Bruce Allen publishes (some of) Redskins' offer to Cousins

[DEHog]

So now it comes out that the Skins offered the most guaranteed $$ for a QB in NFL history back on May 2nd. This was before the Carr deal, my question is why not release that info back then? Releasing is now just look like damage control. Cousins is not only winning the leverage battle be he’s also winning the propaganda war. He said earlier this week that he’s open to signing a long term deal after this season…of course he’s going to say that! If the statement that Bruce read is accurate, Cousins made no counter offer, that speaks volumes. At this point I just wish the Skins (if they believe he’s the guy) would have called his bluff and given him a Carr like contract then they would know! It’s ironic that Kirk has said he wants to be where he feels wanted….that a two way street Kirk…coaches want a player who wants to be here!! At this point you have to salvage the situation, it's clear no one is giving up two first round picks so you either have to trade him or use the transition tag and match the offer...or not!

[SKINS#1]

Given there was no counter offer from Cousins indicates to me he never intended to sign a long term contract with the Redskins.

[DEHog]

This is not going to happen, is it.

No, and I don't understand why anyone ever thought it was. $58MM 100% guaranteed over two years is more than Cousins is going to see out of any contract.

I'll just leave this here ...

You honestly don't this he would get more than that on the open market?

While this contract was once fair, the quarterback market has evolved. I actually had long argued that the Redskins should have signed Cousins to a five year, $110 million extension, but it was clear that would not happen once Carr’s deal was signed. Carr’s deal , coupled with Andrew Luck‘s massive extension from a couple years back, revolutionized the market and made virtually any competent quarterback who can lead a team to the postseason worth $25 million per year. The Redskins came up $3 million short of that number.
These numbers show that the Redskins and Cousins are still further apart in negotiations than many would like. The Redskins are going to have to pony up and pay Cousins at least $25 million per year if they want to keep him, provided that he does not regress in 2017. Even still, Cousins will be able to start a massive bidding war in the 2018 offseason, as the Redskins will not tag him again for the price of $34 million.

[Irn-Bru]

Redskins statement: https://twitter.com/Redskins/status/887 ... 36/photo/1

Our goal was to sign Kirk to a long-term contract with the final objective of having him finish his career with the Redskins.

On May 2nd, right after the draft, we made Kirk an offer that included the highest fully guaranteed amount upon signing for a quarterback in NFL history ($53 million) and guaranteed a total of $72 million for injury. The deal would have made him at least the second highest-paid player by average per year in NFL history.

But despite our repeated attempts, we have not received any offer from Kirk's agent this year.

Kirk has made it clear that he prefers to play on a year-to-year basis. While we would have liked to work out a long-term contract before this season, we accept his decision.

[Irn-Bru]

I think it was a bad idea to publish this statement. That said, I get that the Skins were probably frustrated by Cousins' lack of interest in the team even after we showed interest in him. No offer from Kirk's side after we put out a high-paying deal speaks volumes about his actual level of interest in playing here.

I guess our inability to field a serious offer last year was just too much of an insult when combined with his prospects to make top money this year and secure a lucrative long-term deal for next year no matter what happens this season.

[oj]

Given there was no counter offer from Cousins indicates to me he never intended to sign a long term contract with the Redskins.

Seems pretty clear to me too. 'How do you like me now!' comes to mind.

[Irn-Bru]

I think it was a bad idea to publish this statement. That said, I get that the Skins were probably frustrated by Cousins' lack of interest in the team even after we showed interest in him. No offer from Kirk's side after we put out a high-paying deal speaks volumes about his actual level of interest in playing here.

I guess our inability to field a serious offer last year was just too much of an insult when combined with his prospects to make top money this year and secure a lucrative long-term deal for next year no matter what happens this season.

Of course, publishing this now could easily be interpreted as the team throwing Cousins under the bus, which might squander any chance we have at a long-term deal being reached this upcoming offseason. Just one of the several reasons why it was a bad idea to do this, IMHO.

