THE DETAILS
The news of the full details broke based on a tweet from Albert Breer.
Based on what he is saying this would be the terms of the deal:
I would think it would look something more like this when we see it:
CONCLUSION
Getting a pay rise from $12,987,000 in 2024 to $18,997,000 isn't a surprise, it is quite common to give a player some of that extension upfront rather than wait for the first new year to receive any money. This is partly what encourages a player to sign the deal now.
Even if they haven't added any option bonuses into the deal then they can restructure him each year still and will have the language in the contract to allow them to do this, same with all Cleveland Browns contracts.
We usually see per-game roster bonuses in the deals say $30,000 per game to protect against injury but they haven't decided to do this. The surprising exclusion is no roster bonus in 2027, where they could keep him up until week one and then cut him.
It wouldn't surprise me that when the full deal is out on Over The Cap I end up just doing a follow-up article with some of these pieces added.
Getting Out The Deal
With the $6m guaranteed in 2026, if they decided they wanted to cut him after the 2025 season then he would be able to sign with another team. Anything he earns up to $6m would first go to pay back the Browns' guarantees due to offset language. He would have to be really bad to not get that so I would expect this to not be an issue and if someone else picks up the tab it would be $4,785,000 they are on the hook for as another team would cover the minimum.
If they decide to get out of the deal after 2025 it will have cost them $22,010,000 for the one year extension plus up to $6m more depending who pays those 2026 guarantees, this seems unlikely. I would expect this to be a two year deal worth $35,497,000 and then they have a team option for the final year of $17m.
Salary Cap Update
This makes the current Cleveland Browns current cap space $4,898,435
Over The Cap has no void years for Winston which is where the difference comes from, since this deal is yet to be officially announced, the exact terms probably aren't confirmed, I am just basing my prediction on what they have done in the past. I always like to compare to them as they do such a great job and it is where I rely on for all my key salary cap information information.
https://247sports.com/nfl/cleveland...ns-extension-contract-229266123/#2393739--------------
Still nothing official on the annual breakdown.