Redskins head coach Jay Gruden is almost certainly tired of examining life beyond 2017, especially because there's a real chance the future does not contain twice-franchised quarterback Kirk Cousins.
On Monday, he verbalized those thoughts for what he almost certainly hopes is the last time (but won't be).
"My approach, really: I'm not gonna be concerned about it," Gruden said, via The Washington Post. "I know he's gonna be here this season, and that's all I care about."
Gruden was smart to lock down an extra year on his own contract. The future beyond this year in Washington has the chance to be extremely bleak. An already picked-apart roster losing its franchise quarterback could be devastating. Paying to keep Cousins at an ungodly salary could be just as bad, if not worse (the cost of another franchise tag would put Cousins in the $34 million range per year).
In the absence of some clever maneuvering, Gruden could be staring at the possibility of a rookie quarterback intending to start for the first time in his tenure as a head coach.
For now, it's just dealing with the fatigue. At the moment, this is a question without a concrete answer, which is never fun for a coach to entertain. Gruden tried to shift the focus toward something tangible -- "you're gonna see major growth from him again" -- instead of struggling with the inevitable.
