Jets rumored to offer Kirk Cousins $60 million guaranteed in his first year

The New York Jets are willing to do whatever it takes to land free agent quarterback Kirk Cousins, even offering the signal-caller up to $60 million guaranteed in his first year.

On Monday, a report came out stating that the New York Jets will offer “whatever it takes” to land impending free agent quarterback Kirk Cousins as he fields offers around the market. Apparently, this mega-contract is speculated to include up to $60 million in guaranteed money in just the first year of the deal.

From Brian Costello of the New York Post:

One league source speculated the Jets could front-load the contract and offer Cousins $60 million guaranteed in the first year of the contract. That would still leave them with about $30 million in cap space this year and then allow them to build around Cousins with lower cap figures in the remaining years of the contract.

While agents of free agents technically can't start talking to teams until March 12th, two days before the new league year begins, a bidding war is already beginning for the former Washington Redskins signal caller.

There was speculation that Washington might franchise tag Cousins again and attempt to trade him for assets this offseason, but for a number of reasons that the NFL Network's Ian Rapoport laid out, that's unlikely to happen thanks to the leverage Cousins would have.

So far, the Denver Broncos and Jets have shown up the most in rumors for Cousins' services, but a number of other teams are reported to have interest, such as the Cleveland Browns, Arizona Cardinals, and Minnesota Vikings.

Early on, reports stated that Cousins would take the most lucrative offer that comes his way, regardless of which team makes it. That tone has since changed, with a follow-up report claiming that the Michigan State alum's top priority is landing with a franchise that gives him the best opportunity to win.

Kirk Cousins — Jae C. Hong/The Associated Press

If that's the case, it's hard to think that the Browns stand much of a chance in winning Cousins over, and for the Jets to do so, they'll probably have to go to pretty extreme measures, like offering $60 million guaranteed right off the bat.

This bodes well for the Vikings after they came up his one win short of the Super Bowl, but arguments can be made for both the Broncos and Cardinals being a quarterback away from contending again.