[welch]

Redskins seemed to have offered far less money than Bruce Allen claimed. Allen's offer included the tag money as the guaranteed $ to Cousins. From Jerry Brewer in the Post:

According to reporting from The Washington Post’s Mike Jones, Washington’s May contract proposal — essentially five new years added onto his 2017 franchise-tag salary — didn’t fully guarantee Cousins anything beyond the 2018 season. Allen merely took the $23.9 million that Cousins was going to play for anyway this season under the franchise tag and added something close to the potential $28.7 million transition tag that Washington has considered placing on Cousins for 2018. After that, there were no full guarantees, only protection against injury, for the last four years of the deal. In addition, his non-guaranteed base salaries would go down every year, a time in which the 28-year-old Cousins will be in his prime.

From Cousins’s perspective, the offer didn’t warrant a response because it clearly was an inferior offer based on the leverage he has in this exploding NFL quarterback market. Think about it like this: When he signed the franchise-tag offer sheet, Cousins knew he’d make $23.9 million. Then, for the next five years, Allen was offering him about $29 million guaranteed. Even if you made the injury guarantees into full guarantees, the commitment would just be $48 million over the five years after the 2017 season. That’s an interesting, franchise-friendly starting offer. But it’s not something that Cousins was going to sign. And it’s so far from a realistic closing deal that it wasn’t even worth a response from Cousins’s agent, Mike McCartney.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/r ... 7654d6b36e

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

You honestly don't this he would get more than that on the open market?

While this contract was once fair, the quarterback market has evolved. I actually had long argued that the Redskins should have signed Cousins to a five year, $110 million extension, but it was clear that would not happen once Carr’s deal was signed. Carr’s deal , coupled with Andrew Luck‘s massive extension from a couple years back, revolutionized the market and made virtually any competent quarterback who can lead a team to the postseason worth $25 million per year. The Redskins came up $3 million short of that number.
These numbers show that the Redskins and Cousins are still further apart in negotiations than many would like. The Redskins are going to have to pony up and pay Cousins at least $25 million per year if they want to keep him, provided that he does not regress in 2017. Even still, Cousins will be able to start a massive bidding war in the 2018 offseason, as the Redskins will not tag him again for the price of $34 million.

I think we're having two different discussions. Cousins is going to get 100% of $58 million over two seasons on the franchise tags.
No contract is going to pay him 100% of $58 million over two seasons. Not even the alleged $53 million guaranteed contract that would have made Cousins the 2nd highest paid player in the league.
Cousins is pricing himself right out of free agency. He turned down $26 million a year. He's not Aaron Rodgers. He's not Tom Brady. He's an empty stat machine who chokes in must-win games.
Just because he's the best QB this franchise has had in years doesn't mean he's a franchise QB, or worth mortgaging the future.
If Cousins expects to get paid by anyone in free agency he is going to have to do more than barely make the playoffs and lose in the 1st round.
Unless or until he's just marginally above average in a league with a lot of bad quarterbacks.

[markshark84]

This is total bush league by our FO. In order to cover their collective @sses from the fans, they issue a statement that ends up making them look even worse (if that's possible). It just shows that Cousins is smart enough to know DC isn't the place you want to spend your entire career. In my mind, that atrocious statement reads like this:

"Dear All,
We tried to once again submit a lowball offer to Cousins but he turned it down. So frustrating. Why he won't take roughly 50% below market in guarantees is completely beyond us. Especially when he'd be playing for a franchise with such a rich history of recent success. And we have no clue why he wouldn't negotiate. We have asked our owner and all of his yes-men what they thought about giving an extra $29M ($53M minus the $24 he's already guaranteed) in guarantees in order to sign a top 5-10 franchise QB and 100% of those surveyed thought it was MORE than generous. At this point in the statement I will leave out any and all additional contract details (such as signing bonus, first year payout, contract length, incentives, per year guarantees, trade clauses, etc.) because they weren't exactly what you would consider "fair", so we will only stick to the convenient details we want you to know in an effort to make our franchise QB look as bad to the public as possible --- and even those details/contract values were WELL under market. We'd also like to include that under Danny boy's orders all relevant QB contracts signed over the past 2 years such as Derrick Carr's >$70M guaranteed, $125M overall, and $40M at signing contract, Andrew Luck, Phillip Rivers, Eli Manning, Russell Wilson --- which had guarantees of $70M+, 87M, 65M, 67M, 62M, (versus our essentially $29M guaranteed deal for Cousins) are hereby considered irrelevant and shouldn't be discussed further. And since we are REALLY GOOD GUYS and completely trustworthy, we are confident you will side with us. After all, our owner didn't destroy our franchise or anything. This statement is completely classy and in good taste. We have a history of treating our key personnel with total respect. It will in no way dissuade future players from coming to DC or want to be drafted by us. Please believe this statement. Please. We aren't a grossly mismanaged sinking ship.

