What It Means:

Washington is committed to Alex Smith as their starting quarterback after trading for him, but are looking at the tag Cousins in order to trade him to a quarterback-needy team of their choice for picks. The hitches in this plan are that Cousins would need to sign his franchise tender before Washington could make a trade (which he could put off for weeks or months while still counting against their salary cap), the $34.5 million price tag may make some teams wary of a swap, and Washington would also lose out on a 2019 compensatory pick. Ultimately, Cousins should hit the open market.

Cousins turned in the 20th-most Passing Net Expected Points (NEP) per drop back among the 35 quarterbacks to top 200 drop backs in 2017. His 0.06 Passing NEP per drop back was the lowest mark of his career since 2013.