Kirk Cousins To Cowboys Dak: 'The Franchise Tag Is Your ($69 Million) Friend'
FRISCO - Kirk Cousins showed that the franchise tag can "be a friend.'' And that's the advise he's given to Dak Prescott.
"I believe the franchise tag can be your friend,” Cousins said on ESPN on Thursday. “I don’t think it’s something to be disappointed with. I think it enables you to be well-compensated, and deservedly so, for the upcoming season. Then, I always say the cream will rise to the top. If you’re good enough, the cream’s going to rise to the top, and you’re going to get compensated the way you want to.''
Cousins would know. as the QB for the Washington Redskins, he played under the franchise tag twice, in 2016 and again in 2017, before bolting for the Minnesota Vikings in free agency in 2018.
Once he got to the Vikings, he got a three-year, $84 million deal - and the whole package was fully-guaranteed. But for those two tagged years in Washington? Those were also fully-guaranteed, in the separate seasons, he made $20 mil and $24 mil simply by accepting the tag and not negotiating a new deal.
If Dak followed that same path? He'd get the guaranteed $31.409 million for 2020, and should he be tagged again in 2021? The CBA dictates that a twice-tagged player receive a 120-percent bump, meaning Prescott's second tag would pay him $37.7 million.
That's a two-year total of $69 million. So yes, you can imagine Dallas would rather pay him $35 million APY (the five-year offer on the table that we've reported also includes more than $106 million guaranteed) than to pay him a tagged average of $34.5 million and have contractual control for just two years.
COO Stephen Jones recently told us, "Dak is the quarterback of our franchise now, and for many years to come. We’ve gotta get his contract - we’ve gotta get over that hurdle. But we’ll do it. It’ll ultimately get done.”
But, as Cousins of Prescott, who has until July 15 to forge the long-term deal: "Sometimes it doesn’t happen as quickly as you would like, but if you deserve it, and you’ve earned it, it’s going to happen. So you’ve just got to stay the course and stay patient. Certainly in my journey, it all worked out. I wouldn’t go back and change a thing.''
Indeed, now that Cousins has signed a two-year extension in Minnesota, he'll be tacking on $66 million more to his so-far $100 million career earnings.
"So,'' Cousins said, "my message to Dak, when I saw him midseason last year (in a Vikings win at Dallas), was, ‘Hey, whatever happens, don’t be afraid of the tag. It can be your friend, and you can use it to your advantage.'”
