After the trade of Myles Garrett, cornerback Denzel Ward is the longest-tenured player on the Browns.
Can you believe that?
The pride of Macedonia and Nordonia High School enters his ninth season with his hometown team. He turned 29 in April.
Sadly, his days with the Browns are numbered.
“Change is commonplace in the NFL,” GM Andrew Berry said when explaining the trade of Garrett last week. “Roster turnover is commonplace.”
Berry has been remaking the Browns’ roster the past two seasons. The unspoken goal is to build a playoff-contending team to take into Jimmy Haslam’s $2.3 billion covered stadium in Brook Park in 2029.
The trade of Garrett signified the makeover is in full force. The next two major players to go are Deshaun Watson and Ward.
Watson’s exit after the 2026 season was secured by a procedural contract modification that necessitates termination of four void years by the second day of the 2027 year, so that $86 million in dead salary cap charges – the result of five successive years of salary-to-bonus conversions to reduce his cap numbers — can be divided over the 2027 and 2028 seasons. He and the Browns know there is no reasonable pathway to co-existence after this season.
Ward’s eventual departure is less defined.
Ward has no guaranteed money left in the $100.5 million contract extension he signed in 2022 that runs through 2027. His cap number of $30.9 million this season is second on the team to Watson’s $40.9 million. His cap number in 2027 is $29.9 million.
Ward remains one of the league’s best cornerbacks and now – with Garrett’s departure – the team’s best player. But his value to the team can also be viewed another way. He is the last best trade chip Berry has to play.
Denzel Ward’s place among the Browns’ best cornerbacks of the modern era
Player Seasons Years Games Starts INT Pro Bowls
Hanford Dixon 1981-89 9 131 128 26 3
Frank Minnifield 1984-92 9 122 113 20 4
Denzel Ward 2018-25 8 110 107 18 5
Joe Haden 2010-15 7 90 89 19 2
For the first time in his Browns career, Ward did not participate in the team’s voluntary offseason program. It was not the result of dissatisfaction with his contract or the state of transition his team is in.
“Denzel’s been great throughout the offseason,” Berry said. “His communication’s been good. He’s a big part of the team, and we like him a lot. He’s still playing at a really high level. That doesn’t change with this [Garrett] transaction.”
Like Garrett, Ward’s career timeline simply does not fit with the timeline of Berry’s rebuild. In other words, when the Browns are good again, Ward will be a descending player over the age of 30.
Unlike Garrett, however, Ward will not ask for a trade or have his agent facilitate one.
“I definitely still want to be here,” Ward said over the weekend at his celebrity softball game. “Myles is a good friend of mine, a great teammate, but things aren’t lost. It’s still Ohio against the world. People can doubt us, but we’re going out there still to try to play our best ball and bring wins to this city.
“I could get traded, but I don’t look too much into that stuff. It’s the nature of the game. Say, I do get traded … for me, wherever I’m at, that’s where I’m supposed to be. So if I’m here, I’m supposed to be here. If I go to a different team, that’s where I’m supposed to be. But I love playing for the Cleveland Browns. I want to be here. I’m grateful wherever I’m at, whatever opportunity I get to go play football, that’s what I do.”
It would be great if Ward could enjoy another playoff season with the Browns before he moves on. But that is unlikely.
The clock is ticking on his time with the Browns. Under the right circumstances, Ward could be traded at the 2026 NFL trade deadline on November 13. If not then, he could be swapped in March to help Berry maneuver for the upcoming quarterback-rich 2027 draft.
Ward having to leave without a championship run, along with Myles leaving (and possibly several others) is just another consequence of the gross idiotic mismanagement of this team by Haslam and Depodesta.