Smart to get him to a lower amount.

Perhaps closes the door on Clowney?

His injury risk is a concern, but I like this move. I think he is a very underrated player.

Great news. Clowney getting closer? Does this give us a better chance at him?

Good move.

I really would like to see what he can do if could play a full year healthy.

My guess is that they wouldnn't pay what Clowney wants and keep Vernon as a backup at $11M. But I could be wrong. My thinking is they decided to go this route with the restructuring and pencil Vernon as the starter for 2020.

I suppose in my mind was if they signed Clowney they would release Vernon and his non-quaranteed contract. Now that his revised one is fully guaranteed, it limits player moves to a degree.

I wonder if this means, however, getting someone even cheaper like Everson Griffin to then be in a rotation with the newly acquired Adrian Clayborn as well.

Good news for Vernon. He went from likely to be cut to another guarantee.

Some might see it as giving up money. I see it as getting 7 mil when signing the new contract.


He wasn't going to make that $7mil had he not.

...was there much of a chance of us tagging him next year? Seems a strange thing to set off with "especially," to me.

I'm also not sure if it makes Clowney less likely or if it was partially designed to put pressure on him to make a decision and implied that the team's offer isn't going to go up.

it seems like Vernon is betting on himself a lot with the no tag clause.

A good move for both parties. The Clowney discussion seems to be pretty much over now.

Nearly no chance at all is my guess. His age prevents it.

Overall, it's a good move. It frees up $4 million this year and keeps a guy that is a solid piece of the defense when healthy. Hopefully, if we even play, he stays healthy.

https://twitter.com/MaryKayCabot/status/1280535316416409600

Congrats Vernon on participating in the offseason program and not getting hurt. As a result, we're not cutting you by giving you less money while not being able to come to terms with the guy we wanted to replace you with.

Oh, Mary Kay.

It's a good move for both sides. We need good players on D period. We have Lamar in our division and K.C. and Patrick to deal with. If we expect to make the playoffs and go deep these will be 2 of the toughest QB's we will have to face. We need to build our roster accordingly.

I would still sign Clowney.

Good for us that we save money?
Good for him because he's a FA next season?


Seems like it's mostly good for us, and MIGHT be good for him.

I tend to agree with you in that it benefits the Browns more than Vernon.

However, I think the guaranteed portion should have been lower with more incentives than $2M. I'm guessing the incentives might be based on games played to address the injury concerns his past three seasons.

I’d sign Clooney myself, but I think this moves makes that more unlikely.

I’d say Vernon may have been cut if he wouldn’t have restructured ... and we get to keep him at a lower cost

George Clooney, a bad ass d lineman for sure.

Just joking with you.

J/C. Smart play on both sides, I think Vernon is a good player with too many injuries. So he is playing for his next contract which almost always means we will probably get 16 games and 8-10 sacks in his out year. Don’t care as we will need to draft for that position as we will certainly pay Myles a HUGE contract. Win Win situation

I was asking the other way actually. If this contract is lower, can the extra "savings" be a chip for Clowney? And wouldn't the new numbers make Vernon potentially more attractive elsewhere?

Can we get him for lower than $11M guaranteed?

I don't think so. My belief is that if we signed Clowney then Vernon would be cut freeing up his $15 million to pay for him. Vernon and his agent say that coming and realized that on the free market he would likely not get what he agreed to in the guaranteed monies.

Vernon just locked up that roster spot. I think this closes the door on Clowney

No. But I would still sign him. We have the cap space (although I don't expect the cap to go up exponentially like I thought it would before COVID-19).

If managed correctly we should be able to sign all of the guys we need to sign and still spend on guys like Clowney.

I think you are off in many ways.

j/c

fwiw:

we are not against the cap so, we could have always brought Clowney in...

Always could have AND still carried Vernon's old contract.
Now, it would be even easier to do so.


My guess is that the savings is used by Garrett.

I think the fact Clowney is going on his third team might say a lot about what previous organizations think of him. I believe he might have a motivation problem.

I also think that he is a luxury we don’t need.

My son is a big Houston fan, had season tickets until he transferred to Kentucky. He was laughing about the Browns being interested in Clowney, doesn't think he is worth what he is asking for.

He certainly hasn't lived up to the hype. Just about everyone was touting him as a can't miss generational player.