Sincerely,

Bruce Allen"

[markshark84]

Redskins seemed to have offered far less money than Bruce Allen claimed. Allen's offer included the tag money as the guaranteed $ to Cousins. From Jerry Brewer in the Post:

According to reporting from The Washington Post’s Mike Jones, Washington’s May contract proposal — essentially five new years added onto his 2017 franchise-tag salary — didn’t fully guarantee Cousins anything beyond the 2018 season. Allen merely took the $23.9 million that Cousins was going to play for anyway this season under the franchise tag and added something close to the potential $28.7 million transition tag that Washington has considered placing on Cousins for 2018. After that, there were no full guarantees, only protection against injury, for the last four years of the deal. In addition, his non-guaranteed base salaries would go down every year, a time in which the 28-year-old Cousins will be in his prime.

From Cousins’s perspective, the offer didn’t warrant a response because it clearly was an inferior offer based on the leverage he has in this exploding NFL quarterback market. Think about it like this: When he signed the franchise-tag offer sheet, Cousins knew he’d make $23.9 million. Then, for the next five years, Allen was offering him about $29 million guaranteed. Even if you made the injury guarantees into full guarantees, the commitment would just be $48 million over the five years after the 2017 season. That’s an interesting, franchise-friendly starting offer. But it’s not something that Cousins was going to sign. And it’s so far from a realistic closing deal that it wasn’t even worth a response from Cousins’s agent, Mike McCartney.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/r ... 7654d6b36e

100% agree with this assessment. When I read the statement, my first thought was "what is 23.9 + 28" --- hhhmmmmm, so the offer was for LESS than he'd be making if he went year to year. And it was interesting that the term "year to year" was used by Bruce to describe what Cousins' response was..... If you have an IQ above 90, you would have realized that the $53M included the 23.9 plus signing bonus plus Y2 ---- which doesn't add up to basically anything. Was there even a signing bonus given? Probably not. The contract was complete and total bullsh!t.

In my eyes, our FO didn't even make an offer. Because I can guarantee you that if he plays this year, they will 100% either franchise or slap the transition tag on him. They are basically f&(#ing with Cousins. And Cousins is having none of it. This is just making our FO look like @ssholes. I hope to God the readers on this site are intelligent enough to see through that statement to understand how idiotic that offer truly was.

[DEHog]

You honestly don't this he would get more than that on the open market?

While this contract was once fair, the quarterback market has evolved. I actually had long argued that the Redskins should have signed Cousins to a five year, $110 million extension, but it was clear that would not happen once Carr’s deal was signed. Carr’s deal , coupled with Andrew Luck‘s massive extension from a couple years back, revolutionized the market and made virtually any competent quarterback who can lead a team to the postseason worth $25 million per year. The Redskins came up $3 million short of that number.
These numbers show that the Redskins and Cousins are still further apart in negotiations than many would like. The Redskins are going to have to pony up and pay Cousins at least $25 million per year if they want to keep him, provided that he does not regress in 2017. Even still, Cousins will be able to start a massive bidding war in the 2018 offseason, as the Redskins will not tag him again for the price of $34 million.

I think we're having two different discussions. Cousins is going to get 100% of $58 million over two seasons on the franchise tags.
No contract is going to pay him 100% of $58 million over two seasons. Not even the alleged $53 million guaranteed contract that would have made Cousins the 2nd highest paid player in the league.
Cousins is pricing himself right out of free agency. He turned down $26 million a year. He's not Aaron Rodgers. He's not Tom Brady. He's an empty stat machine who chokes in must-win games.
Just because he's the best QB this franchise has had in years doesn't mean he's a franchise QB, or worth mortgaging the future.
If Cousins expects to get paid by anyone in free agency he is going to have to do more than barely make the playoffs and lose in the 1st round.
Unless or until he's just marginally above average in a league with a lot of bad quarterbacks.

