Baker Mayfield's fifth-year salary would have been boosted by $5 million if he had made the Pro Bowl once in his first three seasons. (Sports Illustrated)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Takeaways from around the NFL five days before free agents can talk to other teams …
At last, NFL teams were given the final piece of data for the coming transaction season.
The league salary cap was set at $182.5 million. That’s down from $198.2 million last season – a direct impact of lower attendance revenues in 2020 due to the pandemic.
It’s the first drop in the salary cap since 2011. Overthecap.com’s Jason Fitzgerald reported that the cap figure is at 2018-19 levels, but the figure is diluted because of higher minimum salaries than in 2018-19, higher rookie salary pools and higher restricted free agent tenders that will gobble up cap space.
As a result, many players seeking to strike it rich in free agency will be disappointed in the offers they generate. As usual, the biggest names will get their share, but the so-called middle class of players will suffer. Expect more players to be released and then signed to one-year “prove it” deals.
The good news for the Browns is they will enter the transaction season with an adjusted salary cap number of $211.9 million – the highest in the league. This figure is derived by adding the unused cap space from 2020 ($30.366 million) that was rolled into 2021 minus the Browns’ dead cap total of $1.006 million.
After all the numbers-crunching, the Browns have about $24.36 million in available cap space.
That’s a decent number and ranks about 14th in the NFL. But teams have to reserve about $12 million for rookie draft picks and another $5 million as a “rainy day” fund to be used for potential emergency replacement pickups for injured front-line players during the season.
Thus, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Browns seek to create salary cap room by restructuring contracts of a few players. Possibilities include Sheldon Richardson, Case Keenum, Joel Bitonio and JC Tretter.
When the Pro Bowl actually matters
The establishment of the salary cap finalized the values for fifth-year options for players drafted in the first round of the 2018 draft. That means the Browns know what they will pay Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward in 2022 when their fifth-year options are picked up by May 3.
A little known fact about the fifth-year option values is that they are based on tiers and increase based on what the player accomplishes in his first three seasons.
The basic tier is a salary calculated from the average of the third- to 20th-highest salaries at their position over the past five seasons.
The play time tier ups the salary based on snap count percentages.
The Pro Bowl tier pays a base salary equal to the transition tender at their position if they earn one legit Pro Bowl berth (not as an alternate).
The multiple Pro Bowl tier pays a base salary equal to the franchise tender at their position if they earn two or three legit Pro Bowl berths (not as an alternate).
Under these guidelines, Mayfield earned the play time tier of $18.858 million in guaranteed salary for his fifth season. Quarterbacks Josh Allen of Buffalo and Lamar Jackson of Baltimore each made one Pro Bowl in their first three years and earned a fifth-year salary of $23.1 million. So the lack of a Pro Bowl cost Mayfield about $5 million in 2022 salary.
Ward did earn the Pro Bowl tier and boosted his fifth-year guaranteed salary from $12.28 million to $13.294 million.
Keep in mind that these salary figures take effect only if the Browns pick up their fifth-year options (which undoubtedly will be rubber-stamped). If the Browns negotiate contract extensions with either Mayfield or Ward, the new years would be tacked on after the 2022 fifth-year option years.
Hodge v. Higgins
Receiver KhaDarel Hodge is a restricted free agent (three years NFL experience). For the Browns to retain his rights, they must tender him a qualifying contract offer.
There are three levels: first round level of $4.76 million, which would net the Browns a first-round draft pick in compensation if a team signed him away; second round level of $3.384 million, which nets the Browns a second-round pick; and simply right of first refusal of $2.133 million, which gives the Browns the opportunity to match an offer from another team with no draft pick compensation.
In Hodge’s case, the Browns probably would give him the lowest possible tender of $2.133 million. That figure is higher than the rumored $2 million offer the Browns made to Rashard Higgins.
Which would mean the Browns value Hodge over Higgins.