Kirk Cousins reiterates desire to be a Redskin, to explore other options if tagged

Kirk Cousins’ reported desire to remain a member of the Washington Redskins is no surprise. At the same time, he won’t hesitate to explore other opportunities if he gets the franchise tag.

The Kirk Cousins saga continues to move forward. While many are hoping that this season will finally bring an end to the year’s long back-and-forth between the Redskins front office and the team’s star quarterback, it could end up being a stalemate once again. Until a tag is slapped on Cousins, we won’t know if the Redskins are going to keep him. And until March, we won’t really know what team has the best chance of getting him.

Still, questions will swirl around the D.C. area much like the brutal bomb-cyclone that hit the east coast on Thursday. They’ll be relentless, hard hitting, and they won’t offer much clarity as to what’s happening until later on.

That didn’t prevent Cousins from speaking to the press recently. In the interview, Cousins reiterated that he definitely wants to be a Redskin moving forward. Here are his words about the matter, from NBC Sports Washington’s Twitter.

This is an unsurprising development. In the event that Cousins didn’t want to be a Redskin, it’s highly unlikely that he would make that public knowledge in such a manner. It would destroy any leverage he had with the team, and it’s also not guaranteed that he would be able to land a mega deal on the market. In the event that he eliminates any parties from negotiations, his asking price will have to come down. So, that’s why it’s important not to read into this too much.

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At the same time, this does appear to be a vote of confidence for the organization. It does mean that they are still in the running, provided that they want to pay Cousins what he’s asking.

The Redskins will have a couple of options if they want to keep Cousins. The first is to re-sign him to a big deal. If that doesn’t work, the team could franchise tag him for a third straight season at a clip of $34 million for the year, or they could hit him with the transition tag. That tag would be worth $29 million, but Cousins would be able to negotiate with other teams and potentially ink a larger deal. That would probably be more ideal for the Redskins if they are ambivalent about him staying.

And as for Cousins, while he has been content to bet on himself with one year offers recently, he confirmed that he would go visit other teams if he gets the transition tag, per NBC Sports Washington’s Rich Tandler. It would be foolish not to do that, since he could end up leveraging a huge deal if he plays his cards right.

Next: 3 Under-the-radar potential Redskins signees

Either way, the situations surrounding Cousins is still very fluid. We will keep you updated on all the latest developments as another critical offseason in Washington rolls on.