The deadline to sign players with franchise tags to multi-year deals has come and gone and Kirk Cousins remains without such a deal for the second straight year.
There were many reports about what each side was looking for over the course of the offseason in terms of both a deal and a future together, but nothing materialized so Cousins is set to play out this year on the tag. That will pay him $23.94 million and Redskins president Bruce Allen used the moment to share the team’s take on how negotiations played out.
Allen, via the team’s twitter, said that Cousins was offered a contract on May 2 that included $53 million in guaranteed money (or, put another way, a little more than $29 million more than he was already guaranteed after signing his tender) at signing and $72 million guaranteed for injury in a deal that “would have made him at least the second highest-paid player by average per year in NFL history.” He then said there was no return from Cousins’ side of the table.
“But despite our repeated attempts, we have not received any offer from Kirk’s agents this year,” Allen wrote. “Kirk has made it clear that he prefers to play on a year-to-year basis. While we would have liked to work out a long-term contract before this season, we accept his decision.”
Allen said the team remains hopeful that they can reach a longer agreement with Cousins after the 2017 season comes to a close, but the failure to do so over the last two years leaves open the possibility that this is going to be Cousins’ final season in Washington. If Cousins takes issue with anything Allen had to say or the choice to say it publicly, it may do more than leave it open as a possibility.