $34MM in 2018, so an average annual value of $20MM won’t be enough for him to give up his chance at free agency.
The deadline for franchise tagged players to sign extensions is on July 15th. It’s possible that the deadline will spur action, but if it does not, then the Redskins will have to wait until after the season has concluded to restart talks.
Here’s more out of D.C.:
- Allen said he’s met with a dozen people about a front office job in Washington (Twitter link via Keim). He went on to say that he’d like to add two or three people to the front office in some capacity. The Redskins do not intend to hire a new GM, so it sounds like they’ll simply reorganize the front office with the addition of some new faces. Presumably, it will be Allen and owner Dan Snyder calling the shots.
- Redskins coach Jay Gruden says that wide receiver Josh Doctson will be participating in full during OTAs. The TCU product played in only two games last year thanks to an Achilles injury.
- The Redskins will not be relocating any of their outside linebackers to defensive end before camp starts.
Please sign the man.