Tag: Browns salary cap

2021 Browns offseason: Cap hits for all contracted players

The 45 Browns under contract from highest to lowest cap hit for 2021

The Cleveland Browns currently have 45 players under contract for the 2021 season. While the salary cap is yet to be determined, it is expected to be above the floor set prior to last season of $175 million. Most estimates peg the cap to be at least $199 million, though that is unofficial.

The 45 players on the Browns roster carry a total 2021 cap commitment of $179.8 million with salaries and guaranteed bonuses. Here is how they break down, from the highest cap obligation to the lowest.

All cap figures are taken from Spotrac.com and may be rounded up

Browns carry 2nd-most salary cap room into the 2020 season

GM Andrew Berry has the Browns in good shape on the salary cap front

The Cleveland Browns are in one of the best positions in the NFL in terms of salary cap management. New GM Andrew Berry and his team have the Browns in a fiscally responsible and forward-looking state entering Week 1 of the 2020 NFL season.

Per Spotrac, the Browns have $34,567,177 in salary cap room as of Tuesday morning. That factors in all the cuts and waiver wire additions and subtractions over the weekend.

Only the New England Patriots have more cap room. The overhauled Patriots have just over $36 million by Spotrac’s calculations. The Jacksonville Jaguars are the only other team with more than $30 million in available cap room entering Week 1. The Saints, Rams and Ravens all have less than $1 million at their disposal.

Having all that cap room doesn’t mean Berry can go sign players willy-nilly. Expect the Browns to carry over a significant portion of the cap room in order to re-sign key players like Myles Garrett and Kareem Hunt, as well as to protect against a possible decline in the total salary cap due to COVID-19 issues.

[lawrence-related id=51901]

Browns carry the most salary cap room into the draft

GM Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns carry the most 2020 salary cap room into the draft

Heading into the 2020 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns are in very good shape on the salary cap front. No team has more 2020 cap room available at the kickoff of the draft than the Browns.

Per Field Yates of ESPN, the Browns top the list with over $37 million in available cap room. That figure is over $8 million higher than the second team on the list, the Detroit Lions.

It’s a sign that new GM Andrew Berry and his regime have not gone hog-wild splurging on big-ticket free agents. The abundant cap room gives the Browns some flexibility to acquire high-priced veterans in trades, if they choose that path.

With Myles Garrett and Kareem Hunt among the many key players who will need new contracts in the next year or two, it’s important for Berry and the Browns to remain prudent. But it’s still nice to have the cap space to help bolster the roster in ways several other teams cannot.

Browns still rank very high in available 2020 salary cap room

Browns still rank very high in available 2020 salary cap room, either 1st or 3rd depending on the source

Even after signing several free agent additions to the roster, Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns still have ample salary cap room available. Big-ticket talents like Jack Conklin and Austin Hooper put a dent in the cap figure, no doubt. But the Browns still have quite a bit of 2020 cap room.

According to Field Yates of ESPN, the Browns sit third as of Monday in terms of cap room availability for the 2020 season. Only the Houston Texans and New York Jets have more than the roughly $43 million Cleveland holds after signing Andrew Billings over the weekend.

From Yates’ Twitter feed:

Cap resource Over The Cap pegs the Browns with about $1.5 million less. However, their calculations indicate the Browns currently have the most cap space.

The discrepancy comes from the contracts that are estimated versus those that have been made official by the NFL.

Chris Hubbard’s smart restructure changes the fan prism on the Browns OT

Chris Hubbard’s smart restructure changes the fan prism on the Browns OT

Chris Hubbard has spent the last few months as a persona non grata amongst Cleveland Browns fans. His disappointing play in his first two seasons as the Browns’ right tackle led to many calling for his head.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way for Hubbard or the team. Flashback to 2018 when then-GM John Dorsey triumphantly lured Hubbard to Cleveland from the rival Pittsburgh Steelers to solve the problem at right tackle. Hubbard signed for $37.5 million over five years, with $18 million fully guaranteed.

Hubbard has not come close to being worth the free agent outlay. He ranked 45th at tackle in Pro Football Focus pass blocking efficiency in 2019, one spot lower than in 2018. Only Kolton Miller allowed more QB hurries over those two seasons.

