DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Clowney or Juice you can only sign one?

I think that Landry should get a deal in the 1 year/$6 million range ... if he doesn't wait til even more of the chairs are filled and the music stops. He needs to remember that this is a deep WR draft, and a lot of spots will be filled there as well.

The Browns have 3.5M in dead cap on Clowney already. Landry already has 1.5M in dead cap. That money is already on the books and doesn't go away. It doesn't appear that either guy is interested in a 1-year deal so the Browns could technically pay mostly in bonus and spread it out over the length of the deal or like with Clowney previously, add void years. The problem is that doing that creates "cap hell" if you're not careful. I'm concerned that just next year, 2023, the Browns have over 120M in cap scheduled to hit the books from only 4 players (Watson, Garrett, Chubb, and Cooper). Three of these guys just went through restructures (Cooper and Watson) this year and Garrett a couple of years ago. There is 7.5M in dead cap money already scheduled in 2023 before adding in Hooper's dead cap and/or any dead cap from Mayfield. The following players are scheduled to be FA's in 2023: Ward, Njoku, Hunt, Greedy Williams, among others. When you kick the can down the road with prorated bonuses such as the Browns are doing - you have to constantly be aware of the cake you are baking. In 2023, the Browns are scheduled to pay 62.439M in prorated bonuses.

Anyway, I don't believe that Landry provides any value to the team on the field. Bringing Landry back is not upgrading the WR room which wasn't doing Mayfield any favors anyway in 2021. Clowney on the other hand becomes a critical piece considering last year three DT's were PFF Ranked in the bottom 8% of the league. Without Clowney, Garretts production will certainly fall. Considering the Browns don't have a draft pick until the second round which WILL NOT give the Browns a guy to fill Clowney's shoes and the FA market has been picked over. Considering three starters are missing on the D-Line and a 4th rated near the bottom of the league, resigning Clowney or someone even better is becoming critical. For the sake of the question: CLOWNEY.

The longer he goes unsigned, the more likely Landry winds up back here IMO