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Kirk Cousins’ days with the Washington Redskins are basically over after the team declined to franchise tag him for a third straight year, allowing him to hit free agency this offseason. According to one of Cousins’ soon-to-be-ex-Redskins teammates, leaving might have been what the quarterback wanted all along.
Veteran safety DeAngelo Hall says the team didn’t feel Cousins was entirely committed to being in Washington last season following back-to-back years of failing to get a long-term deal done.
“We kind of felt like the commitment wasn’t there from Kirk,” Hall said Tuesday on ESPN, per Scott Allen of the Washington Post. “We obviously wanted Kirk. We franchised him because we wanted him there. It was up to ownership and the front office to kind of work those numbers out. They couldn’t get the numbers worked out, so he signed franchise tags those two football seasons. Everybody in that locker room was behind Kirk, wanted him there, but we wanted to feel like he wanted to be there as well.”
While Hall wasn’t convinced of Cousins’ commitment, he did say in a later appearance on another show that he didn’t believe Cousins’ contract situation affected his play on the field. However, he did think Cousins could have played with a bit more confidence if he had the security of a long-term deal.
Hall also revealed that some of the rumors he and the rest of the Redskins players heard about the offers Cousins received gave him the sense that Cousins might have been looking to go elsewhere. But he maintains that Cousins never outwardly expressed those feelings to the team and that he was “nothing but a professional” in the locker room.
If Cousins really did want to finally move on from Washington, he’s got his wish. And chances are he’ll get paid a lot of money by his next team. As for Hall and the Redskins, they get to move on with Alex Smith, who will likely be glad to be where he’s wanted after he was traded away from Kansas City.
