If the Washington Redskins will commit to him, Kirk Cousins says he would like to stay in town for a while. In a league that Cousins acknowledges is closer to week-to-week than year-to-year, though, what constitutes commitment?
In an interview released Wednesday with Peter King on King’s podcast for The MMQB, Cousins stayed consistent with pretty much everything he has said publicly about his contract situation.
“I want to be where I’m wanted,” Cousins said. “And that’s what I’ve said all along is when a team is willing to step up and commit to me fully, for the long haul, then why would I want to be anywhere else?”
What Cousins did do was offer some feel-good praise for the hometown crowd, at minimum paying lipservice to the idea that staying with the Redskins would have its benefits.
“This is an incredible fan-base, it’s one of the top-five fanbases in the history of the NFL,” Cousins said. “It goes all the way back to the early 1930s. There’s three Super Bowl trophies, there’s multiple Hall-of-Famers, there’s high-character players still living in the area, Darrell Green, Art Monk, guys that we can learn from. I love this organization and want to see us get back to those glory days that they had with coach [Joe] Gibbs in the 80s and early 90s and I want to add to that great history and there’s really no reason to want to look elsewhere.”
Cousins and the Redskins have until July 15 to work out a long-term deal, or he will play 2017 under the $24 million franchise tag. Cousins said that, while playing under the franchise tag makes the one-year status of the deal explicit, it’s not all that different from most other NFL contracts, anyway.
“A guy like Brock Osweiler signs a four-year deal last year and everyone is saying that’s what I should be looking for, well, he’s not with that team one year later,” Cousins said. “So was his contract really more than a one-year deal? I guess technically because he’s still on that contract in Cleveland but it certainly didn’t play out the way anyone had hoped in that situation.”
(After trading for Osweiler, the Browns will pay his $16 million salary in 2017 after he played the first year of his deal in Houston. Osweiler’s contract includes a team option after the second year.)
The Redskins, President Bruce Allen specifically, have expressed a desire to keep Cousins long-term but there have been few indications that the sides have made progress toward a deal, making it unlikely they would reach an agreement ahead of the draft.
• Nora Princiotti can be reached at nprinciotti@washingtontimes.com.
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