Back in 2017, the Washington Football Team was trying to figure out what their future would be with quarterback Kirk Cousins.
The organization placed him on the franchise tag for the second year in a row after failing to sign him long term, but trading the quarterback was another route they could have gone.
At the time, the San Francisco 49ers were rumored to be interested in Cousins and could have given up the No. 2 overall pick in that year's draft to acquire the quarterback.
Jay Gruden, the head coach of the team at that time, believes that Washington could have gotten much more in return for Cousins, including a 2018 first-round pick and possibly two second rounders as well, but thinks that the front office held back because it did not want to make a trade with former Washington offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.
"Obviously, dealing with the Shanahans was something that they did not want to do," Gruden said on "The Kevin Sheehan Show" podcast on Sunday. "I don't think they could stomach having Kirk Cousins be successful for Kyle Shanahan. I think that was probably, in my opinion, that's probably why they didn't want to do it with San Francisco. And I think there was still some hope that we could re-sign him. I think they really thought — Dan [Snyder] and Bruce [Allen] really thought — that we could get something done with Kirk. In the back of their minds, there was probably another main reason. You never really see Dan losing players because of money. That's never been an issue. Unfortunately, it was more about the money with Kirk and he went elsewhere."
Of course, Washington did not reach a long-term deal with Cousins and he eventually signed with the Minnesota Vikings on a fully guaranteed three-year, $84 million deal in March 2018. Washington traded for Alex Smith that same offseason.
Washington was awarded a third-round compensatory pick in 2019 for Cousins departing his team in free agency, which Gruden categorized as the biggest mistake the franchise made during his tenure.
"I don't know what exactly we could have gotten [from the 49ers], but I know it would have been more than just one No. 1 pick," Gruden said. "I would imagine we could have gotten their No. 1 for two years, for at least two years, and maybe a couple of No. 2s, in my opinion. You're talking about a $100 million quarterback. You're talking about a starting quarterback for your franchise for the next 5-10 years.
"...For us to walk out of there when you have a hot commodity like that with just a third-round supplemental pick was – I think that's the biggest mistake, or the biggest thing we missed in my tenure there, is not maximizing the return for a starting caliber quarterback."
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Gruden was asked if the front office and ownership was being too petty.
"You can't be stubborn," he said. "You gotta do whatever it takes to make your team better. If that's sending a player to an organization that you don't like or maybe even a rival, then you have to bite the bullet and make the team better. Like I said before, it may have had nothing to do with the Shanahans and everything to do with, maybe we could re-sign Kirk. Obviously, we didn't get him signed and got nothing for him."
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