Cousins hit the market as a productive quarterback, coming off three straight 4,000-yard passing seasons with the Redskins, in the prime of his career, at age 29. He was free of major injuries. His previous team, the Redskins, had failed to sign him to a long-term contract extension, instead using two franchise tags to keep him off the free-agent market in 2016 and 2017 at a combined cost of approximately $44 million. Rather than franchise-tag him for a third straight year at a cost of about $34.5 million, the Redskins made an early move during Super Bowl week to line up a trade for Cousins' replacement, Alex Smith, and opted against taking the risky maneuver of franchise-tagging him to try to trade him.