Kirk Cousins On Free Agency Approach

The events of Tuesday night moved Kirk Cousins into relatively foreign territory — for himself and the NFL.

A franchise quarterback in his prime without injury issues is now pointed toward free agency. The 29-year-old passer will be pursued by several teams, including some who missed out on the Alex Smith sweepstakes. It could take a record contract to land the seventh-year signal-caller.

But after banking more than $44MM over the past two seasons through Redskins franchise tags, Cousins said a team’s competitive window will play heavily into his thought process.

Winning is everything, especially at this stage of my career,” Cousins said, via Rich Cimini of ESPN.com. “I’m going into Year 7. Because I’ve been franchise-tagged twice, it’s not about the money so much. It’s about winning. I want to win. This isn’t the NBA. You can’t just get one player and now you’re in the AFC championship game or NFC championship game. There are other pieces that come into play.”

Expanding on his desire to land in a winning situation after starting just one playoff game in his career, Cousins said a team’s coaching staff, GM and offensive system and personnel will be “huge” factors during his process.

Who am I throwing to? Who’s protecting? What’s the depth chart look like?” Cousins said, via Cimini. “It’s so multifaceted. It’s going to be a really interesting process to gather those facts. I haven’t had the opportunity to gather that research. Until then, I’m going to keep an open mind and see what’s out there.”

While many free agents sign in the frenzied first several hours of the league year opening without taking visits, Cousins hinted he may go through a meet-and-greet process. Peyton Manning was thorough during his 2012 tour, traveling to several teams before deciding on the Broncos, who, interestingly, are almost certainly going to be part of the Cousins derby as well.

Well, that will be uncharted territory for me,” Cousins said, via Charles Robinson of Yahoo.com, just before learning he will have a chance to test free agency. “I haven’t been there before. So I don’t know what that process looks like at all to this point. That would be my first time going through it.

“But I want to win. I’ll make sure that any fact-gathering that I do, or business that I take, or coaches that I meet – it’ll all be centered on do I feel like this is a place where I can win, or we can win? That’s what it’ll all boil down to.”

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