No, Washington played this situation horribly. There's not enough adjectives to describe how badly they did.remedy29 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 23, 2017 6:27 pm Despite all the hate they received, I think the Redskins have played this situation right up to this point. Cousins wants to be the highest paid player at the position in NFL history and is getting paid close to that this year, despite little accomplishments. The Redskins have no commintent beyond this year. They either go 7-9 and Cousins looks average, or they go 10-6 and win a playoff game or two. If that happens, I agree Cousins is going to get paid. If he goes 7-9, will a team really be offering him 75M guaranteed at 25M a year? Maybe they do, but the Redskins still have the opportunity to match.
Washington is going to end up paying Cousins a guaranteed $44 million over the last two years. They could've had him for less guaranteed money and more years if they got a contract done after the 2015 season. If they transition tag him or pay him the equivalent in his first year of a new deal, they will have guaranteed him $72 million from 2016-2018. That's not even including more guaranteed money for the rest of the deal. Cousins could end up getting close to 95-100 million in guaranteed money from 2016-2019. For comparison, Andrew Luck got $87 million guaranteed on his new contract over five years.
I don't think Cousins ever wanted to be the highest paid QB. But, Cousins kept playing well and basically boxed Washington into a corner.
Even if Cousins looks average this season, he's still going to get paid a ton of money due to the premium of the position. San Francisco and Cleveland both need a QB and have the cap space to make a lucrative offer. Not to mention, a team like Jacksonville or the Jets could get involved too. I don't think some fans realize how rare it is for a QB as good as Cousins to actually make it to unrestricted free agency in his prime. He's going to get PAID.