It's Close to a Lock That Kirk Cousins Leaves the Redskins for the 49ers in 2018
By Jason McIntyre
This should surprise nobody, but the disaster that is the Redskins front office has bungled the handling of QB Kirk Cousins, and he’s almost certainly a goner next offseason. Here’s how badly the Redskins botched things:
Cousins led the league in completion percentage two years ago; he threw for 4,917 yards and 25 TDs last year. He’s the first QB in over two decades to lead the Redskins to back-to-back seasons above .500; they made the playoffs in 2015, but narrowly missed the postseason in 2016.
Kirk Cousins is not expected to sign a long-term deal by Monday’s deadline, but is open to doing deal with team after season, per source.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 16, 2017
Cousins will be the first QB in NFL history to play consecutive seasons under a franchise tag. Washington can tag him again in 2018, but will have to pay him $34.7 million, which is $10 million more than any NFL QB will make in 2017.
It’s rare that star QBs hit free agency – only three in recent years have won a Super Bowl (Brad Johnson, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning) – but Cousins certainly will be highly coveted next summer. Of course, one team stands out: The San Francisco 49ers. They’re coached by Kyle Shanahan; he’s the QB who worked with Cousins early in his career.
The pairing is too perfect. San Francisco doesn’t have a QB.
Where does this leave the Redskins? When you lose a Top 15 QB in the NFL – I have Cousins ranked 11th heading into next season, ahead of Eli Manning, Cam Newton, Dak Prescott, Philip Rivers and Joe Flacco; two of those guys have won Super Bowls, and one has been an MVP, and the other has the numbers for the Hall of Fame – you can expect to fall back into 4-5 win territory and a high draft pick.