Njoku is one of the most overrated players in Browns history. That is a big commitment to a guy who hasn't done anything to earn that contract.
Hooper may not have played well here, but at least he had a history of production. Harrison Bryant is better than Joke. I hope we don't forget about him while we try to force feed the ball to Joke in an effort to justify the signing.
I hope it works out. Berry lost a little bit of shine in my eyes, but nothing that can't be polished again if Joke plays well.
Don’t really understand the love for Bryant. I had hope for him, but once he got fumbleitis it was over. Those fumbles he had were horrible and he knew it. Once he caught anything after that he would turn up field with 2 hand wrapped around ball and just ran straight. He looked like a o lineman picking up a fumble, wrapping up ball and stumbling forward. He lost all athleticism worrying about fumbeling.
Harrison Bryant is better than Joke. I hope we don't forget about him while we try to force feed the ball to Joke in an effort to justify the signing.
I hope it works out.
If one of our conceptions or misconceptions about these 2 is right or wrong.?. The team franchise tagged one of them not the other, and that's Njoku, and they also just gave him this contract.
Can Deshaun Watson play better for the Browns, than Baker Mayfield would have? ... Now the Games count.
I hope they both mature and bloom into elite players. But a comparison between Bryant and Njoku - catch competition/yards per target .... really not a great deal in it.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
In another thread I predicted that Njoku and Delpit would have great years.
Njoku is a mismatch against linebackers. If he was used like Kelce. He would have those numbers.
He should dominate the mid field in all routes especially seam routes. His length and jumping ability has been under used.
He should have serious redzone numbers. In the back of the endzone and on crossing routes.
It is all about ball placement. The quarterback on a shallow cross throws it low and away. TE screens with body. Not defensible.
Along the back of the endzone throw the jump ball. The chief is 6'4" and can jump. No db is getting that ball if thrown correctly.
I tend to agree, with an asterisk.
It definitely goes deeper than "used like Kelce". Kelce is on a different level when it comes to setting up his defender, finding the soft spot, and being in tune with his QB when there is any interruption to the scripted play.
I don't want to take a thing from Kelce. He is a great player.
However, Reid is a HOF head coach with a great offensive mind. Their offense schemes guys open. They use a bunch of disceptive motion and great routes.
I don't have a real strong opinion on this. I do think he hasn't earned such a payday, but I do recognize that he is a gifted athlete. Hopefully, it works out for the team.
seems like alot of dough for a marginal TE.. Lets hope theres something on tape we aren't seeing. He has all the tools. Maybe it was Baker holding him back. Guess we will find out.. I think alot of these contracts we are handing out will look like bargains after the new tv deal. Berry might end up looking like a genius in 2 years.
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. -John Wayne
I view Njoku's signing as a positive move by the FO.
The contract might be considered by some as a bit much but it's not ridiculous.
Njoku is about to turn 26 in July and his career is on the upswing...he was the most productive TE for the Browns last season and his production should improve, depending on how the Browns use him.
His trajectory is up; with DW throwing, I really believe that he will make players around him better, especially Njoku if he can be used more effectively. Hooper diluted how good this player might be, and disappointed me. I have some disconnect between the certainty on paper of what I estimate Njoku should be capable of managing and what actual production I have seen him manage. We will be more dangerous if we become a four-headed monster: What we can do running, throwing deed successfully, DW running some, and grinding TE play hitting seams and outs. I have high hopes that Ski can manufacture a breakout year for DN. What it would take to shut him down as a proven threat would certainly open up other opportunities. That will depend on the game as it is called. We talk about him being a monster nightmare for matchups; have to see that happening more.
Go, Browns!
"Every responsibility implies opportunity, and every opportunity implies responsibility." Otis Allen Glazebrook, 1880
Something that should not be overlooked concerning Njoku, we could see Stefanski utilize Njoku in an expanded roll, at times lining him up at TE shifting him wide as an additional wideout creating mismatches.
It does seem to be the most popular opinion to try and justify why this FO paid a player so much in comparison with his production.
