Written by Joel Corey at CBS Sports.com
Signings leading up to the start of the regular season took players that would have been highly sought after in free agency or franchise tag candidates off the market. Most notably, Matthew Stafford reset the quarterback market when the Lions signed him to five-year, $135 million contract extension with an NFL record $92 million of overall guarantees during the preseason. His $50 million signing bonus is the largest ever for an NFL player. The $60.5 million fully guaranteed at signing is also an NFL record.
DeAndre Hopkins helped advance the ball for wide receivers by setting new standards for pass catchers with $49 million in overall guarantees and $36.5 million fully guaranteed at signing. His five-year, $81 million extension from the Texans ranks second only to Antonio Brown (Steelers) with a $16.2 million average yearly salary.
Contract-year players that escape serious injury and poor performance in the final year of their deals could see increased attention or riches in free agency with the salary cap expected to continue increasing in 2018 at the roughly 8 percent rate it has been in recent years. This type of growth should put next year’s cap in the $180 million range and keep producing deals during the first wave of free agency where good players are paid like elite players at their position and average players are overpaid.
Here are 15 players to keep an eye on during their contract year.
Cousins, who was designated as a franchise player for a second straight year, is playing the 2017 season for a fully guaranteed $23.9 million because he declined a Redskins offer reportedly worth $133 million over six years. This offer contained $72 million in overall guarantees, of which $53 million was fully guaranteed at signing. Under franchise tag rules, the Redskins are prohibited from signing Cousins to a multi-year contract until the end of the 2017 regular season on December 31.
Absent a long-term deal before the 2018 league year begins on March 14, Cousins will likely become an unrestricted free agent next offseason because of the high price of restricting him again. Although Redskins president Bruce Allen has indicated that designating Cousins as a franchise player in 2018 for a third and final time at almost $34.5 million is a possibility, it seems implausible, due to the steep cost. Another option is using a transition tag for $28.7 million, which would only give the Redskins a right to match another team’s offer sheet.
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