http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/02/16/kirk-cousins-washington-contract-peyton-manning-allegations-nfl
Worry Free Washington
Relax, Washington Redskins fans. News that contract talks have ceased between Kirk Cousins and the team is not foreboding.
By Peter King
Tom Pennington/Getty Images
If I were a fan of the NFC East champions, I wouldn’t be concerned about the quarterback walking out the door. At all.
Kirk Cousins is the long-term quarterback in Washington, and general manager Scot McCloughan is too smart to let him walk out the door. Redskins coach Jay Gruden is too enamored of Cousins to let him walk out the door. And Dan Snyder would blast into orbit if the franchise quarterback he once thought was Robert Griffin III but now knows is Cousins, walked out the door. So Cousins is not walking out the door in Washington.
Adam Schefter of ESPN reported Tuesday that the team and Cousins have broken off contract talks on a long-term deal for the looming free-agent quarterback. That’s significant only if you care how much money Cousins will make in 2016—but not if you only want to be sure he’ll be the Redskin’s quarterback. And barring some extraordinary change of heart by an entire front office and coaching staff that loves the guy, Cousins will be in Washington for the foreseeable future.
The fact that news appears from a reliable reporter
four weeks to the day before the market opens says to me that the team is sending the message that if Cousins is serious about getting a long-term deal, he’d better tone down his salary demands. Whether he does or doesn’t just isn’t that big a deal. If he doesn’t, Washington likely will place the franchise tag on him (about $19.7 million) and Cousins will play for his future again in 2016.
There is nothing not to like about Cousins. He’s altar-boy nice, Derek Jeter-like in his work ethic and studies the game with a passion that fits Gruden’s style. It would fit with any coach. Then the performance caught up with all the other positives in the last 10 weeks of the regular season. Cousins quarterbacked the Redskins to a 7-3 record, with 23 touchdown passes and three interceptions; his passer rating was above 100 in eight of the 10 games.
Gruden’s gamble in naming Cousins the quarterback for the full season on Labor Day paid off handsomely. And it will pay off for Cousins—either with a new contract or with a $19.7-million payday for the 2016 season alone—at some point. The Washington brass is too smart to mess this one up.