Quarterback Shuffle

One quarterback move was decided before the final game of the National Football League's season.

There could be a couple more before the 2018 season begins.

The first domino to fall was the Washington Redskins making a trade for Alex Smith, which effectively ended their relationship with Kirk Cousins.

Washington still has the option to slap the franchise tag on Cousins for third straight year and then attempt to trade him that way, so the team would get something back for paying him more than 43 million dollars over the last two seasons.

If the Redskins franchise tag Cousins again, that contract is going to be more than 23 million dollars, which is what he received from his franchise tag during the 2017 season. The Redskins would then have to find a suitable trade that would give them back players or draft picks and take a majority of Cousins salary from the franchise tag.

Washington should swallow its pride and let Cousins go. The Redskins already made the decision to go with Smith and what's going to be the compensation that other teams are going to be willing to give up on a one-year deal for more than 20 million dollars.

Now if Washington decides to let Cousins walk, there are plenty of suitors looking for his talents. That list could include the Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos or Jacksonville Jaguars. Two of those three teams reached their respective conference championship games.

After Cousins decides where to play, the next quarterback that could be on the move and rightfully so is Super Bowl 52 MVP Nick Foles. The Philadelphia Eagles backup quarterback could garner plenty of interest from around the league and that could be very enticing. Foles also has one year left on his contract, but it's around seven million dollars.

Foles could be a patchwork solution, but he would have to enter the right circumstances to be as successful as he was with the Eagles.

In all likelihood, the Eagles will probably listen to trade offers for Foles, but unless it's an out-of-this-world offer, he's going to stay as the backup for Philadelphia.

Case Keenum, who tossed the 61-yard game-winning touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs as the Minnesota Vikings defeated the New Orleans Saints on the final play of the contest in a NFC Divisional playoff game, could sign with the Vikings. All three quarterbacks that took snaps for Minnesota in 2017 are all free agents — Sam Bradford, Teddy Bridgewater and Keenum.

The Vikings will need to make a decision at quarterback whether they want to bring back Keenum, Bradford or Bridgewater, but they could also attempt to land a different agent signal caller like Cousins.

Yet, the final questions for many teams will be answered the night of the NFL Draft on April 26. There are four quarterbacks projected to go in the first round — Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen, Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen. Three of those four quarterbacks are projected to go to teams that don't have a veteran quarterback. The odd man out is, Darnold, is projected to be selected by the New York Giants, who still have two-time Super Bowl winner Eli Manning as their quarterback, with the second overall pick.

It's likely that one of the four rookie quarterback will start at some point in time during the 2018 season. Those destinations for rookie quarterbacks would eliminate possible contenders for the likes of Cousins or possibly Foles.

Jimmy Garoppolo signed a gigantic deal with the San Francisco 49ers. Drew Brees should rightly sign with the New Orleans Saints for another run at another Super Bowl.