For the second offseason in a row, Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins faces an uncertain future in free agency.
But don’t expect him to take any big team friendly discounts.
“…There’s other quarterbacks that come after you and it would be almost a selfish move to hurt future quarterbacks who get in a position to have a contract,” Cousins said in an interview on 106.7 The Fan, H/T Chris Lingebach, CBS DC. “And if you don’t take a deal that’s fair to you, then you’re also taking a deal that’s not fair to them and you’re setting them back as well. So there’s different reasons. You just do the best you can.”
This is absolutely accurate.
While the Redskins season finished in disappointment, Cousins had a big statistical year. He completed 67 percent of his passes for 4,917 yards with 25 touchdowns, 12 interceptions, and a 97.2 passer rating.
If you believe Joe Theismann, Cousins is also better than a lot of quarterbacks who’ve reached massive deals recently (more on that here).
Future quarterbacks who put up comparable numbers need something to base their negotiations on. Cousins owes it to them to set the market strong because frankly, Washington’s front office is going to try to do the opposite for its counterparts.
It’s the nature of negotiations.
Cousins’ follow-up comments, however, were a little off of the mark.
“And frankly, once you sign the contract, there’s no law saying you can’t re-negotiate,” he added. “If you signed a deal and you end up coming away from two seasons saying, ‘Hey, not only did we not win, but I think the reason is that I’m taking too much,’ then you can always talk about changing that, but I don’t a need to do that on the front end.
It’s technically accurate. These contracts are re-negotiated all of the time. But Cousins is portraying it as though re-negotiating would be a relatively painless process. That’s just not the case.