AP

Washington put the franchise tag on quarterback Kirk Cousins not because he’s worth $19.9 million, but because the talks toward a long-term extension had “broken off.”

Unless they didn’t.

Either way, they’re apparently mended, as team president Bruce Allen said they expected to resume talks with Cousins’ agent now that free agency had settled down a bit.

“We thought the best thing to do was the franchise tag,” Allen said. “It made it clear where we stood with him and we had told his agents that’s what we were going to do.

“As soon as free agency dies down a little bit, I’m sure his agent will engage us again in talks.”

Of course, that ignores the fact that he may never have to begin with, but what’s a little semantics when we’re talking about nearly $20 million for a guy who has played well for half a season.

Cousins has already signed the tag, so that money is guaranteed and they have until July 15 to do a long-term deal. And now that it’s signed, it becomes the baseline for negotiations moving forward, and the Brock Osweiler deal didn’t do anything to change that.

“Well I don’t know if it is getting silly,” Allen said when asked about the market. “The good quarterbacks deserve the money and I’m sure there are some performers in the league who are watching this and thinking they might be entitled to a raise or two. But, . . . you can’t win in this league unless your quarterback plays well.”

Psst, Bruce, it was already silly. And you giving $20 million to a guy with an 11-14 record as a starter contributed to that.