Fans let him know about it. Comment sections and social media that mentioned Hubbard were brutal towards him.

The Browns smartly signed Jack Conklin, the best right tackle on the free agent market, to replace Hubbard in the starting lineup. That move has been well-received around the league.

Instead of jettisoning Hubbard and completely depleting the depth at tackle, the Browns and new GM Andrew Berry gave Hubbard a shot at redemption. They restructured his contract to keep him at a reasonable cost for an experienced backup.

By and large, the reaction to keeping Hubbard around proves it wasn’t personal. Fans appreciate his willingness to stay where he has not been welcome. His play is commensurate with a top swing tackle, the same role he played quite capably in Pittsburgh.

The prism of public opinion now reflects the team dynamic. Hubbard is well-liked in the locker room, known as a hard worker and a positive influence. That can come in very handy with a rookie manning left tackle, as well as uncertainty at right guard. Hubbard himself could fit in there, too. The optimism surrounding the now-suitably compensated Hubbard and the lowered expectations for his ability is a stark change from earlier this offseason.

Austin Hooper: Breaking down his contract details with the Browns

Austin Hooper: Breaking down his free agent contract details with the Browns

The Cleveland Browns have agreed to make Austin Hooper the highest-paid tight end in NFL history. We now know the details of the contract for the former Atlanta Falcon and what it took to lure Hooper to Cleveland.

Per Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle, one of the best resources for this sort of information, the deal is indeed for the reported four years and $42 million. His numbers mesh with the info at Spotrac on how the deal is structured.

A full $23 million, over 50 percent, is guaranteed at signing. That includes a $10 million signing bonus that gets prorated equally over each of the four seasons.

Hooper will earn a 2020 salary of just $1.5 million, all of which is guaranteed. That base salary goes up to $4.5 million in 2021 and then $9.5 million for each of the final two seasons.

There is a $7 million option bonus in 2021 that gets fully guaranteed on the third day of the league year and will be prorated over the final three seasons for cap purposes. The cap hits in the final two seasons are above $14 million per year, a reflection on the backloaded nature of the deal.

Browns saved over $13 million in cutting 4 players

Browns saved over $13 million in cutting 4 players, including T.J. Carrie and 3 other players signed by ex-GM John Dorsey

Monday’s moves to rid the roster of four players created some significant salary cap room for the Cleveland Browns.

In dumping T.J. Carrie, Demetrius Harris, Eric Kush and Adarius Taylor, the new Browns under GM Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski shed some overpriced veteran legacies from the team. Carrie, Harris and Kush all started at least seven games for the Browns in 2019, but they were John Dorsey signings that didn’t fit with the forward vision of the new team, and certainly didn’t fit for their financial obligations.

Here’s what the Browns saved in 2020 cap room with each player:

T.J. Carrie: $6.35 million

Demetrius Harris: $2.5 million

Eric Kush: $2.1 million

Adarius Taylor: $2.4 million

That adds up to over $13.3 million in cap savings that Berry and Stefanski can use to replace them. Other than Carrie, who projected as the starting slot corner, it shouldn’t be difficult to find less expensive players to fill those roles with even better results.

[lawrence-related id=40106]

Browns carrying just over $5 million in dead cap room into 2020

Cleveland ranks 7th in the league in dead cap obligations

Dead salary cap room is what happens when a team is still obligated to allocate a portion of its cap figure to players no longer on the team. The Cleveland Browns will pay just over $5 million in 2020 salary cap space to players who are now ex-Browns.

It’s the cost of doing business to subtract players, whether via trades or simply cutting ties with the players.

The two biggest dead cap hits come from traded players. Offensive lineman Austin Corbett and running back Duke Johnson account for over half of the dead cap, from bonuses they got as Browns and the team is obligated to count.

  • Austin Corbett $1,773,962
  • Duke Johnson $1,500,000
  • Chris Smith $1,166,668
  • Antonio Callaway $358,928
  • Genard Avery $144,474
  • Donnie Lewis $76,443
  • David Blough $13,337

Several other players count as hits under $10,000 to raise the exact total, per Over The Cap, to $5,087,312 in dead money. That figure ranks seventh in the NFL. The Carolina Panthers carry the most dead money at $15.6 million. Tampa Bay sits with the lowest dead cap figure at just $130,412.