You all know by the now the saga that is going on between the Washington Redskins and Kirk Cousins. If not, then please come out from under your rock and I will catch you up. Kirk Cousins the franchise QB of the Redskins. Yes, I said franchise. He is in the market for a new contract. Oh, somewhere in the area of $125-$130 million. However, the team has been reluctant to give him that. He has earned it. Many say he is greedy. Cousins is just playing his cards. Nevertheless, there is no one here to blame except the Washington Redskins.
This saga did not start in 2016. That was when the Redskins placed the first franchise tag on Cousins. This saga started back in 2012 when the Redskins selected two QBs in the same draft.
Now, do not get me wrong, I loved the 2012 season and RG3. However, things did not feel right for me after watching the play of Kirk Cousins in the preseason. Many wanted to speculate that it was because he was playing against the third and fourth string. That simply was not the case. Mike Shanahan knew what he was doing when he drafted Cousins.
We then again saw more writing on the wall later in the 2012 season. RG3 gets hurt against the Ravens and Cousins leads us to victory in overtime. One of the best defenses in the league that year. The following week he destroys the Cleveland Browns. You can see that the Shanahans (Mike and Kyle) did not want to go back to Robert Griffin III. Reluctantly they did.
He then reinjures the knee in the playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks. I believe that Shanahan wanted to turn to Kirk Cousins. But Daniel Snyder’s golden boy would not allow it. He was afraid of losing his spot.
The same happened again in 2013. The “All in for Week One,” drama was not good for the team. We had seen the writing on the wall. Cousins should have started week one against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football. Robert was not ready from to return from the injury.
What I am getting at here is there has been discontention from the beginning with the front office and Kirk Cousins. They loved RG3. They did not love Kirk. However, the Shanahan’s loved Cousins. They did what they did with RG3 for Snyder. Not because it is how they wanted to run the team.
You saw, even more, disrespect after the Shanahan regime was let go. They still tried forcing the hand of the head coach to play Danny’s Golden Boy.
So as you can see, this drama did not just begin in the past two season with contract talk. It did not begin with Cousins feeling he was low balled. It began back in 2012 when he was selected. He himself knew he was coming into a bad situation.
Honestly, I think 2017 may be the last we see Kirk Cousins in burgundy and gold. Disrespect is a huge feeling when it comes to sports. It really gives you that feeling of not being wanted. Often when you are finally wanted, it is too late. Such is the fate of the Washington Redskins.