Written by Joel Corry at CBSSports.com
Offseason moves are going to take center stage over the coming weeks. NFL teams will attempt to keep their best players headed toward free agency. Most players won’t be in a rush to re-sign, even if remaining with their own teams is the preference. Testing the market becomes more appealing after risking injury and poor performance for an entire season.
The exclusive negotiating rights period that teams have with their impending free agents ends March 7. That’s when NFL teams are allowed to negotiate with the agents of prospective unrestricted free agents during a two-day period ending at 3:59:59 p.m. ET March 9. Players can’t sign deals with new clubs until the 2017 league year and free agency officially begin at 4 p.m. ET. A player’s ability to re-sign with his current club is allowed during this period.
Here’s a look at 10 of the best potential unrestricted free agents (i.e., players with expiring contracts). Some of the players could be taken off the open market by receiving franchise tags before the two-week designation period ends March 1.
Kirk Cousins , QB, Washington Redskins
Good, healthy quarterbacks in their prime are rarely available. Most are given new deals before the start of the season in their contract year. Those that play out their contracts are usually franchised but reach an agreement before the July 15 deadline for franchise players to sign long-term deals.
Cousins bet on himself. He played the 2016 season on a $19.953 million franchise tag after the Redskins were unwilling to sign him to a contract paying him as an above-average starting quarterback. The Redskins had reservations because of his limited track record. Washington’s reported best offer was $16 million per year with $24 million in guarantees.
An improved Cousins shattered the Redskins’ single-season record for passing yards he set in 2015 by throwing for 4,917 yards in 2016. Over the past two seasons, Cousins has been one of the NFL’s most productive quarterbacks statistically. He has completed 68.9 percent of his passes for 9,083 yards with 54 touchdowns and 23 interceptions to post a 99.3 passer rating. Cousins has the NFL’s third-best completion percentage and is fourth in the NFL in passing yards, sixth in passer rating and 12th in touchdown passes since the start of the 2015 season. Surprisingly, Cousins and Tom Brady are the only two quarterbacks to win Player of the Month honors in each of the past two seasons.
Cousins will be looking for a deal in the same ballpark as the five-year extension Andrew Luck received from the Indianapolis Colts last offseason, which reset the NFL pay scale. Luck’s contract averages $24.594 million per year and contains $87 million in guarantees, of which $47 million was fully guaranteed at signing. The Redskins might balk at these numbers after Cousins didn’t play his best football at the end of the season, which helped keep the team out of the postseason after it had controlled its playoff destiny.
A second franchise tag at $23,943,600, a 20 percent increase over Cousins’ 2016 number, could be in order. A tag-and-trade to the 49ers isn’t out of the question. New 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan developed a strong affinity for Cousins while serving as the Redskins’ offensive coordinator during the quarterback’s first two seasons in the NFL.
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