Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins has no qualms about playing on a year-to-year contract, one day after the deadline passed for franchise-tagged players to sign long-term deals.
Cousins, who will make $23.9m (£18.35m) this season, and the Redskins cannot negotiate a long-term deal until the season ends by virtue of being unable to come to an agreement by Monday's deadline.
The 28-year-old says he wants to see how Washington progresses this season before committing himself long term.
"There have been a lot of changes in our organisation since the end of last season," Cousins said on Tuesday.
"I want to allow time to help make this decision. I believe wisdom is never impatient, and so I think it's smart to slow the process down, and to be patient and to allow things to play themselves out, to gather more information. I want to make the best decision I can.
"Being that in most NFL situations, this is the only year that's promised to us anyways, I don't feel a whole lot of extra security by having a long-term deal. So the one-year deal didn't really scare me."
After the deadline, Redskins president Bruce Allen delivered a statement that said the team offered Cousins a contract which would have made him the second-highest paid player in the NFL.
"On May 2, right after the draft, we made Kirk an offer that included the highest fully guaranteed amount upon signing for a quarterback in NFL history [$53m] and guaranteed a total of $72m for injury," Allen said.
"The deal would have made him at least the second-highest-paid player by average per year in NFL history. But despite our repeated attempts, we have not received any offer from Kirk's agent this year.
"Kirk has made it clear that he prefers to play on a year-to-year basis. While we would have liked to work out a long-term contract before this season, we accept his decision."
