East Notes: Cousins, Eagles, Jets, Pats, Bills

Should the Redskins place the franchise tag on Kirk Cousins, a grievance from the quarterback’s camp could follow. And Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk expects the quarterback’s side to successfully prevent Washington from tagging him again. Florio cites a section of the CBA that indicates a team that intends to use the tag must have a “good faith intention” to employ that player the following season. The Redskins having agreed to trade for Alex Smith, and having terms in place for an extension once that trade processes, essentially signals they do not plan to employ Cousins at or around $34.47MM this season. With other complications of a possible Cousins tag potentially emerging, the Redskins don’t look to be in line to succeed if they were to go down this path.

Here’s the latest from the East divisions:

• The Eagles currently hold the least amount of projected cap space (being $9MM-plus over the cap as of Saturday), and Geoff Mosher of FanRag Sports notes Howie Roseman would like to get a head-start on future caps by reaching an extension with breakout wideout Nelson Agholor. While no 2014 first-round pick has signed an extension yet, Mosher writes Roseman would probably like to extend the Chip Kelly-approved 2015 first-rounder this offseason and expects — if that comes to fruition — that price to be at around $9-$10MM per year. That would stand to lower Agholor’s 2019 fifth-year option number, slated to come in at $9.5MM. But with Agholor set for a bigger role in the Eagles’ offense, which Mosher does not expect to include Torrey Smith, he could bet on himself and see if he can drive up his value with a strong 2018.
• This offseason will also be important for Jay Ajayi, whose contract expires after the ’18 slate. But Ajayi’s history of knee trouble — which helped lead to the Boise State product falling to the fifth round in 2015 — could induce Roseman to be careful about an extension, Mosher writes. Corey Clement‘s Super Bowl performance may put the ex-UDFA on the radar to be the leading Eagles back in the near future, Mosher writes, which would affect Ajayi’s long-term standing.
• Martellus Bennett did not end up playing much of a role for the AFC champions this season post-waiver claim, and ESPN.com’s Mike Reiss does not expect his second Patriots stint to last much longer. Reiss expects the Patriots will decline his $2MM option (which would trigger a $3.6MM 2018 base salary and $2.6MM roster bonus). Bennett said he intended to retire after last season but has yet to formally announce anything. Of course, he was embroiled in a contentious situation with the Packers at the time of that proclamation.
• Two AFC East tackles are cap-casualty candidates in the view of OverTheCap’s Jason Fitzgerald. The Jets will save $4.67MM by cutting Ben Ijalana, who has mostly served as a backup aside from his 13 starts in 2016. The Bills may have a tougher decision regarding Cordy Glenn, but since signing a five-year extension in 2016, the formerly durable left tackle has has struggled to stay healthy. It would cost the Bills $9.6MM in dead money to cut Glenn, with $4.85MM coming Buffalo’s way in savings, and Fitzgerald could see the team putting him on the trade block. The Bills have second-rounder Dion Dawkins as an in-house replacement option and could see if another team would gamble on Glenn given the dearth of available tackle talent.