“Honestly, I think it was just the contract offers that the team had offered, they just didn’t make sense, just doing the math, they just didn’t make sense,” Cousins said. “If they had offered a lot more guaranteed money, then maybe it would have been tempting, but when the guaranteed money wasn’t very high, I felt like I’m pretty much gonna bet on myself either way so I might as well just play on the tag and see what happens. And here we are, it feels like déjà vu, I’m answering the same questions I was a year ago. But I guess it makes for an exciting offseason, and it’ll be interesting to see where we land. I’m wondering, too.”

It’s clear now that the Redskins made a mistake by not signing Cousins to a long-term deal in the $18 million to $20 million per year range last summer. Cousins made nearly $20 million under the franchise tag last season and would be owed nearly $24 million in 2017 if the Redskins use the franchise tag on him again and the two sides don’t work out a long-term deal. After breaking several of his own single-season franchise records in 2016, Cousins has the leverage in contract negotiations and he won’t accept a hometown discount.

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“I think the first big date is March 1, because that’s when the Redskins can choose to franchise tag me or not, and based on what they do, I’ll play off of them,” Cousins said of how he’s approaching the offseason. “But it’s hard to really look past that, because you feel like that kind of sets up the rest of the road. But wherever I am, I’m excited about the opportunity to play and compete. And every year I’ve played, I feel like there’s been continuous improvement in a lot of areas, so I’m excited to take another step forward in 2017 and hopefully be here this weekend playing and not doing interviews with you guys.”

Evans asked Cousins if he has talked to Redskins Coach Jay Gruden about the expectations of him if he is back as Washington’s quarterback in 2017.

“Sure, and I think I felt expectations in ’16 from ’15, on myself,” Cousins said. “I think that I noticed, boy, after playing well, especially at the end of ’15, I kind of expected that out of myself week in and week out, almost unrealistically. You’re not gonna play perfect and throw for 400 yards every week; you just take it one week at a time. So, I’ve learned to just kind of go about it. Even the best quarterbacks have some down weeks, and to not be too hard on yourself. But there’s no doubt: When you start to command a larger portion of the salary cap, you need to contribute and provide a return on that investment.”