I have to apologize. By first reviewing the terrible front offices of the Atlanta Falcons, Miami Dolphins, and Las Vegas Raiders I may have given the impression that they were the worst decision-making franchises in the NFL. That is simply not true. Far and away, and beyond any shadow of a doubt, that title belongs to the Cleveland Browns. Their crown was cemented last week when they fired their 2x Coach of the Year, retained their long-time bozo GM, and the owner gave a laughable speech where he claimed to take “responsibility” for the state of the team. What does that even mean? Anyway, let’s stroll through the roster and cap sheet to see how screwed they are, shall we?
The Mess
The story of the Cleveland Browns begins and ends with Deshaun Watson. It used to be fun to debate the worst trades or contracts in sports, but not only did this disaster move everyone to 2nd place, it makes you upset for Browns fans. On March 18, 2022 they traded three 1st round picks (2022, 2023, 2024), a 3rd, and two 4ths to the Texans for Watson then gave him a fully guaranteed 5/$230m contract. That would have been crazy had he been a pristine asset, but this was right after the deluge of sexual assault allegations! To call him poison would have made strychnine blush. Houston was screwed. Then in came the Browns salivating at the opportunity to take this toxicity off their plate. They didn’t seem to even acknowledge that he had diminished value.1 With all the assets they shelled out, the team was left bereft of young talent for years.
The bad negotiating didn’t end there either. Watson’s agent needs to be given some kind of medal for what he did (assuming they give out medals in hell…which they probably do). Despite his client surely headed for a lengthy unpaid extension he was able to bilk the Browns into the fully guaranteed contract mentioned above. That’s crazy enough, but the contract was designed to make sure the suspension had minimal effect on Watson’s earnings. How? The first season was given a minimum salary with a $46m signing bonus. The league can fine you your salary in the form of game checks, but not your bonus. That means Watson got about 97% of his 2022 cash up front and only lost a few hundred K from his 11-game ban. This also killed the Browns down the line by annhilating cap flexibility. That takes us to now…
2026 is finally the last year of his contract and what do the Browns have on their hands? An $80m cap hit. Yikes! To cut him means $131m in dead cap (remember that signing bonus? Well, they restructured him too and that money needs to be accounted for). Yup, that means there is $51m in cap hanging out in 2027 that needs to be reckoned with. It’s brutal. Restructuring him now means only $45m in cap hit this year, but $89m next year that has no where to go. Insanity!
So, what can they do? They should just grin and bear it for another year with the two massive cap hits on the books. That way they can fully reset as soon as possible. If they don’t want to wait, lol, they might decide to extend him just to spread his cap hit out some more. Technically, they could give him 1 year and then cut him after June 1 in order to get an extra year to spread that $51m, but they would need to give him something to agree to this. After all, he wouldn’t benefit from the arrangement otherwise. There are not many good options.
The Cap
The Browns are already over the cap next season by $24m with a ton of void contracts coming up. David Njoku has a $24m dead cap, Joel Bitonio is at $23.5m, and Wyatt Teller is at $10m. We haven’t even gotten to Denzel Ward and his $33m cap hit. At least Ward can be restructured or traded, but probably not for much value.
With the QB and roster situations the way they are, this is not a situation where they can cap-magic their way out of it either. They can become compliant, but moving too much money forward would be counterproductive. They simply need to wait it out another year.
The goal this offseason should be to accumulate as many draft picks as possible and not worry too much about the on-field product. This is not just some obvious tanking ploy, it is a clean slate. Even with Watson’s cap hits, the Browns are projected to have well over $100m in cap room for 2027. Sorry Browns fans, there will be no summer in 2026.
Who Is in Charge?
Claiming “responsibility” was an interesting term of art for owner Jimmy Haslam. Why? Well, two reasons. First, Haslam has made it his signature business move to not take responsibility for anything bad. When his company was forced to pay $92m in restitution for bilking truck drivers of rebates, Haslam largely skated with no penalty. Two years ago, he was accused of bribing executives to inflate the value of his Pilot Flying J company that he was selling to Berkshire Hathaway. Currently, he is attempting to strong arm Cleveland into a new tax payer funded stadium by threatening to move the team (of which these particular fans are uniquely sensitive). Second, it is widely assumed that he was the one who forced the team into Watson mess. He likely demanded that his GM acquire Watson at all costs. Unfortunately, that really meant ALL costs. ALL OF THEM. No GM in their right mind would have made that trade and kept their job.
Andrew Berry came from the Eagles in 2020 and still has the GM job in Cleveland. Considering all of the above, that is remarkable. Literally the only explanation is that he is the heat shield for Haslam’s meddling. Not that he has done some immaculate job aside from the Watson maneuver though. In his first draft, he famously took OT Jedrick Wills over future 3x All Pro Tristan Wirfs. Until 2025, there were no success stories to speak of.
This is the brain trust currently in charge of finding a new coach for the Browns and bringing them back from the NFL’s dead. Yikes!
Is There a Light at the End of the Tunnel?
Maybe! The Browns just went 5-12, brutally winning its final two games that saw its bid for the #1 pick turn into the #6 selection. However, in terms of draft capital, they are in good shape thanks to a remarkably dumb trade by the Jags last year. This gave the Browns the 28th pick along with #39 and #70. This is especially good considering last year’s draft was their most productive since…ummm…damn they are bad at this. Anyway, Mason Graham, Carson Schwesinger, Quinshon Judkins, and Harold Fannin all seem like starters in the league. Of course, they also drafted Shedeur Sanders. We’ll get to him.
They have two things going for them right now: they drafted well last year and have a big asset to trade. Obviously, I am talking about Myles Garrett. Despite all the hubbub about him wanting to stay in Cleveland, his contract was designed to be moved. Before anyone cries about the single season sack leader leaving the fans with nothing, take him for what he is, an unneeded ticket back to respectability. A team like the Browns has no need for a 30-year-old pass rusher. Even if everything goes right, they won’t be good again for at least 3 years. Trade him now, get 2-3 first round picks, and live damnit!!! It would be best for everyone involved. Unfortunately, the powers that be might not want to do this.
Sanders should get the keys to the castle next season without much debate. There is simply no downside in doing so. There are no QBs worth drafting at #6 this year and the team is in such cap and talent hell that there are no expectations. Why not give him a chance. The worst case scenario is that he is terrible and the team gets a high draft pick. If he succeeds, then that is obviously a huge win and the Browns would finally have some momentum going into the future.
Salary cap and individual contract numbers courtesy of Spotrac and Overthecap
- How did the negotiation even go down? Did the Texans start even higher then say FINAL OFFER? Did the Browns drop this offer from the start then had to wait for Texans GM Nick Casairo to regain consciousness to accept? It’s astonishingly bad business. ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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