Ok understood, but this isn't about how "good" Cousins is anymore. IMO it's about what the market will bare...he has already shown he can play at a high level in the NFL. Take a look around the league and look at the contracts some of these one year (and in some cases less than a full year) wonders have signed! Kirk's agent understands his value right now he and Kirk are more that happy to allow the Skins to continue to showcase his talent to the tune of 24 mil...With the cap going up who know what he'll get next year...that 58 Million might happen...David Carr just got 25 mil...what has he done that Kirk hasn't?

[Skinsfan55]

When I first read this statement from Bruce Allen, I laughed out loud. I thought it was clearly a transparent attempt to poison the fan base against Cousins and would NEVER work... but it seems to have worked way better than I could have imagined.

The idea that Kirk Cousins would or should come to the team with a counteroffer is absolutely ridiculous IMO. A sports agent would get fired for a blunder like that. If you're trying to buy an object like a car, it makes sense to haggle and go back and forth. The car has a set value, both you and the salesman basically want you to have a car. You're on the same page.

Now imagine you're getting hired for a job and negotiating salary. If the boss says "I'm willing to offer 50k a year" and you say "Actually, I think I'm worth at least 70k" then you're done. You've established parameters that you're worth between 50 and 70k a year. The negotiation is basically over. You just played yourself out of thousands. Not only that but every person in your field had their earning potential impacted by you.

Instead if you're offered 50k you might say "That doesn't seem to be appropriate compensation for someone with my qualifications." and walk away. Don't let them trap you in a game you're playing against yourself. Make them come at you with a reasonable offer instead of setting up parameters and trapping yourself.

By Allen releasing that statement he was being disingenuous. He knew that he never expected a counter offer and that getting one would never happen. He just said all that in a flimsy attempt to paint Cousins as greedy or not negotiating in good faith.

There's no way to spin this fiasco other than another embarrassing chapter in the history of Dan Snyder's ownership of the team.

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

Ok understood, but this isn't about how "good" Cousins is anymore. IMO it's about what the market will bare...he has already shown he can play at a high level in the NFL. Take a look around the league and look at the contracts some of these one year (and in some cases less than a full year) wonders have signed! Kirk's agent understands his value right now he and Kirk are more that happy to allow the Skins to continue to showcase his talent to the tune of 24 mil...With the cap going up who know what he'll get next year...that 58 Million might happen...David Carr just got 25 mil...what has he done that Kirk hasn't?

A lot of quarterbacks can get you to 8-8 or 9-7 or even 10-6 and miss the playoffs. And a lot of them can do it cheaper than Kirk Cousins.

Therefore, I couldn't care less what David Carr has done because I could make the same argument of Andy Dalton.

What has Kirk Cousins done that Andy Dalton hasn't done?

[Skinsfan55]

Ok understood, but this isn't about how "good" Cousins is anymore. IMO it's about what the market will bare...he has already shown he can play at a high level in the NFL. Take a look around the league and look at the contracts some of these one year (and in some cases less than a full year) wonders have signed! Kirk's agent understands his value right now he and Kirk are more that happy to allow the Skins to continue to showcase his talent to the tune of 24 mil...With the cap going up who know what he'll get next year...that 58 Million might happen...David Carr just got 25 mil...what has he done that Kirk hasn't?

A lot of quarterbacks can get you to 8-8 or 9-7 or even 10-6 and miss the playoffs. And a lot of them can do it cheaper than Kirk Cousins.

Therefore, I couldn't care less what David Carr has done because I could make the same argument of Andy Dalton.

What has Kirk Cousins done that Andy Dalton hasn't done?

Andy Dalton the three time pro bowler and arguably greatest QB in Bengals history?

If Andy Dalton was a free agent right now, he'd be commanding pretty big money, and if I was a Bengals fan I'd want them to keep him.

