Washington quarterback Kirk Cousins has reportedly turned down an offer for $16 million per season with $24 million in guarantees and will play on the franchise tag in 2016.
He’s making a horrible decision, especially since his one good season doesn’t even really justify more than just a one-year, prove-it at way less than the franchise tag.
Just mentioned on @nflnetwork the Redskins' top offer to Kirk Cousins: $16m per year with about $24m in guarantees. Will play on $20m tag.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) July 15, 2016
$16 million per season would put him firmly in the same range that Andy Dalton and Carson Palmer are in. And both of those guys are better players than Cousins is at this point in their careers.
Cousins has potential to get better, but it would be surprising if Cousins had received a better off as a hypothetical unrestricted free agent, something that might occur next March.
The guarantees were probably his first year salary and a signing bonus, and the structure was likely extremely team friendly. However, this could have been perceived as a slap in the face.
Over half of the quarterbacks in the NFL are making $18-plus million per season on their current contracts, but only 10 quarterbacks put up more than 4,000 passing yards in 2015.
Of those, only eight had 29-plus touchdowns. And of those, only four had 11 interceptions or less. Cousins had an exceptional year in 2015, but like we said earlier, one year of great production isn’t enough for Washington to justify a deal that would give him a top-10 quarterback’s salary.