Left tackle Jedrick Wills' contract is up and he'll probably try to find a new team in free agency. Yet he will count $11.8 million on the Browns' 2025 salary cap because of previous restructurings.
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
(Ed. note: All contract and salary cap figures are provided by Spotrac.com and Overthecap.com, the authorities on NFL salary data.)
NFL free agency starts in five weeks. But before the Browns compile what is expected to be a shorter (than usual) list of free agent targets, there’s another task list they have to tend to.
It’s the list of their own players under contract whose futures with the club must be reassessed. This could result in conversions of salary to bonus, total restructuring downward or, at last resort, termination.
By March 12, the Browns have to comply with the 2025 salary cap with their top 51 salaries on their roster. The projected cap number is $275 million. It may go up incrementally, but that is the figure teams are using for their business model right now.
Usually, the Browns lead the league in salary cap room, as a result of GM Andrew Berry restructuring contracts and tacking on phantom voidable, or dummy, years on the roster’s highest-paid players. The intent was to create salary cap room in the existing year as the Browns made a run to the Super Bowl.
Well, that window is slammed shut now. All that kicking the can down the road is coming home to roost. It’s time to pay the piper. Tough decisions have to be made to comply with this year’s salary cap.
First off, the Browns have accrued $39.7 million in dead cap charges this year. That consists of charges to their 2025 salary cap left by players no longer with the team. Remember the trades last year of Amari Cooper and Za’Darius Smith? Good trades, right? Brought third- and fifth-round picks in the coming draft. Well, the cost to the salary cap in 2025 was $22.5 million for the Cooper trade and $14.2 million for the Smith trade.
The $39.7 million in total dead cap money – the second-highest figure among the 32 NFL teams – reduces the Browns’ cap in 2025 to $225.3 million. So that is the current budget for the Browns’ top 51 salaries at present. But it’s going to be less than that, as we’ll explain later.
These salary cap figures are fluid. Spotrac.com has the Browns $27.5 million OVER the cap as of Thursday, and Overthecap.com has them at $38.6 million OVER.
The Browns and the NFL know the exact figure. But you get the idea of what lies ahead for Berry.
He has to manipulate other contracts simply to comply with the $225.3 million. And then he has to chop further to create room to spend on free agents (a starting quarterback, among other positions of need) and also an estimated $8.5 million to cover their rookie draft picks for the 2025 season.
This is why salary cap expert Jason Fitzgerald, founder of Overthecap.com, recently wrote, “The Browns’ salary cap situation is among the worst in the NFL.”
Berry can save money by not bringing back several players whose contracts are up. But that alone isn’t going to be enough. So we’re going to look at the top 10 players on the Browns’ roster, in terms of salary cap numbers, and analyze what might happen to them.
1. Quarterback Deshaun Watson: $72.935 million cap number.
Even though Watson’s 2025 salary is a “mere” $46 million, his cap number has grown three years in a row as a result of previous salary-to-bonus conversions. An inevitable fourth conversion would reduce Watson’s base salary to $1.255 and give him $44.745 million in a cash bonus. For cap purposes, the $44.745 million is spread over the next four years, which includes additional dummy years the Browns created in previous restructurings for this very purpose. Which means, ultimately, Watson’s 2025 cap number would be reduced to about $39.37 million – a cap savings of about $33.5 million. So … voila! …Watson’s conversion alone would put the Browns right about in compliance of the salary cap. But that’s only the first step.
2. Cornerback Denzel Ward: $25.525 million.
Ward signed a $100.5 million, five-year extension in 2022. Last year, he received the salary-to-bonus conversion, which added a dummy year through 2028. The Browns can do the same this year, which would reduce Ward’s cap number to about $13.2 million and create $12.3 million in room. (Keep in mind that these salary-to-bonus conversions add cap charges to the remaining years on the players’ contracts).
3. Defensive end Myles Garrett: $19.722 million.
Garrett’s $125 million, five-year extension signed in 2020 was significantly restructured in 2023. Although his guarantees are up and his final two years have team-friendly cap figures, the restructuring added four additional dummy years. Which is the reason the Browns would take a dead cap charge of $36.2 million if they traded him. If they traded him after June 1, the dead cap charge would be $14.7 million in 2025 and $21.5 million in 2026. But that would mean no draft assets in 2025 in a trade. So you can see why the Browns are reluctant to trade Garrett and would rather sign him to a new contract. Which is also why Garrett holds some leverage in his trade request.
4. Right tackle Jack Conklin: $19.114 million.
The Browns signed Conklin in 2022 to a four-year extension worth $60 million. The extension added two dummy years to lower his cap numbers early on. This year his cap number moves from $11.1 million to $19.114 million. Conklin gamely came back from a complete knee reconstruction last year and looked as good as ever over the team’s last 12 games. He’ll be 31 in August and probably will do a salary-to-bonus conversion to reduce his cap number to about $8.9 million. That would create about $10.2 million – while pushing his cap numbers higher in future years, of course.
5. Left guard Joel Bitonio: $14.329 million.
Bitonio, 33, is debating whether to return for a 12th season. He is in the last year of his contract, but previous salary conversions added four dummy years. Which is why Bitonio would count for $14.5 million in dead cap money if he retired. That’s an incentive for the Browns to coax another year out of him, but they might have to ask for a pay cut in a new deal.
6. Right guard Wyatt Teller: $14.175 million.
Technically, Teller’s four-year, $56.8 million contract extension signed in 2022 is in its last year. But previous conversions, yes, added three dummy years to reduce his cap numbers. Which is why he would have a dead cap charge of $19.1 million if traded or released before June 1.
7. Cornerback Greg Newsome: $13.377 million.
This is Newsome’s final year under contract. It is fully guaranteed as a result of the decision to pick up his fifth-year option in May of 2023. Which makes him untradeable. No team would pick that up, and even if the Browns found a suitor, that cap charge would stay with the team. Yikes.
8. Left tackle Jedrick Wills: $11.812 million.
Yes, Wills’ contract has expired and he probably will find a new team in free agency. But because of a salary conversion in 2023, the Browns have $11.812 million in dead cap charges. That is in addition to the overall figure of $39.7 million stated above, which brings the Browns’ dead cap charges for players no longer with them to over $50 million. It effectively reduces their salary cap to about $213.5 million while other teams will have about $275 million to spend.
9. Defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson: $11.543 million.
There is no more guaranteed money in Tomlinson’s original $57 million, four-year deal. Because dummy years were added in a previous restructuring, Tomlinson would count $17.151 million in dead cap if released or traded prior to June 1.
10. Tight end David Njoku: $11.377 million.
In the final year of his contract, Njoku is a candidate for a new deal because he already has four dummy years added on after this season. Trading him before June 1 would result in $20.87 million in dead cap charges. A new deal would reduce his cap number in 2025.