The nature of the contract strikes me as a massive "show me" deal while still acknowledging and paying for his massive potential. We're paying him like he's Top 5, but we have an out if he doesn't live up to it.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
I tend to agree with you. The team can opt out easily after two years. I was referring to those who felt the need to makes excuses for the contract. I should have been more clear about that.
Intoducing for The Cleveland Browns, Quarterback Deshawn "The Predator" Watson. He will also be the one to choose your next head coach.
It does seem to be the most popular opinion to try and justify why this FO paid a player so much in comparison with his production.
The nature of the contract strikes me as a massive "show me" deal while still acknowledging and paying for his massive potential. We're paying him like he's Top 5, but we have an out if he doesn't live up to it.
That sounds better. By the way he carries himself I think Njoku's ego is bigger than his actual playing ability. I've always thought he was a decent TE, but that's about it... average or slightly above. We'll find out soon enough just how much potential he actually has, barring any injuries.
I’m late here, but I think this was necessary for us. I’d bank on his continued ascension with a good QB. Plus, he became a great blocker too
"First down inside the 10. A score here will put us in the Super Bowl. Cooper is far to the left as Njoku settles into the slot. Moore is flanked out wide to the right. Chubb and Ford are split in the backfield as Watson takes the snap ... Here we go."
This is a great opportunity for Njoku to show his Potential Talent. He is still young but he is no longer raw. He could become a red zone nightmare for our opponents...."Could" we will see. He will have the opportunity. How will he do under Brisset???
Defense wins championships. Watson play your butt off! Go Browns! CHRIST HAS RISEN! GM Strong! & Stay safe everyone!
This is a great opportunity for Njoku to show his Potential Talent. He is still young but he is no longer raw. He could become a red zone nightmare for our opponents...."Could" we will see. He will have the opportunity. How will he do under Brisset???
Making sense of David Njoku's new contract with the Cleveland Browns
By Eric Eager May 31, 2022 Cleveland Browns
On Friday, May 27, the Cleveland Browns gave franchise-tagged tight end David Njoku a four-year, $56.75 million deal that includes $28 million in guarantees.
Given the former first-round pick’s lack of career production to this point — having turned 239 career targets into just 1,820 receiving yards and 15 touchdowns, including the playoffs — the eyebrows of some very respected people were raised:
That $28 million in guarantees is the fifth-most among tight ends, even though Njoku’s PFF WAR of 0.77 wins ranked 21st among tight ends from 2017 to 2021. And that performance is worth roughly $8 million per year in 2022 cap dollars.
Travis Kelce (2.88), George Kittle (1.82), Zach Ertz (1.70), Rob Gronkowski (1.60) and Mark Andrews (1.45) are the top five in PFF WAR.
The Browns were already on the hook for Njoku’s modest franchise tag number of $10.9 million but ate into their league-leading $23 million in effective cap by re-signing star edge player Jadeveon Clowney this week, meaning that the flexibility of extending Njoku presented some value to them.
In this article, I want to discuss the Browns’ possible thought process in giving Njoku such a rich deal:
TIGHT ENDS TAKE LONGER TO DEVELOP THAN OTHER PLAYERS I alluded to this idea in a tweet recently, but the tight end position is littered with players who took longer to perform up to expectations.
My colleague Timo Riske did excellent work on age curves, which showed that tight ends accumulate the lowest percentage of their career WAR (40%) before the age of 25 (Njoku is currently 25 years old) and the highest percentage of their career WAR after the age of 30 (19%).
Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap did an informative study on the premium-ness of positions by essentially going through the 20 highest-paid players at the position and determining what percentage of those players were available via free agency. Tight end was one of the least premium positions, in large part because even top players readily changed teams after their rookie deal.
Anecdotally, while the San Francisco 49ers were able to capitalize on the late bloom of Vernon Davis’ career, the list of players at the position who were drafted by one team but made their biggest contribution to another team is quite vast: Visanthe Shiancoe, Benjamin Watson, Delanie Walker, Jared Cook, Martellus Bennett, Charles Clay, Greg Olsen, Eric Ebron and Vance McDonald are all recent examples.
