I was reading an article that Cousins will likely become the highest paid player in the history of the NFL. I dunno, if I’m the Re@$!ns, maybe it’s not dumb to just walk away from that.
It's not dumb to walk away. They botched this two years ago when, supposedly, Cousins was willing to sign long term to a decent deal. They wanted him to prove it, but once you play under the tag, the built in raises give a qb little incentive to sign for less that the tag. It's taken a few years to play out, but I'd argue that once he played one season under the tag, the Redskins' options shrank to parting with Cousins or drastically overpaying him. We've never seen what a healthy good young quarterback is worth on the open market because no team has been incompetent enough to let it get to this point (the closest was Breese, but his shoulder probably limited how much he got).
I don't hate the trade because I think they should have kept Kirk or because I dislike Smith, I hate it because it seems like they traded long term assets to be mediocre instead of bad in the short term. If they wanted to trade Fuller, I'd prefer they get picks than a QB who probably won't be here the next time the team is good
