2018 NFL Offseason Thread -- Philadelphia Burning Edition

Jozu said:

The Redskins are fucking retarded for franchising cousins twice. After they tabbed him to be the starter once RG3 was done, his agent offered terms of 18 million a year for 3 years.

Snyder said no, hit him with the franchise tag a couple times and paid him 45 million over 2 years instead.

Now will pay Alex Smith 18 million a year going forward....LOL.

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And there are persistent rumors still saying the Redskins might tag him again just to be spiteful.

If they franchise him again im sure there is something in the CBA where he can create some type of leverage and force the Redskins' hand and force a trade or become a free agent one way or the other. The Redskins cant just fucking hold the guys career hostage, thats not why the franchise tag was implemented. If they try to do it again the NFL will step in and force the 2 sides to come to an agreement because it is just bad optics for the league.

Snyder gives no fucks, but its just bad for business.

I could understand why the organization would want to pump the breaks on throwing money at QB's given what they have been through in recent history, with drafting RG3, going through the roller coaster ride that was his career, and before that dealing with a carousel of washed up journeymen like McNabb etc, so when Cousins become the starter they wanted a proper evaluation in order to get it right.

The problem is after franchising him the first time, you figure a full season is a pretty good measuring stick as far as what a guys current worth at his position is. Cousins was not only serviceable,he was above average, and more importantly, very sturdy, as he hasnt missed a single start in 3 years. The 49ers looked at Jimmy G after 5 games and threw him 143 million. Why even use the tag in that situation, even if you are looking for a bigger sample size,financially it just doesnt make sense in the current QB market.

Basically, the Redskins thought two full seasons was (or wasn't?) enough time to make an evaluation of Cousins, who was entering the prime years of his career, and ultimately decided to pass with the Alex Smith news. So they paid 45 million dollars over TWO seasons to make the determination that Cousins was NOT their guy at QB going forward? Its fucking mind boggling. Even if they decided that he was their guy, he would be demanding 30 million dollars a year, over at least 4 years (at least 80 million guaranteed), after just receiving 45 million in straight salary the previous two seasons. Both situations are worse than just taking a flier on a guy that showed something and just paid him his fucking 17 million dollars over 3 years he initially asked for. If they would of done that they would have saved over 16 million dollars, and reversed the leverage on Cousins as the team hasnt really made any noise in 3 years with him as the starter and he wouldnt be commanding such a high number in his negotiations for a new contract.

And if he did, THEN they could hit him with the franchise tag. Thats how its supposed to fucking work.

edit: In contrast the 49ers only relinquished a 2nd round pick (which they could most definitely afford given their draft stockpile) in order to secure the rights to offer a franchise type QB a huge contract, which they then did, avoiding franchise tag hell, avoiding the bad mojo it creates as the player feels wanted and secure long term, and will end up being a bargain if Garoppolo plays well the next few years..

The only reason I can see them trying to tag him is to see if they could trade him for something. Who the hell would want to pay the franchise tag for a one year rental AND give away whatever the Redskins want in a trade which I imagine would be at least a 2nd rounder.

I imagine players probably see the Redskins as a bad employer. I bet you most players look at Cousins and think hes a baller, yet see that Washington doesn't pay their guys who perform. Plus I bet a lot of FAs factor in stability of the team in their decisions - I wonder how many more players the Redskins could have lured to Washington if they had already signed Cousins to a long term deal.

They basically put their franchise into a holding pattern for the last 3 years because they didn't want to gamble on a big contract early on with Cousins.

Redskins have at least won a Super Bowl. Fuck 'em.

jooka said:

Sounds like the Broncos will be taking a look at him.

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Yeah, that's the rumor. Hope it isn't true, honestly.

Jozu said:

The Redskins are fucking retarded for franchising cousins twice. After they tabbed him to be the starter once RG3 was done, his agent offered terms of 18 million a year for 3 years.

Snyder said no, hit him with the franchise tag a couple times and paid him 45 million over 2 years instead.

Now will pay Alex Smith 18 million a year going forward....LOL.

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The story isn't that the agent offered those terms, its that Cousins wanted a deal around that. The Redskins didn't quite go that high supposedly, but his agent eventually convinced him to bet on himself and not sign a deal like that to just take the franchise tags, knowing he would eventually cash out big.

Believe me, if you go to the Broncos sub on reddit, it's either Cousins or draft Mayfield if he's there at 5.

I'm in the get Cousins camp. Do I think he's elite? No. Do I think he has what it takes to get Denver back into contention. Hell yes. After the last few QB draft picks that Elway has got, I am not confident that he can be objective enough to do so. He's great at evaluating defensive talent, but has been pretty hit or miss on offensive talent. And with our coaching staff (namely Joseph), I don't trust them to draft and develop a QB. With Cousins, he has the experience and talent in place already. McCarron is an unproved commodity, which is why I personally don't want him.

Houston Texans to release linebacker Brian Cushing

Oh happy day.

The QB market is going to end up hitting its apex, and then take a plunge, just like the stock market. Right now, there is no time better to be a QB in the NFL. The dearth of talent, the disappearance of fullbacks and diminished use of runners in general and the evolving free agent market and salary cap rules have pushed the value of QB's through the roof.

After Sam Bradford was drafted and got a bunch of guaranteed money the league changed the rules on rookie contracts and it altered the way teams approached the draft and moved the numbers on contracts. Fast forward to 2018 and now a guy like Kirk Cousins is worth 35 million dollars a year. After the 2019 season, there is going to be a leveling out of QB contracts and value on the position in general, due to many incoming prospects, the retirement of current great veteran QBs (Brady, Brees, Rivers, Roethlisberger, Manning etc) and perhaps rule changes and owners and GMS complaining about the inflated market.

You figure by 2021 Aaron Rodgers is going to be getting close to 40, Matt Ryan is going to be on the wrong side of 30, Cam Newton will be over 30 and probably beat up and no longer the same player, the guys I just mentioned will have retired and there will be only a few guys on massive contracts. There is no way this trend continues and replacement evel QBs will be making 28 million a year and stars 45 million. Eventually it has to reverse itself. The running back will make a return, defenses will get a huge rule change boost, something is going to happen.

I think the good teams are just going to implement systems that play to their QB strengths. See Philly and Minnesota. They had fucking Case Keenum in fringe MVP discussions.

Bill Polian is trash.

Bill Polian has a bad opinion about Lamar Jackson (again!)

Might help explain why McDaniels bailed out last minute.