Garoppolo heads to 49ers, complicating Kirk Cousins situation again

Well, take any ‘Kirk Cousins to San Francisco’ hot takes and throw ’em out the window. The 49ers are putting their faith in another quarterback.

For all of the offseason, the buzz was centered around Kirk Cousins‘ future destination. And San Francisco seemed to be the most consistent match, with former confidante Kyle Shanahan at the helm. But that idea now seems dead in the water, as the 49ers made waves with an unexpected trade on Monday night. Per Adam Schefter, Jimmy G is headed across the country.

The trade gives the 49ers their perceived quarterback of the future, which effectively quells any talk of Cousins making the trip out west. With their quarterback position now locked up, the 49ers are no longer a suitor for Cousins. Granted, he’ll still have plenty of options when and if he hits the free agency market, but the 49ers were widely regarded as the favorite. Now, they’re out of the race.

So we know what this means for the 49ers. But what does it mean for Cousins? Well, it might be too early to say. He’ll still have plenty of interested parties in 2018, ranging from the Buffalo Bills to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Such teams will have the ability to pay for him, but with San Francisco off the table, Washington has some control. San Francisco was the most popular theory because of the pre-existing connection. Now, Cousins would make the most sense staying in Washington.

But in the end, Cousins decides his own destiny. He decided not to negotiate with Washington last year before the contract deadline, and next year, he could decide the same, if tagged. If not tagged, he’ll hit the market, and plenty of teams in states other than California will be more than ready to throw money at the aging veteran.

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More likely than not, the Redskins will tag Cousins. Bruce Allen said he was willing to from the start, and with the 49ers out of the picture, the Redskins will be more motivated to put the cap on all this and lock down Cousins for another year. Now, they can even use the transition tag, and more easily match any offers that other teams field. The Garoppolo trade was impactful. It negated one more team from the Cousins sweepstakes. And by the time February rolls around, we could see Cousins in Washington for another year.