The Facts: The Redskins and Cousins failed to agree on a long-term deal in advance of today's 4 p.m. ET deadline. That means that Cousins will play the 2016 season on the franchise tag salary of $19.95 million, all of it fully guaranteed.
Diehards Line:As CSNMidAtlantic.com notes, this result--or non-result, really--comes as no surprise. It doesn’t appear that the two sides were ever close to an agreement. Ever since Cousins signed the contract tender in early February the narrative has been that Cousins is perfectly happy to play out the season on the tag and the Redskins are perfectly happy to let him do it. The team and the Cousins camp did talk a few times but there never was any meaningful negotiation. The player and the team can talk about an extension that would start in the 2017 season but per the league rules nothing can be signed until the day after the final regular season game of this season. That makes any talk during the season highly unlikely. Cousins will become only the second quarterback to play out the season on the franchise tag; Drew Brees did it with the Chargers in 1995.