Despite everything, Cousins wants to stay with the team. He is a franchise player. He's a top 10 NFL QB. Is he as good as Brady or Rodgers? No, is he a very rare talent who will probably have a few seasons as a top 5 QB... yes.

Kirk Cousins is a franchise player, he's someone the team should have locked up long term before last season and failing that should have come to the table with a reasonable offer before the start of this season. They didn't. They failed... and it's typical of the abysmal way this franchise has been run since Dan Snyder stole the team out from under the Cooke family.

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

Andy Dalton the three time pro bowler and arguably greatest QB in Bengals history?

You're thinking of Boomer Esiason, who actually got to a Super Bowl.

Also, I'm not arguing the team screwed this up. They should have signed Cousins when they could have done so for a reasonable contract, you know, three years ago.

But they didn't and now his demands are unreasonable for his production.

[DEHog]

Ok understood, but this isn't about how "good" Cousins is anymore. IMO it's about what the market will bare...he has already shown he can play at a high level in the NFL. Take a look around the league and look at the contracts some of these one year (and in some cases less than a full year) wonders have signed! Kirk's agent understands his value right now he and Kirk are more that happy to allow the Skins to continue to showcase his talent to the tune of 24 mil...With the cap going up who know what he'll get next year...that 58 Million might happen...David Carr just got 25 mil...what has he done that Kirk hasn't?

A lot of quarterbacks can get you to 8-8 or 9-7 or even 10-6 and miss the playoffs. And a lot of them can do it cheaper than Kirk Cousins.

Therefore, I couldn't care less what David Carr has done because I could make the same argument of Andy Dalton.

What has Kirk Cousins done that Andy Dalton hasn't done?

It's not about what you and I think...It's what the market command! You don't think the Raiders saw what was going on in DC and acted accordingly. Carr's deal will look go in a few years when team are paying QB's 30 mil a year!!

[SKINS#1]

If the Redskins don't think Cousins will return in 2018, I would have let him know the Read Option playbook will be considered in 2017. Might make him a little more interested in getting a long term deal.

[welch]

If the Redskins don't think Cousins will return in 2018, I would have let him know the Read Option playbook will be considered in 2017. Might make him a little more interested in getting a long term deal.

Probably would not matter. Cousins made about $20 million last year and will make about $24 million this season. That's plenty. And:

“The value of any quarterback is set by the marketplace,” [Bill] Polian noted. “Whether you or I or anyone else agrees that Cousins has done enough to establish his value is immaterial. Value is what the market says it is.”

In Cousins’ case, some see a capable quarterback but nothing more, a game manager they feel is worth $16 million a year at most. But the NFL franchise tag says he’s worth $24 million this year and either $28 or $35 million in 2018, depending which type of tag applies.

<snip>

Moreover, [Joe] Banner dismisses the risk of injury scuttling Cousins’s value as negligible. He notes that the risk of major injury is small at quarterback, and Cousins has the advantage of playing behind one of the NFL’s better offensive lines. Even if he suffered an ACL injury, plenty of teams would be willing to bank on the recovery of a hard-working quarterback such as Cousins, who, at 28, should have five to 10 more years of productivity.

Full story at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/foo ... 92a392f378

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

It's not about what you and I think...It's what the market command! You don't think the Raiders saw what was going on in DC and acted accordingly. Carr's deal will look go in a few years when team are paying QB's 30 mil a year!!

True. It's about what the front office thinks. The front office doesn't think. Bruce Allen is an empty suit who only has the job because of his father.

I just don't want to see the team pay anyone else record money only to have them become mediocre at best. I think the Skins have cornered the market on that. Archuleta, Haynesworth, etc.

[RigAr4456]

I think Cousins is a good/with potential to be a great player, but IMO he is a nice guy type - A Pussy!

[oj]

Why haven't we heard from Gruden? Not much of a head coach that lets the FO get between him and winning football games. Cousins spoke of Bruce flying to Michigan to talk with him over the weekend, Cousins should have said Bruce and Gruden flew up. There was nothing more important Gruden was doing than being a part of that conversation. To tell the trutch, it should have been Gruden up there before Bruce the bagman.

