Daniel Jeremiah of NFL Media joined The Mighty 1090 AM in San Diego and discussed the possibility of Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins ending up with the San Francisco 49ers. Cousins is a strong candidate to receive the franchise tag from Washington for the second year in a row, which would guarantee the quarterback $23.94 million in 2017.
While the franchise tag would entitle Washington to two first-round draft picks should any team attempt to sign Cousins away, interested parties could still negotiate a trade for less. Of course, you have to wonder how much compensation Washington would want in return for the quarterback and any interested team would still have to feel comfortable about their chances of signing Cousins to a long-term contract.
Jeremiah believes that a deal between Washington and San Francisco could take place at the NFL Scouting Combine, which kicks off next week. The Combine is often the place where initial trade talks begin since most head coaches and general managers from each team are present.
"Keep an eye on Kirk Cousins and Washington," Jeremiah said. "That could be the first domino to fall. I don't think they're going be able to get a long-term deal done and I think there's a greater than 50-percent chance that he's not with the Redskins next year. You've got the Combine coming up. All these teams will be together. I would not be shocked at all if we saw Kirk Cousins to San Francisco trade go down at that point in time and now you've got the dominos really starting to fall."
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Jeremiah went on to discuss Washington's point of view regarding a future with Cousins. "From what I hear, they're not – in the building – totally 100-percent sold on Kirk to give him the money that he could get. I don't think they come to a long-term deal and I don't think they can really afford to franchise him next year for a third year. So the feeling is, 'If we're going to move on, we need to get something in exchange for him.' And San Francisco would seem like the likely landing spot there.
"So, we'll see what happens. If they believe in Colt McCoy, like some people believe they do, they make that trade, they end up with the second pick in the draft. Might have to part with their own pick – number 17 – but they could end up with the second pick in the draft and then they have to decide if they want to draft one of these kids or whether you go with Colt McCoy and just go with somebody else at that spot."
You can listen to the entire interview on The Mighty 1090 AM.
Another option, assuming the 49ers cannot agree to a deal to acquire Cousins this year, would be to wait until 2018 when they might be able to sign him as a free agent. Of course, the 49ers would need to compete with other quarterback-needy teams. The franchise tag for a third straight year would be far too expensive for Washington. However, they could still apply the transition tag at the cost of nearly $29 million. They would then have the ability to at least match any competing offer that Cousins receives from other clubs.
(h/t to Patrick Tulini for the find)