It’s not the salary-cap hit that matters most when it comes to quarterback Kirk Cousins' future contract. Rather, it’ll be the space it occupies on the Washington Redskins' cap (or whatever team he ends up with).
The cap is projected to be around $168 million; the Redskins' adjusted cap space, thanks to the unused portion they can carry over from last year, is expected to be around $183 million. As of now, they have $64 million in available cap space.
If the Redskins place the franchise tag on Cousins again, he’d count $23.