Pachyderm Kirk

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January 8, 2018

Lets talk about the biggest elephant in the room – can a deal with Kirk Cousins get done?  We’ve done a lot of stories over the years about it here.  Steve’s written some exhaustive stuff about what the value for the deal should be in the past read the latest from this past offseason here.

Two things came up over the last few days that are worth talking about: Kirk’s two hour Q&A with fans on this past Friday, and the recent comments by Jay Gruden that he wants the team to get a deal done.  It seems like, from my perspective, that Kirk is a lot more open this year to staying with the team on a long-term basis than he was last season.  From what he said publicly, the loss of McVay last year was a big reason he didn’t want to re-sign.  It could all be posturing sure.  I would hope that if he’s being sincere, that he will see that the lost of his close friend at offensive coordinator was not the end of the world.

Gruden likewise has said publicly that he wants a long term deal done for Cousins, and if it’s not long term the team’s best move would be to let Kirk move on to another team. Not that anyone should have expected him to say something different, but if you’re thinking big picture, the coach’s comments make a lot of sense. After all, Gruden has 3 years left on his deal, and as a offensive minded coach he deserves to know who his QB will be for those years.

If the team locks Kirk up, the staff knows him and can build a roster around what Kirk does best.  They can find him a deep threat to open things up for Doctson and Crowder and go forward as an offense.  If the Redskins do (whether by choice or because they get outbid) move on to a new guy, they will need years to figure out that player, his strengths and weaknesses, and build around him, and all that’s just assuming they find the right guy their first try. If you give the team a new rookie quarterback, odds are he is going to need to be given all 3 seasons to coach the kid up into a NFL caliber QB, as most guys take time to get to that point at the quarterback position. Does the front office have the patience for that?  The ones that get it right their first season are the exception, not the rule.

That’s really what the whole discussion comes down to.  At some level you have two totally separate debates about the quarterback and about building the roster. Are we as a fanbase willing to go through another couple years of rebuilding the QB position, which would most likely cause another couple years of losing seasons? I can’t answer for you – let us know what you think in the comment section below.

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