The door is open. But for the Jets to walk through it, they would have to be prepared to open the vault.
The Redskins’ trade for Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith on Tuesday night all but guarantees Kirk Cousins will play elsewhere next year, but the reported deal Smith received from Washington also reveals what it would take for the signal-caller to make the Jets his next home.
ESPN reported that Smith, four years older than the 29-year-old Cousins, will sign a four-year extension with the Redskins, averaging $23.5 million per year with a stunning $71 million in guaranteed money. And over the past three years, Cousins has been the better player, throwing for more touchdowns, more yards and for a better rating, though his numbers did slip this past season.
The Jets would have to beat out a number of teams to land Cousins, who threw for 4,093 yards and 27 touchdowns last year with 13 interceptions. The Broncos, Browns, Cardinals, Bills and Jaguars are expected to be in the market for a quarterback, and Broncos All-Pro defensive end Von Miller said Wednesday, “We need Kirk.” The Jets are expected to have around $100 million of salary-cap space.
The question, of course, is how much of that money will the Jets need to pony up to land the franchise quarterback they have been lacking for so long?
Under the franchise tag, Cousins made $23.9 million this past season and $19.9 million the year before. He will obviously be looking for more than that. The highest-paid player in the league right now is Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, who signed a five-year, $135 million contract with $60 million guaranteed. Second on the list is Raiders quarterback David Carr, who doesn’t quite match Stafford’s $27 million average, with a five-year, $125 million extension signed last summer that included $40 million fully guaranteed.
That is the type of deal the Jets will need to offer if they want to end their quarterback troubles.