A GOLD RUSH IN MY CLOSET!
Why we have all just become closet
49ers fans for the 2017 NFL season
Written by: Mica Haney #comehailaway
Well...here we are. It is now Monday, July 17th, otherwise known as deadline day, and by all reports it seems, no shred of a chance that there was ever going to be an 11th hour deadline deal for the Washington Redskins and Kirk Cousins.
So how did it come to this? How do we find ourselves once again, found wanting for a LTD with our affable QB, Kirk Cousins? Surely there are articles abound, scratching at any semblance of reasoning as to why this has come to pass. Everything from your usual Snyder/Allen/Front-Office hazing, conspiratorial gobbledygook...all the way to the canned, company-line interview responses (and after today we can include scantily-clad letters addressed to weak-minded Johns, searching for love in all the wrong places) we’ve been fed all throughout this process.

All have attempted in futility to glean a semblance of truth or purpose to what has been unfolding before our eyes and I, for one am simply exhausted at the mere mention of any of it. I can only imagine how tired everyone else in Redskins Nation must be from all this rampant speculation and fecal smearing we’ve all been forced to endure.
What’s next? How do we, as fans, move onto this impending 2017 NFL season with all this weight on our shoulders? What does this season even mean with all that’s hanging over this franchise, and how can we process all this confusion, and frustration, and narrative from the National, and local medias into a constructive season?
You see, for me this season could easily be about hating Kirk, or hating our Front Office, or being mad at something that i haphazardly postulated in my head after reading a bunch of conspiracy theories. I could easily fall into despair…”OMG...there it is...the other shoe has dropped! The Redskins will never be good under Snyder! My 2017 is over….why even watch...blahblahblah!” I’ve also made it pretty well known in all of my circles that i absolutely abhor losing quality players for nothing. So with that very real possibility looming in this Kirk Cousins situation I find myself, instead, rather at peace.
Frustrated? Yes.
Confused? Check.
Maybe even a bit angry at everyone for not being able to come to terms on a LTD? Of fucking course.

Yet...i can’t help but feel that everything isn’t even relatively close to being as bad as they are being made out to be.
Could some of this be a bit of rose-colored, homer glasses? Perhaps...as I am just a fan after all and, as such, I am a bit fine-tuned towards diving in dumpsters looking for positives. For small (ever smaller as a Redskins fan) glimmers of hope to which we can cling to and keep our chests held high, and our Hail as strong as ever. Although, as a die-hard Redskins fan, this has become no easy task. With the constant media barrage of negative narratives, we currently bathe in this cesspool of anti-positivity that borders on the masochistic.
How can we possibly find peace in all of this?
Well, I’m going to attempt to help you out with that.
First, we need to put aside what we may think is happening and get behind our team...especially our QB. So we need to become Kirk Cousins fans, despite opinions, and try once again to woo him over to our team...recruit him, if you will. We need to hope that he has a great, nay, a FANTASTIC! season. I mean that we need to see him take all the last, necessary steps that push him into “elite” status simply because what we don’t want is more hand-wringing over what his value is, or isn’t. My hope specifically here, is that he not only earns the deal he desperately seeks, but that he ends the conversation as to whether he deserves it. This way the conversation becomes exclusively about whether or not we are willing to pay him what he deserves.
Next, we need to all become SF 49ers fans for 2017 (:shudder:), or…….hope they are so incredibly bad that a) going there isn’t such a great option after all?, & b) they have to decide on whether they want to pay for Kirk Cousins with $$$$ + high draft picks, or just draft one of the dynamic QB’s in this upcoming collegiate class.
If the 49ers play well, and do so with either Hoyer, or their young draft pick CJ Beathard taking the helm at some point during the 2017 season, then this may significantly limit their interest in signing Kirk next year. And hey, crazier things have happened. There are several instances of random QB’s suddenly catching fire. Additionally...the 49ers playing well essentially plays them out of a valuable draft pick, making for a more simplified and reasonable trade to execute between the two sides if it should come to that. In the end, I feel pretty good about at least getting some good bagels in return.
