DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum 2022 Browns Free Agency Signings/News

So basically we made more cap space this year … that spells Clowney/Landry/Robert Woods/etc

I'm gonna go with 0%.

Yeah, 0% now that we signed Brissett

We are pretty good on picks right now. When we trade baker, I would seek a pick next year. A future pick is worth less to a team than a current pick, so we might be able to get maximum value in the pick. We might be able to leverage it in to a conditional if baker plays well.

Seeing that we are down a 1st rounder, a extra pick in the 2n-3rd-4th round might be handy...I listed those picks because I have no idea what worth teams might place on Mayfield.

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Well it was reported a day or two ago that Seattle offered a 2 and 3 ...

I think Berry will get a first minimum for Baker. I know everyone thinks I'm crazy. Healthy Baker is a damn good QB. Maybe not top ten, but easily not bottom 10.

I’ll be pleasantly surprised if we recoup a 1st. A lot depends on leverage. Teams know we have to trade him now, which is why I think we wanted to clear cap space to show that we don’t.

There is zero reason to cut him. His contract is fully guaranteed even if he's at home on the couch. We have leverage. If nobody offers a fair price, just keep him on the roster right up to the trade deadline. Somebody's starter will go down, happens almost every year.

Takes 2 teams wanting him and the price goes up ...

And he is easily the best looking option on the QB market now, unless you think an older Ryan is the better option. Not me.

A 4 year starter who took his team to its first playoff in 18 years and their first playoff win in 26 years yea he should bring a 1st ...

An analytic dream when healthy. Major injury concerns.

No Thanks I want Landry back ...

i'd take both of them. amari and fuller outside, landry in the slot. devastation.

How about the Lions at pick #32....

Agreed, I'm no fan of Fuller...he has soft tissue injuries all the time, ontop of "norm" injuries and he drops some big balls...outside of his excellent speed and solid frame...imho I think he's one of the most overrated WRs

That's good thinking, and yeah I'm hoping we can at least get a late 2nd rounder for Baker...don't get me wrong a 1st would be awesome, but I highly doubt it as well.

Most teams feel a second this year is the same as a future first. I'd take a first next year.

Scratch off any Robert Woods talk, he's now a Titan

C'mon Swish!! "devastation"?

...He's talking about our depth chart after the annual injuries hit.

$23,176,093 according to spotrac

+$18,858,000 > Baker
+*$9.5M > Hooper

^
$51,534,093

Minus:

--Brissett
--Grant
--Hubbard

Is this including the 8-9 Mil that came of the books from Keenum?

Yes it does figure that in.

Just wondering

Don't know how credible this is .... so take it for what it's worth.

That would be a great signing getting him back ...

It was posted yesterday and hasn't been confirmed by anyone with a checkmark, so I'm guessing not very credible.

It would be nice to have him back.

man i hope this is true!

[social:tweet]https://twitter.com/God_Son80/status/1502433520781824002[/social

still has Brown's gear on his profile.

I keep seeing the rumors that Clowney will re-sign. Hoping for the official thing soon

Vikings paid Hunter's $18M roster bonus on Sunday.

Before everyone gets excited about the available cap that the Browns currently have and forth coming, it should be known that some of these major cap restructures the Browns are doing to free up cap this year still has to be accounted for somewhere down the line.

To gain the extra cap this year, The Browns have restructured many contracts.

Let’s look, for instance, at a player like Cooper that had a 60M base salary and 3-years remaining on his contract @ 20M per year in base salaries and no guarantees. That would also count for $20 million per year against the salary cap.

However, the Browns converted 18.88M to a signing bonus payable in 2022, the bonus cap charges were divided across the next 5-years adding two void years to the deal at at 3.776 per year. So, the Browns cap hit in 2022 is now 4.896M but it's raises too 23.776M in 2023, $23.776M in 2024, a 2025 void year at 3.776M and finally a 2026 void year of 3.776M.

NFL teams now are routinely converting base salaries and roster bonuses into signing bonuses -- paying the players up front and guaranteeing their money, while dividing the cap charges into future years. The bad part is teams are also routinely adding years to the end of players’ contracts that are scheduled to automatically void at a later date.

There is no penalty, such as a tax or interest rate, for doing that. The biggest drawback is that players will incur huge cap charges in future years. And when they get released or retire or their contracts void, there is more “dead money” waiting to hit the cap.

For instance, the Browns did this with Clowney's 1 year deal moving his base to a bonus spread across 2-years and are incurring a 3.6M cap charge in 2022 from Clowney's past signing bonus.

Watson is a whole other kind of animal due to the enormous size of it. NFL guidelines limit the number of years that a team can spread out the bonus to 5-years max. Watson is signing a 5-year 230M guaranteed contract. Broken down evenly, the Browns would have paid Watson a base salary of 46M each year. Instead, the Browns converted $44,965,000 of his first-year salary to a bonus leaving him with a 1.035M base salary in 2022 with one-fifth of the bonus at 8.993M for a cap hit of only 10.028M in 2022. The payback becomes evident in years 2 thru 5 where now the cap hit is scheduled to be 54.993M per season. Any future restructures will only balloon future years and possibly add void years. The biggest issue going forward is the entire contract was guaranteed so the Browns will never have an out from the cap hits unless a willing trade partner is found.

“In terms of contract structure, it was a home run for Myles Garrett. This contract is basically a throwback to 2003-2005 as the Browns went to the double option strategy here. An option bonus is a way to throw another signing bonus into a contract.”

Cleveland did one [option bonus] in the 2nd year and 3rd year of the contract. He has a $21 million signing bonus, then the first option bonus is $20.7 million, and then $17.97 million for his 2nd option bonus. We’re looking at a total of $59.67 million in prorated bonus money, at signing. That’s insane, that’s crazy. The Browns were able to get the extra years, but that is absolutely insane. All these options are basically fully guaranteed. In 2023, most of his salary becomes fully guaranteed at the end of 2022. Your cost to cut in 2023 is about $45 million in dead cap. He’s really protected through four years of this deal.

2021: $9.35M (before the extension, would’ve been $15.184M)
2022: 12.96M
2023: $29.18M
2024: $32.12M
2025: $27.5M
2026: $28.6M

Usually, teams have the idea of front-loading a contract, which gives teams more flexibility against the cap to cut a player later in their deal if they don’t pan out. However, the Browns, when you factor in the option bonus and when certain years of his base salary start becoming fully guaranteed, have back-loaded the contract. This is at the core of what makes it a player-friendly deal, because for Garrett, he’s going to collect all that money, while the Browns just have to live with however he's plays.

To help with the math, Cooper, Watson and Garrett will have cap charges totaling 107.949M for just 3 players in 2023 and going up in future years. The NFL team cap number for 2022 is 208.2M not counting carryover cap. To put it in perspective since we do not know 2023's cap yet, these 3 players 2023 cap hit would eat up 51.8% of the 2022 cap. This is what they mean when it's said you're "ENTERING CAP HELL."

Saint signed Winston, Colts signed Ryan, Falcons took Mariota, so that leaves the Seahawks with no QB and the Niners still trying to move Jimmy G. Am I missing anyone?

Carolina, unless you think Sam Darnold is better. I don't.