By John Sarianides

Kirk Cousins and the Washington Redskins failed to come to terms on a new contract before Monday’s deadline for players on the franchise tag to sign new contracts. That  means Cousins will play under the franchise tag this season and potentially hit the open market next spring. The only way he doesn’t hit the market next Spring is if the Redskins franchise him again or place the transitional tag on him. 

I think Cousins is done in D.C. The only chance the Redskins had at retaining him long term was if they could sign him to an extension while he was still on the team. Now that he is slated to hit the open market in 2018, there will be no less than six teams vying for his services.

The 49ers, Browns, Jags, Bills, Jets and Rams will all be in the Cousins sweepstakes and there could be other teams as well. All of these teams should have plenty of cap space to pay Cousins. In fact, there is a good chance Cousins becomes the highest paid quarterback in the league next off-season. He would either get that money from the Redskins to the tune of $34.5 million or get similar money from another team. 

Is Cousins worth $30 plus million dollars a season? No. But the NFL is a quarterback driven league. If you have won, you have a shot to compete for a title. If you don’t have one, you have no chance. 

I find it interesting that all of a sudden Redskins owner Daniel Snyder is fiscally conservative. He used to throw money around like the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort. Now that it is time to pay his quarterback, Synder has morphed into Ebenezer Scrooge. 

It is because of Synder’s tight wad ways that the Redskins could lose the closest thing they have had to a franchise quarterback in D.C since Joe Theismann. The Redskins need to stop fooling around and get something done with Cousins. You know the old adage. You play with fire, you get burned. The Redskins are playing with fire and they are about to get burned.