Quarterback Kirk Cousins has been reportedly angling for a way out of Washington, and he reportedly got bold enough about it to approach Washington owner Dan Snyder about being traded.
According to Chris Mortensen of ESPN, however, Snyder’s response likely didn’t make him happy.
Kirk Cousins appealed personally to owner Dan Snyder for a trade but was basically told not to get his hopes up, per sources.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) March 9, 2017
It’s been reported for a little while now that Cousins does not want to play in Washington this year. His reported desired landing spot is with his old offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, who’s the new head coach of the San Francisco 49ers.
However, in addition to the fact that Washington would certainly not get full market value in return for Cousins’ services due to a lack of leverage, Snyder himself is said to be a huge road block in any potential trade. Reportedly, he wouldn’t want to trade Cousins to a member of the Shanahan family out of spite towards Mike Shanahan, who was his former coach in Washington (more on that here).
To this point, Cousins has yet to sign his $24 million-plus franchise tender. He was not so long ago just fine with the idea of playing the 2017 season in Washington on the tag, but it appears the situation has changed.
Perhaps the franchise’s general dysfunction has as much to do with this as anything else (more on that here).
We don’t know for sure the exact reasons why things have turned on a dime. What we do know is that more and more smoke is pouring out of the organization, indicating a legitimate fire that Cousins and others are eager to escape from.