Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins was asked if he’d be returning next year following the team’s disappointing 35-18 loss at home to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, and he left room for doubt.
The fourth-year quarterback is set to become a free agent this upcoming March, and after the remarkable second half he put together he’s set to earn top dollar.
Knowing the position he’s put himself in, Cousins was diplomatic and had nothing bad to say about Washington and the direction the organization is headed in, but he fell short of saying he’ll be back.
“I think I want to be where I am wanted and you want to be with people who believe in you and we are going to find out—because we haven’t discussed it yet—how much I am wanted and where that’ll go,” he said, via Rich Tandler of CSN Mid Atlantic. “But I’m sure you know it’s a business and the team is going to operate with that mindset and this is my first time going through that process in the NFL. It’s new to me, I don’t know a whole lot about it, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Cousins was viewed as an interception machine heading into the second half of the 2015 campaign. Everyone knew he had some promise as an NFL passer, but his penchant for giving the ball away made any thought of a huge contract seem like nothing more than a pipe dream.
Fast forward to now and it’s a guarantee he will be inking a lucrative multi-year contract that will in all likelihood hover around or over the $100 million mark.
Cousins, in his final 10 games during the regular season, threw 23 touchdowns and just three interceptions after starting the season having thrown six touchdowns and eight picks in his first six games. Additionally, his 126.1 passer rating in the final eight games was the third-best mark all time for any quarterback in the second half of a season, according to Kevin Patra of NFL.com
Those kinds of stats, along with Washington’s impressive 7-3 record down the home stretch, will have teams lining up to line his pockets with green. With this in mind, it’s by no means a given that Cousins will be playing in Washington in 2016.