"At the end of the day, they're the ones that placed the franchise tag on him," McCartney said. "A player, when his contract is up, looks forward to going to free agency to see what his value is on the open market. This is the second straight year that's been taken away from Kirk, so the Redskins did say something about, 'Hey, this guy is worth $24 million.'
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18807650/agent-kirk-cousins-says-exclusive-franchise-tag-washington-redskins-positive