http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-foo ... -look-like
Agent's Take: What will Kirk Cousins' next contract look like?
There's a lot of good info in there but kind of thought this was the key portion:
Quarterback is the ultimate leverage position in the NFL because teams would rather pay for mediocrity than start over with a high draft pick or another veteran that isn't a big upgrade. This general proposition will put Cousins in the driver's seat with Washington for negotiations to retain him provided he doesn't revert to his 2014 season form, which got him benched, during the last three games. It seems unlikely considering Cousins' growth as a quarterback this season.
Cousins has excellent representation in Mike McCartney of Priority Sports. Two of his stronger deals have been defensive tackle Haloti Ngata's five-year, $61 million contract ($35 million guaranteed) with the Baltimore Ravens in 2011 when he was a franchise player and the five-year, $43.5 million contract running back Arian Foster received from the Houston Texans in 2012. Ngata's deal was extremely front-loaded with over 65 percent of his compensation in the first two years. Since Foster was going to receive a $2.742 million restricted free agent tender absent the deal, the average value of the four unrestricted years he gave up is $10,189,500 per year.
It would not be a surprise if McCartney sought a long-term deal comparable to the contract package of the average starting quarterback on a veteran deal. The two contracts which most closely approximate these figures belong to Alex Smith and Matthew Stafford. Smith signed a four-year, $68 million extension containing $45 million in guarantees, of which $30 million was fully guaranteed at signing, from the Kansas City Chiefs in 2014. Stafford received a three-year, $53 million extension from the Detroit Lions in 2013 with $41.5 million in guarantees. $33.5 million was fully guaranteed at signing.
The Redskins will likely be extremely hesitant about making such a significant multi-year commitment to Cousins because there isn't enough of a track record for them to feel comfortable unless the threat of interest from another team in free agency forces their hand.
Also:
The Franchise Tag Factor
There are more NFL teams than capable starting quarterbacks, which is why Cousins receiving a franchise tag isn't out of the question. Several things would need to occur to make it a realistic possibility. Cousins would need to perform like he did on the road in Chicago (or close to it) against the Cowboys and Eagles. This would probably result in the Redskins hosting a playoff game in the wild-card round, presumably versus the Seattle Seahawks, for winning the NFC East. Beating the two-time defending NFC Champions would be a tremendous upset. Under this scenario, owner Daniel Snyder wouldn't want to risk losing Cousins to free agency if the franchise's first playoff victory in a decade occurred with him under center.
The non-exclusive quarterback franchise tag should be $19.671 million with a $153.4 million 2016 salary cap, which is the high end of salary cap projections recently given to NFL teams. Cousins merely putting himself in a position where a franchise tag is a serious consideration would give him the leverage to force the Redskins into making a long-term commitment where his deal would approach top-tier quarterback money.
I can guarantee you that somebody is going to chime in here and complain about Cousins being "greedy". Just want to preemptively say that's complete BS. NFL teams are making BILLIONS of dollars. Every player whether its Ndamakong Suh or Kirk Cousins deserves to negotiate for every dollar they can get in their short career.
Good for Cousins though in any event. If the scenario plays out where we end up hosting a playoff game and Cousins earns a big paycheck, I don't think many Redskins fans will be complaining.
and quite possibly more than 1 ...
you always have had a much better way of explaining things .... when I agree with you, that is 
