LISTEN: Should Jets Offer Cousins $60M Guaranteed In 1st Year? 'The Afternoon Drive' Discusses.
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Would the Jets be crazy to offer Kirk Cousins a contract that would guarantee him $60 million in the first year?
The possibility was floated in a New York Post article by Brian Costello this week and received a strong reaction Tuesday from WFAN's "The Afternoon Drive With Carlin, Maggie and Bart."
"I am firmly -- firmly -- in the camp of the Jets trying to get somebody at quarterback that they can win now with, and this makes a lot of sense from the player's standpoint," Chris Carlin said. "The one thing you cannot do ... if you're (Jets general manager) Mike Maccagnan is go and hand over $60 million in the first year. There's even some talk about the contract being almost fully guaranteed. Think about that for a second, for a guy that we legitimately went through last week and is, at best, middle of the pack in the league."
Bart Scott agreed with that sentiment, saying the soon-to-be ex-Redskin is, at best, the 14th-best quarterback in the NFL right now, in his opinion.
Maggie Gray cautioned that now is the time of the year when misinformation tends to get feed to the media by teams or agents.
Costello joined "The Afternoon Drive" a little later in the show and clarified that the $60 million idea was speculation from one league source and was more to underscore the point that the Jets, who are expected to have more than $90 million in available salary cap space this offseason, can get creative with an offer for Cousins.
"I don't think the Jets would do that," Costello, also WFAN's Jets beat reporter, said of the $60 million guaranteed in Year 1. "The person I talked to said they could do that, and if they really wanted to go out and blow Kirk Cousins away, they have the cap space to do that.
"I think it's very unlikely. It would be out of character for Mike Maccagnan. It would be out of character for the Jets."
MORE: Keidel: Cousins Not Answer For Jets' Decadeslong QB Search
An ESPN report Monday said the Jets are willing to pay "whatever it takes" to land Cousins. Costello said he, too, believes Gang Green is determined to pursue the QB, but he doesn't think the Jets will get into a crazy bidding war for him.
"(49ers quarterback Jimmy) Garoppolo got $27.5 million (a year), so start there," Costello said. "A lot of people think Cousins will probably get somewhere around there or $30 million a year. If it gets north of there, the Jets might bail out. I think they probably have financial parameters set. Maccagnan is usually a pretty judicious guy when it comes to free agency."