[mredskins]

Originally Posted by kingj

From ESPN:

Moneymaker of the Year

Winner: Kirk Cousins, Washington. For the player who raised his stock more than anybody else in football this season. Cousins came into the year as a quarterback prone to fits of giveaways that eroded virtually all of his value as a passer. After adjusting for era, Cousins threw interceptions more frequently than anybody else in NFL history heading into this season.

And then, somehow, after posting four two-interception games during the first six weeks of the year, Cousins simply stopped throwing picks. Ever since launching Washington's comeback win over Tampa Bay in the now-famous "You like that!?" game, Cousins has been a different quarterback altogether. Split his career across that game and you can see the staggering change:

Before And After "You Like That!?"
SPLITCMPATTCMP%YDSY/ATTTDINTPASS RTQBR
Before YLT39163561.6%4,4507.0242777.545.6
After YLT22831572.4%2,7468.7233119.179.8
Before the season, if Cousins had played at his previous level, he would have been in line to receive money commensurate with the Brian Hoyers of the world, something in the $5-6 million per year range on a two-year deal with the first year guaranteed. Let's say $6.5 million guaranteed. That's not bad whatsoever, but it's a relatively low ceiling, and Cousins' path to playing time likely would have been for a franchise like Cleveland.

Now? Given how well Cousins has played over the past two months, it's almost impossible to imagine Washington letting him go, given how limited their options are at quarterback elsewhere. That leaves Cousins with enormous amounts of leverage, which should allow him to extract a very meaningful deal. It wouldn't be out of the question for Washington to cut Robert Griffin III and use the $16.1 million cap hold assigned to RG III to franchise Cousins, which would guarantee Cousins something in the $19 million range for one year.

If Washington somehow let him test free agency, Cousins could very well be the best free-agent quarterback option available since Drew Brees in a market full of potential suitors. Let's just pick a team as an example. The Browns could get to $31 million in cap space with a few obvious moves. We don't know what their GM will do, but could Cleveland really resist offering Cousins $50 million guaranteed as part of a deal resembling the Jay Cutler contract? And if Washington knows that the Browns are that desperate, can they make Cousins a similarly-impressive offer to stay in town? It's possible that the league might decide to collectively pass and make Cousins prove that he can do this again, but it's more plausible that he settles for -- at minimum -- the franchise tag. That's an awful nice raise for a guy who was third on the depth chart this time last year.

Remember that last year? I think Jay did that knowing he could reshape Kurt. He just needed to prove to everyone that RGIII was not worth the time and give Kurt time to heal. Alot of Kurt success has to go to Jay who put his neck out for him.

That was a ballz move but it paid off. Great job Jay.