Redskins place franchise tag on QB Kirk Cousins

According to Grant Paulsen of 106.7 The Fan, the Washington Redskins used the non-exclusive franchise tag on Cousins. If a multi-year contract doesn’t materialize then Cousins will play for $19.953 million for 2016, but be eligible again next March for free agency. The non-exclusive tag means other teams can negotiate with Cousins and sign him to an offer sheet. However, most teams are then desperate to sign the players they’ve tagged to long-term deals in order to ease the one-year salary cap ramifications, and most players don’t appreciate the lack of contractual security inherent in one-year deals.

Applying the franchise tag on Cousins also allows the Redskins to continue to work on a long-term deal with the quarterback until a July 15 deadline.

The decision to place the tag on Cousins wasn’t a surprise as team president Bruce Allen indicated the team would do so if a long-term deal couldn’t be reached.

In this January 6, 2016, Washington Redskins NFL football quarterback Kirk Cousins speaks to reporters during a news conference at Redskins Park in Ashburn, Va., following a team practice.

The salary cap for next season is $155.27 million, an increase of about $12 million per team from 2015.

During the Redskins’ NFC East-winning season in 2015, Cousins set numerous single-season franchise records, including passing attempts (543), completions (379), passing yards (4,166) and 300-yard passing games (seven).

People familiar with the team’s deliberations said over the weekend that the use of the transition tag seemed like a most unlikely scenario.

Josh Norman gets the franchise tag from Carolina.

But the non-exclusive designation means the player is allowed to negotiate with other teams. Now, he’s headed elsewhere and Cousins, selected in the fourth round in 2012, will become one of the highest-paid QBs.

Kirk Cousins, Redskins, $19.9 million: The Redskins chose Cousins, not Robert Griffin III, to be their quarterback moving forward, and now they’ve put their money where their mouth is.

If Cousins is given the transition tag, the door is open for another team to either irresponsibly overpay the quarterback or create a contract that is hard for Washington to deal with.

Instead, the Redskins are hitching their wagons to Cousins, and given his play in 2015, he deserves at least another year to lead the team’s offense.

CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora confirmed Tuesday the Redskins’ plans to tag Cousins. Clearly, the Broncos weren’t leaving any opening for him to get away. “I just think that all of us believe in him and I think you guys should start seeing it too”.

If a team makes a hard run at Cousins in the next few months, it will cost that team a fortune.