Washington Redskins Should Sign Kirk Cousins Before The Tag Deadline

The Team’s Five-Year Broken Relationship With Cousins

Last season, the team tagged Cousins to hedge their bets on their ascendant but yet-unproven franchise signal-caller. The organization did so to manage against the risk of a first-year starter who only featured a limited body of work. But, playing on a prove-it franchise tag season in 2016, Cousins responded with a vengeance on his way to passing for nearly 5,000 yards.

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Unlike this past offseason, the organization creeps into this year’s negotiations with little, if any, leverage over its Pro-Bowl quarterback. The folly in the team’s failure to strike a long-term deal with Cousins in 2016 has robbed it of any meaningful control over Cousins this year. His ability to dominate this year’s round of bargaining is driven not just by his play last year, but also by the fact that Redskins have no viable options if here were to leave. The Redskins must now reprise a tricky tag-or-contract gambit which, depending on its outcome, could spell Cousins last season with the organization.

The Redskins, who were the very witting architects of this predicament, have no one to blame but themselves. The journey down this road of perdition was a product of it ineptly managing the personal and professional relationship it had with Cousins over his five-year tenure here.

From consigning him to second-class citizen status when he was first drafted to forcing upon him a take-it-or-leave-it $16 million-a-year contract last offseason, Cousins, at least publicly, has tolerated the back-biting, game-playing and disrespect the Redskins brass has directed his way. This all culminated last year after the Houston Texans signed Brock Osweiler, a raw passer with a handful of pedestrian games to his name, to a market-bending four-year, $72 million deal shortly after Cousins was tagged last year. With months left to negotiate a new deal, the Redskins never budged from its $16 AAV offer, sending a clear no-confidence message to Cousins.

Despite the usually measured tones Cousins speaks in, his recent public comments have witnessed a subtle crescendo of invective about his crumbling rapport with the organization. From “I want to be where I’m wanted” to “the ball is in the team’s court” to his refusal to state that he wants to stay in Washington, the devoutly Christian Cousins has put on a more mercenary demeanor that betrays his otherwise sunny affect. The Redskins should take note: he’s resentful, has every right to be, and this will play a large factor in whether he feels the team is finally acting as an honest broker with him.