Kirk Cousins would gladly play for another so-so team if his current so-so team doesn’t want him

The impending breakup between Kirk Cousins and the Washington football team has been churning the rumor mill all spring. He likes playing in Washington, and Washington likes him ... but not enough to invest in a long-term deal on par with what starting quarterbacks are used to getting in the NFL.

The latest turn in this saga has it that, per ESPN, Cousins would only accept a trade to the San Francisco 49ers, a team coached by his former offensive coordinator and more recent Super Bowl pariah, Kyle Shanahan. A later report said Cousins was open to other teams.

Washington is reportedly all set to use the franchise tag on Cousins again this year, paying him $24 million fully guaranteed for one year of work for the second year in a row. According to the fuzzy math used by Washington, that would be two years with nearly $45 million fully guaranteed for a quarterback they’re not willing to give a long-term deal to.

At last check, Washington had probably already scuttled its chances of coming to terms on a new deal with Cousins. That may not be quite true. These kind of leaks are a pretty good sign that there’s some negotiations going on behind the scenes. How productive those are is another matter entirely.

The most likely outcome here is that Washington tags Cousins, and he plays one more year on the deal before bolting. Another option for this year to keep an eye on is a tag and trade scenario where Washington tags him, agrees to a swap for picks and/or players, and Cousins’ new team hammers out a long-term deal.

That might actually be a better option for Washington, the tag and trade. If they’re not content enough to commit long-term, they might as well try and get something for him and get a head start on their quarterback search. This isn’t a bad year to be in need of a quarterback, especially a veteran bridge kind of guy. With names like Jay Cutler and, dare I suggest it, Tony Romo expected to hit the market, Washington could glom onto one of those guys long enough to draft and develop the next one.

They could also take any draft picks a Cousins trade yielded and flip those for someone like, say, Jimmy Garoppolo. But, come on, the most enjoyable part about this little thought exercise is imagining Romo in burgundy and gold.

Stephen White and I talked about the Cousins/Washington circus on the Family Hour podcast last week, too.

Teams and player reps will all be in Indianapolis this week, so you can expect even more Kirk Cousins rumors in the days ahead. Fun!