The Cleveland Browns have a lot of talent on their roster going into 2021. They are well situated with young veterans leading the way but a bevy of players on rookie contracts to balance out the roster.
Some of those players on rookie contracts will be looking for extensions that can make keeping a team together difficult.
NFL.com just put out their look at constructing the best team possible from all the players around the NFL while still staying within the salary cap. An interesting exercise that values both talent and contracts in unique ways.
A few of the rules that they used to start the piece:
- The team consists of 53 roster spots, observing the NFL’s in-season standard.
- The salary cap is set at $182.5 million, this season’s non-adjusted maximum for NFL teams.
- Roster spots for players on rookie contracts are capped at 24 (with no more than four players drafted from each of Rounds 1-3 and 12 total from Rounds 4-7), with some exceptions: I was allowed to “trade down” for a player (i.e. use a second-round slot on a third-round player). Plus, this limit does not apply to undrafted rookie contracts, and players on fifth-year options also do not count toward the rookie contract limit. I did not select any 2021 rookies.
Not surprisingly, Patrick Mahomes and Aaron Donald were the two biggest names added to the list. Mahomes is a steal with a cap number under $8 million at this point but still has the second high cap number on the offensive side of the ball. Donald’s cap hit is over $14 million and is the highest of the entire roster.
The Browns have two players making the team as starters. Myles Garrett is not a surprise despite his cap number of over $9 million. All in all, the defensive line was the most expensive part of this made-up roster and Garrett has the third-highest cap number among the group.
The Browns second starter is Wyatt Teller. The team’s starting right guard was competing for that spot one year ago but had one of the best years for a guard in 2020. His cap number is just over $2 million for this season and is a bargain for the quality of play he showed in 2020.
Nick Chubb is noted multiple times as a player that was difficult to leave off the list. Some of that was due to the rule limitations noted in the piece and above. New safety John Johnson III was the only other Cleveland player listed under consideration.