A really smart lawyer once said that “all contracts are negotiable,” and he wasn’t wrong. But the Washington Redskins have a limited amount of negotiation to do when it comes to Kirk Cousins and, yet, they don’t seem to really grasp it.

That’s because, according to a report from both Mike Jones and Master Tesfatsion of the Washington Post, the Redskins haven’t extended a new offer to Cousins recently, sticking with the same contract they offered him back in February before they applied the franchise tag.

This comes on the heels of The MMQB’s Albert Breer reporting that the Redskins had offered Cousins a five-year extension on top of the current franchise tag he’s set to play under. So in totality it would be a six-year deal, with average annual salary and amount guaranteed not yet known.

In fact, Redskins president Bruce Allen told Breer that the team sees Cousins as a franchise quarterback and has “offered him a contract” commensurate with that designation.

“Well, since we’ve offered him a contract around that length, I’d say yes we do,” Allen said. “He has gotten better the last three years, and we see him getting better in the future, and that’s why we do want to sign him long-term. We like his role as our quarterback and our leader, we just have to work that out.

“We talked last year, we didn’t get it done long-term. We have him signed for this year, and an option for next year. But our goal is to get a long-term deal.”

The “option” for 2018 is not a great one, because it would ultimately be a one-year, roughly $34.5 million fully guaranteed contract, a 44 percent raise from his 2017 franchise tag. Even if the Redskins used the transition tag in 2018, they would still have handed Cousins more than $70 million in guaranteed money over three years with no long-term opportunity to keep him. 

And that’s the problem with the negotiations that are going on. The Redskins have to offer Cousins a deal that, at bare minimum, features $53 million in guaranteed money, because that’s how much Cousins will make from them over the next two years if he refuses to sign a contract and just plays out the string.

Put another way: Kirk Cousins has all of the leverage here and the Redskins have none of it. 

This has been obvious for months, if not longer -- our own Joel Corry detailed back in December exactly why Cousins was set to become the highest-paid player in the NFL. CBS Sports NFL Insider Jason La Canfora reported another tag was coming in November.

Think about this: Eli Manning had $54 million in his new contract guaranteed at signing. Andrew Luck and Joe Flacco are next up at $44 million. Cousins has almost equaled Eli’s guarantee without an actual contract. 

If he signs a long-term deal in Washington -- and there are reports that he’s hesitant to do so -- he is absolutely going to maximize the amount of guaranteed money that the Redskins give him. They can’t even think about offering a deal that features anything less than $60 million guaranteed, and the number might need to be higher.

Why would Cousins take two years’ worth of guaranteed money, which he’s already getting regardless, and tack on a couple of free years for the Redskins just because they asked for them? He won’t. 

The two sides appear to be remarkably far apart, and the Redskins don’t appear to understand where they sit in these negotiations.