This is the main thing I am rooting for this year. If the writing truly is on the wall, and Kirk Cousins sincerely already has 1 foot out the door, then I want to get something, anything in return. Bonus points if it's multiple picks that help us move up several spots in the 2018 NFL Draft. In this...the worst-case scenario of the two I am proposing, we wind up with an additional mid-late 2018 1st round pick to go with at least another 2018 early round pick. Sure, we lose Kirk Cousins, but we allow ourselves the ability to move up into the earlier parts of the 2018 1st round. Arguably the best QB draft class in a long time.
This is perfectly fine for this lowly, Redskins obsessed, nine-to-five working (Los) Angelino who just wants to see us make good football-based decisions, and who loathes the 49ers nearly as much as I loathe the Cowboys. This would give Gruden a QB of his choosing, to groom into the helm of a team he has been building for 3 years. It sets us up nicely for a potential Seahawks/Russell situation where Gruden can potentially install his young QB of choice into a team that has been long on the upward trend.
Not to be forgotten in all of this is that the Redskins are staring at around $54m in cap room next season with plenty of players to sign/resign. However, if you add paying Captain Kirk at around $27m p/yr…that number goes all the way down to a paltry $27m.
Makes it a little difficult to resign guys like Terrell Pryor, Brandon Scherff, or Zach Brown, to name a few off the tip of the iceberg for the impending 2018 offseason. Yet, if you take KC out of the equation, suddenly having $54m off the books with only really needing to make significant improvements at the QB position (assuming you resign the aforementioned) doesn’t sound so bad. Heck, it’s basically been proven that you can grab a decent QB in FA or the draft, plug him into a well oiled machine, and viola….you have a perennial contender. So no, i’m not all that worried...so long as a lot of these cookies crumble just-so.
Of course, this is all easier if the 49ers have a catastrophic season and land the #1 spot in the 2018 Draft. Not simply because they would have the #1 selection, but because it really sets 2 things in stone...as long as KC balls out in 2017. 1) As stated above...the market would get set on KC with very little to discuss numerically. 2) The 49ers then become victims to their own ineptitude. Fan pressure to go get KC would be astronomical in SF, while KC would have to seriously consider how well everything is going in his current situation (especially those sack numbers), and weigh that against how poorly the SF 49ers are playing. Never mind for the moment that it will be an absolute bloodbath for the media and fans in SF as all sides go HAM at each other with rampant daily arguments about whether they should bother to spend that much on KC when they can just draft Sam Darnold, or whoever is the next G.O.A.T. #1 draft pick to be. At the end of the day, it would dictate that we should be set up nicely to recoup some losses……..unless we decide to do the unconscionable and just let him walk for nothing.
Finally, we need to get past this as a fan base, and more importantly, as a franchise. What all of us really need to be rooting for is success on the field. We’re all sick, and tired of constantly being dragged through the mud. The butt of all NFL media jokes. Consistently disrespected, or dismissed entirely to where you could play a drinking game throughout any given day of NFL coverage based on the negative things the media will say today about the Redskins.
How do we do that?
We root, and cheer with all our might!
To coin a phrase from my newly minted favorite Anime: “Go beyond, PLUS ULTRA!!!” We bring back those “YOU LIKE THAT?!” chants, and “OOOOOO-WEEEEEE!” and fall in love with our team again for another season and watch as they start to figure it out as a team. Enjoy as we overcome our obstacles week to week. Keep an eye on the young talent being built throughout the ranks, and the progression of our young leaders. Remain passionately vigilant in your Hail for this season as we continue along this progression to reclaim relevance in the NFL. But most importantly we must WIN. And win A LOT! For if we can somehow doggie-paddle through this quagmire into a successful winning season and into a deep playoff run, then a lot...if not all of this, just goes away like some lightly spilled covfefe, and we can all get back to focusing on football for the next howevermany years.
I think what I mean to say is:
Hail to the Redskins
Hail victory
Braves on the warpath
Fight for ol’ DC!
