Kirk Cousins has received the franchise tag for the second year in a row.
Mike McCartney, the agent for the Redskins quarterback, announced on Tuesday that the team has placed an exclusive franchise tag on Cousins. The exclusive tender means that Cousins won’t be able to negotiate with other teams, who would have had the option of signing him to an offer sheet and sending two first-round picks to the Redskins as compensation had the team used the non-exclusive version.
The Redskins can still trade Cousins, but would be negotiating the deal with interested teams on their own. That team would likely want to sign Cousins to a long-term deal rather than pay him nearly $24 million without any security beyond the 2017 season.
A recent report had the 49ers as Cousins’ choice of destinations should he be dealt as he’d be reunited with Kyle Shanahan. There’s a lot of time for things to play out on that front, which guarantees that discussions about Cousins’ future in Washington aren’t going to end because the tag has been used.