Redskins tell NFL insider ‘We are not trading Kirk Cousins’ amid a flurry of rumors that he wants to be traded

Mitchell Leff/Getty

It looks like Kirk Cousins is going to be the Washington Redskins quarterback for at least one more season after all.

Despite rumors and speculation that the Redskins would trade Cousins, possibly to the San Francisco 49ers, Adam Schefter’s latest report says that is not going to happen.

According to Schefter, the Redskins have been approached by teams about a possible trade, but they have all been “rebuffed.”

“The Redskins — and let me be very clear on this — have shown zero, zero inclination to trade Kirk Cousins anywhere,” Schefter said on ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike.” “There have been teams that have inquired, and there have been teams that have been rebuffed.”

Schefter took it a step further, saying he spoke directly to the Redskins and that they were emphatic that Cousins was not going to be traded.

“I was talking to the Redskins yesterday and they said, ‘We are not trading Kirk Cousins,'” Schefter said. “The Redskins stance on this is, ‘We. Are. Not. Trading. Kirk Cousins’ … Multiple teams have reached out on Kirk Cousins and multiple teams have been told ‘No.'”

This comes after a report on Tuesday from Mike Silver of the NFL Network saying that he believes Cousins wants to be traded to the 49ers.

According to Chris Mortensen of ESPN, Cousins personally asked owner Dan Gilbert to be traded, but was told not to get his hopes up.

Schefter acknowledged that the Redskins may just be playing coy at this point, but added “you can believe them or not, I tend to believe them right now.”

The Redskins and Cousins have been unable to reach an agreement on a long-term contract and there is nothing to suggest that the two sides have ever even been close. So for the second-straight season, Cousins is expected to play under the franchise tag, which comes with a one-year, $23.9 million contract.

If Cousins remains unsigned next season, the Redskins’ best hope of keeping him without a long-term contract would be a transition tag, which would come with a one-year $28.8 million contract. However, a transition tag opens the door for other teams to offer Cousins a long-term contract, and those teams could structure the deal in a way that makes it impossible for the Redskins to match. Under that scenario, the Redskins would lose Cousins and get nothing in return.

Complicating matters even further is the mysterious absence of general manager Scot McCloughan, who was not at the NFL Combine and reportedly is not currently involved in any roster decisions.

There is still time to actually make a deal, but for now it sounds like Cousins is going to be the Redskins quarterback in 2017.