Kirk Cousins really wants to play for the 49ers

He might be on the verge of signing the franchise tag Washington handed him. Redskins owner Daniel Snyder might not want to trade him to the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers themselves have added two quarterbacks (Brian Hoyer and Matt Barkley) in free agency.

But in no way does this mean that Kirk Cousins wants to remain on the Redskins. He made this clear by reportedly asking team owner Daniel Snyder for a trade, presumably to the 49ers (more on that here).

Cousins wants to play for his former offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco. And he’s pretty much making sure everyone knows.

This falls in line with what NFL Media’s Mike Silver reported earlier in the week. Whether it is in 2017 or 2018, Cousins will likely be the 49ers’ starting quarterback.

This is where it gets tricky for Washington. Should the team decide to hold on to Cousins, maybe out of spite, then it faces the real possibility of losing him for absolutely nothing next March.

If the Redskins were to franchise Cousins for a third consecutive year, that would guarantee him $34-plus million for the 2018 season. This isn’t going to happen.

Reports a while back indicated that San Francisco might be willing to dangle the second overall pick as bait for Cousins. That time surely has passed. Washington has no real leverage here. The 49ers themselves have a stopgap option in Hoyer.

If a trade were to somehow come to fruition, compensation headed the Redskins’ way would likely be much less at this point. Either way we spin it, a few things are already known.

Yes folks, this is an absolute train wreck for the Redskins, who now don’t have a general manager to call their own after firing Scot McCloughan on Thursday. Whether that leads to a trade is not yet known. But Cousins wants out of dodge. And quick.