Browns sit out first wave of free agent pass rushers and big price tags

A lot of pass rushers made a lot of absurd money on Monday

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The first day of NFL free agency, popularly known as the legal tampering period, ended without a lot of activity from the Cleveland Browns. GM Andrew Berry and the Browns made a huge move in agreeing to terms with safety John Johnson, but that’s the only player incoming after the first day.

The Browns still need a pass rusher to line up opposite Myles Garrett, a position many expected Cleveland to address prominently in free agency. That didn’t happen on the first day, a time where there was a spending frenzy on pass rushers around the league.

Some of the deals are crazy money, contracts that the Browns are smart to not compete with or dole out. A couple of prominently mentioned potential targets for Cleveland wound up getting much more money from other teams than the Browns would rationally spend.

Take Trey Hendrickson. The Saints standout is heading to Cincinnati for $60 million over four years. That’s a massive amount of money for a player with 20 sacks in four seasons. More than half–13.5 to be exact–came in his contract season while playing almost exclusively in passing situations.

Would Hendrickson help the Browns? Absolutely. But at that price tag? That would cut into any potential Baker Mayfield extension, or other ways the team must spend to keep the core of the emerging young contender intact.

Hendrickson replaces Carl Lawson in Cincinnati. Lawson would have looked great in a Brown uniform, no doubt about it. But he’s getting P-A-I-D by the Jets,

A $15 million per year deal to be the No. 2 to Garrett in Cleveland simply isn’t a feasible option, not long-term anyway. It’s hard to justify paying that much for a second fiddle. Someone who can command that kind of contract isn’t likely to handle being a second fiddle too long, either.

There were several big deals to pass rushers on Monday:

Olivier Vernon had to take a pay cut to stick with Cleveland last offseason and it worked out for both sides, fortunately. Expect the Browns to have learned from that experience that the top-tier salary isn’t needed to get the kind of pass-rush production and level of all-around play that Vernon capably provided in 2020.

The Browns have shown major interest in guys like Jadeveon Clowney and J.J. Watt during the Berry reign at GM. Clowney is still out there a year after he failed to notch a single sack; hopefully that infatuation has faded.

The market should settle now. Fewer teams need starters at the position, and the amount of teams who can pay for the top remaining guys is also much lower than it was at the beginning of the legal tampering period. The remaining names aren’t premium players, but it seems the Browns are fine not paying two premium defensive ends. Among those still left who can help the Browns:

  • Takkarist McKinley
  • Tarell Basham
  • Haason Reddick
  • Carlos Dunlap

There’s also the draft next month, and the Browns sit in a range in the first round where they should be able to land an instant starter at EDGE, if they so choose. It’s not time to panic–it’s one day after all–and Berry and the Browns are savvy enough and patient enough to let the market come to them.