[SkinsJock]

Some here think that Cousins is a possible HOF QB and others think that Cousins is just a good NFL QB

The Redskins should have signed him to a deal and not let it get to this but that's what the Redskins have done since Dan Snyder took over - we have no accountability and we make terrible decisions on who should play & coach here and how much to pay them

Cousins value at this time is not due to his play at QB as much as the current QB market and I would not be surprised if his value is not as great in 2018 as it is right now because I think that everyone will see that Cousins is a good, not great NFL QB

we also learned yesterday that Cousins is going to play wherever the Lord directs him to go

whatever, I don't expect things to change much while this owner keeps managing this franchise so badly

[Burgundy&GoldForever]

Some here think that Cousins is a possible HOF QB

"Some" here need to use their brains. There isn't one Hall Of Fame quarterback who never won a playoff game. Kirk Cousins has taken the team no further than Robert Griffin III took the team and the last time I looked Griffin was looking for a job.
Cousins has a longer leach because he was a 4th round draft pick, not a three 1sts and a 2nd trade for the #2 pick. But when it gets down to brass tacks Cousins hasn't done anything. Some idiot on Facebook made the case that Dan Marino never won a Super Bowl so he wasn't a good quarterback either by my logic. I made the case that he just compared a Hall Of Fame quarterback with dozens of passing records set in a running era to Kirk Effing Cousins, who will only see the Hall Of Fame, based upon his current achievements, if he buys a ticket.

The Redskins front office can't ever do right by everyone. If they pay players half of the fans lose their *sh$t*. If they refuse to pay players the other half lose their *sh$t*. It's six of one, half dozen of the other.

At this point I don't care if they pay him $35 million a year, trade him, cut him, or shoot him. I'm just tired of hearing about him. He's making me long for the days when RGIII was the subject of every discussion.

[markshark84]

Ok understood, but this isn't about how "good" Cousins is anymore. IMO it's about what the market will bare...he has already shown he can play at a high level in the NFL. Take a look around the league and look at the contracts some of these one year (and in some cases less than a full year) wonders have signed! Kirk's agent understands his value right now he and Kirk are more that happy to allow the Skins to continue to showcase his talent to the tune of 24 mil...With the cap going up who know what he'll get next year...that 58 Million might happen...David Carr just got 25 mil...what has he done that Kirk hasn't?

A lot of quarterbacks can get you to 8-8 or 9-7 or even 10-6 and miss the playoffs. And a lot of them can do it cheaper than Kirk Cousins.

Therefore, I couldn't care less what David Carr has done because I could make the same argument of Andy Dalton.

What has Kirk Cousins done that Andy Dalton hasn't done?

If I am understanding your post correct, I believe you are saying that Cousins should get a contract similar to Daltons. If that is the case, I can tell you that most within the NFL consider that contract to be a joke (at this point) and a great success for CIN looking in retrospect. Dalton's agent, Jeff Nalley, isn't exactly one of the best in the biz. He's the guy behind Kaep's idiot "opt out" this past March, the guy Geno Smith fired after his draft fall, and the one that was suspended for two years back in the late 90s for giving cash gifts to college players. Dalton's deal is for 6 years, 96M with 17M guaranteed. Dalton has since been a perennial pro-bowler. The fact he hasn't renegotiated is crazy to me.

Now that being all said --- Dalton's deal was given to him EARLY, there was speculation that his performance was directly tied to his WR options (Green, Sanu, Jones, Gresham, Eifert), and he was already (as of end year 2013) being considered a "playoff loser" (considering it was fresh off his 3 INT playoff game vs. SD). His contract is widely considered (after Y2) a year-to-year deal as nothing truly is guaranteed.

However, the big difference is that Dalton's contract was signed in 2013 effective 2014. QB contracts have skyrocketed since that time. Beginning in 2014 (effective 2015) guarantees more than doubled and averages went up nearly 20% (comparing 2012-2014 vs. 2015-current).

So I don't think you can compare Daltons deal to Cousins ---- in any respect. And as EVERYONE has been saying ---- it's about the market, not the player. The market favors Cousins --- and the fact 5 teams would sign him when he hits the market. Would Dalton have been able to say the same thing? I'm not so sure.