Looks Like Someone Has a Sixpack of the Mondays

Every week, we turn the comments section of the Sixpack into a podcast segment on The Audible, Hogs Haven's "house show" and official Redskins podcast. Thanks in advance for joining the conversation, and for throwing us your thoughts and ideas. We try to keep this part of our show short and sweet, but we go through as much of your commentary as we can. This week, I am calling out ih8 to provide us with our alternate reality idea. More on that below.

1. So, the Kirk Cousins contract negotiation has caused my house to remain in a "Code: Brown" situation, but as we press on, I have grown more and more comfortable. I don't think for one second that McLovin is going to blow this one. I don't think Kirk Cousins and his agent are going to blow this one. The franchise tag remains available, but I don't believe it is the optimal solution for either side. The Redskins can manage their salary cap situation much better with a long-term deal, and Cousins can guarantee himself more money by agreeing to a deal. As I have said on The Audible, Kirk is not worth more to anyone else than he is to us--or at least shouldn't be. The team and the locker room belong to #8, but this works to the advantage of both sides. The Redskins want to be sure to keep their leader in the fold, and Kirk likely doesn't have "win over a brand new bunch of guys from scratch" at the top of his wish list. I remain confident this gets done, and I continue to be in the 5-year, $90 million camp. Tim represents the voice of, "Let him play on the tag for a year and prove he is the guy" on The Audible, and I know many of you out there feel the same way. For my part, I argue this: Kirk Cousins is kind of the poster boy for "players you choose to invest in." You draft a guy, develop him, give him a shot and watch his game take off. Is he Joe Montana? Not today...maybe not ever, but he presents a chance to solidify this position unlike any chance we have had in a long, long time. This time, the opportunity is rooted in actual on-the-field play, as opposed to it being all about how much we paid to bring him here. We simply can't build a team around the "idea" of a quarterback. We need an actual player that allows McLovin to turn his attention to the rest of the roster. I continue to argue that Kirk Cousins can be the reason this team is great without needing to be great himself.

2. Speaking of those other areas of the roster, I wrote last week that mock drafts continue to send the Redskins defensive linemen. I think many of us have gotten used to seeing the best defensive linemen go in the top ten players drafted, leaving us to wonder if it would be a reach to grab this kind of player in the bottom third of the first round. But wait! Mike Mayock says that "...there are 10-12 interior defensive linemen who could have first-round grades from some teams." This is starting to all make sense! It is beginning to look and sound like this draft is far more loaded on defense than offense. You could make the argument that we should try and grab one of the top offensive players if it is a shallow pool, or you could agree with me that our defense needs help and we just might be able to land a player at #21 that can play at a high level for our team for a decade on the defensive line. As much as I want that top center prospect, I would be willing to prioritize the defense in this draft.

3. As we play the Armchair GM game, led by our very own HogHunter, we see that most folks assume we will create salary cap space by jettisoning guys like Chris Culliver and Dashon Goldson. It remains unknown if a deal for Terrance Knighton can be worked out (I think this decision is very much wrapped up in McLovin's first round draft choice decision). Even after paying Kirk Cousins, we will have money to spend, and given these three potential departures, it stands to reason that we will target a defensive free agent (or two...or five). Which one do you have your heart set on today? Mine is:

4. Danny Trevathan, the inside linebacker for the Denver Broncos. He may become available simply because the Super Bowl champs will have too many players to pay. After Malik Jackson, Brock Osweiler and Brandon Marshall (the defensive player) get paid (my speculation), Trevathan could be the odd man out looking for a new home. Other teams will have money to burn (I heard the Jacksonville Jaguars might have the most free salary cap space...ever), but I am confident in McLovin's ability to bring in signature linebacker pieces on defense. Trevathan is 25 years old and his play trended up through the playoffs and Super Bowl. I read that he is in line for a contract in the 5-year, $30 million range. Both Mychal Kendricks and Karlos Dansby signed contracts in recent seasons that pay them roughly $3 million guaranteed per year, which means Trevathan would be looking at about $15 million guaranteed in this scenario. Given that one would expect there to be multiple teams vying for his services, my guess is that this will translate into a better deal for the player than the one we expect. This is the kind of piece I expect McLovin to add this offseason.

5. Congratulations to Joe Gibbs and Joe Gibbs Racing, as they took down the Daytona 500 this weekend. I think I read that Joe's team last won this race in 1993, which is quite the drought--as we all know. On The Audible last week, HogHunter's proposed alternate reality centered around Joe Gibbs' group winning the bidding for the Redskins instead of Dan Snyder. It was clear we all believed that the fortunes of this franchise would have been different under a Joe Gibbs regime. I am sure NASCAR fans that follow JGR's drivers would wholeheartedly agree.

6. I like the alternate reality segment we are doing now on The Audible, which features somebody throwing out a single changed decision from the not-so-distant past. I think that ih8 is up this week to make the pick. Remember, you can only change a single decision--you can't go back and right a bunch of wrongs--and then we get to decide what the butterfly effect of that change is and what that would have meant. Feel free to get that conversation rolling in the comments section so that we can agree or disagree with you by name. This is your show, and it only gets more fun as more people join the conversation. I know I could always live to regret it, but I would love to know what scarlet_epiderm would have us debate, assuming he is willing to invest 15-20 minutes of listening to the resulting audio (which, by the way, contains zero mock drafts...soooooo, pretty much his wheelhouse).