If the Jets want Kirk Cousins in free agency, they have one selling point.
The Redskins quarterback raved about Jets new offensive coordinator Jeremy Bates in a WFAN interview on Tuesday. Bates worked under Mike Shanahan with the Broncos and later Shanahan drafted Cousins for the Redskins. Both call a similar variation of the West Coast offense.
“They are great football minds and I’ve been very fortunate to have one good coach after the other,” Cousins said from radio row in Minneapolis. “Jeremy Bates does come for that coaching tree, if you will.”
Cousins said he met Bates in 2012 when Bates was tutoring Jay Cutler as the Bears’ quarterback coach. Bates held the same position with the Jets last season, but was promoted earlier this month after Todd Bowles let go offensive coordinator John Morton.
“I liked him then,” Cousins said. “He talked about football and that’s what matters to him. It was a smart hire by the Jets.”
Cousins has been in free-agency limbo the past two seasons with the Redskins’ franchise-tagging him a year at a time. It’s unclear if Washington plans on doing that again, moving on from Cousins or trying to sign him to a long-term deal. The 29-year-old has thrown for more than 4,000 yards each of the past three seasons since becoming the full-time starter.
The Jets have around $100 million in available cap space and the desperate need for a franchise quarterback.
“It’s a tough market, but if I make it about the media, I’ve got bigger problems,” Cousins said of New York. “… I like to think I have some experience dealing with a big media market.”
Cousins, who is under contract with the Redskins until March 6, could not elaborate further on his free-agency plans.