The proverb from the Fitzgerald study speaks less to the mistake of paying guys like Njoku too much and more to drafting them too high in the first place.
The current Browns regime — while not the regime that made the mistake of selecting Njoku too high — is likely going out of its way not to be yet another franchise that drafts another’s franchise tight end.
A CHARACTERISTIC OF LATE BLOOMING TIGHT ENDS IS ATHLETICISM, AND NJOKU IS A FREAK At PFF, we’ve built an athleticism score for each player in each facet of play, which uses a combination of NFL Scouting Combine and pro-day data along with principal component analysis to determine how many standard deviations a player’s PFF grade would be if we knew only the combination of his size, athleticism and age at the draft.
Njoku’s reading is the best we’ve done in the PFF era, as he combines elite length with explosiveness and speed at the position:
His athleticism score of 3.1 (99th) percentile is higher than all of the aforementioned players listed in the previous section, but each of them was a great athlete in their own right:
• Vernon Davis famously ran a 4.38-second 40-yard dash at the 2006 NFL Scouting Combine and also vertical jumped 42 inches.
• Visanthe Shiancoe ran a 4.68-second 40-yard dash out of Morgan State, with a vertical jump of 39.5 inches.
• Benjamin Watson ran a 4.50-second 40-yard dash coming out of Georgia.
• Delanie Walker ran a 4.49-second 40-yard dash coming out of Central Missouri State.
• Jared Cook ran a 4.49-second 40 and vertical jumped 41 inches out of South Carolina.
• Martellus Bennett’s 1.53-second 10-yard split is in the 99th percentile of tight ends.
• Charles Clay ran a 4.69-second 40-yard dash and recorded a 93rd-percentile short shuttle.
• Greg Olsen ran a 4.51-second 40-yard dash coming out of Miami, with a 38-inch vertical jump.
• Eric Ebron’s athleticism score was 2.3, which is in the 99th percentile of tight ends.
• Vance McDonald ran a respectable 4.69-second 40 coming out of Rice in 2013.
While this list is neither predictive nor exhaustive in the process of trying to understand the thought process of the Cleveland Browns in giving Njoku this big deal, it is instructive.
In another piece, Timo Riske showed that more athletic players tend to age better. And while this trend is less pronounced for tight ends, it might be another in a collection of reasons why the Browns are betting on Njoku.
CONCLUSION The Cleveland Browns are at an interesting crossroads in terms of their team building. The totality of the bill is not really due — from a cap perspective — on quarterback Deshaun Watson, but they will not be able to acquire cheap, young talent at premium positions as readily as they had in the past due to the trade to acquire him.
Njoku represents the fourth player this calendar year that the Browns have given a big deal to that doesn’t play a premium position, with Nick Chubb, Joel Bittonio and Wyatt Teller the others, which I think is something to monitor vis-à -vis the success of this signing.
Ultimately, when viewing this deal from the “average outcome” perspective, this is very much the overspend that it appeared to be at first blush. However, given the history of the tight end position, the justification is that the Browns are buying the tail of the distribution here — and that tail is fat.
Just commentary from someone who is pretty good on prop bets.
As others have pointed out, but deal is not quite the mega-contract it seems on the surface. The per-year amount for those first two years must've been where Berry had Njoku's market value pegged (Berry is a big 'let the market decide the value' guy).
There is no level of sucking we haven't seen; in fact, I'm pretty sure we hold the patents on a few levels of sucking NOBODY had seen until the past few years.
To be fair, I think if you are willing to franchise a guy, you should be willing to give him some sort of long term deal as well. I don't think this contract is egregious.
Franchise deals are great for a high price, one year commitment. Big dollar Multi-year contracts have much more potential to hurt your cap situation if things don't go as well as hoped/expected. Depending on the team, you might have cap room for a high priced franchise tag this year but that cap space might diminish next year depending on what other 'stars' need to be resigned/retained. I think Berry is managing our cap very carefully so probably less of a concern than other teams? And hopefully Njoku will earn every penny and this be a non-issue.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
So, from the start it looks like a really favorable contract for the Browns. 40% of the guaranteed money has been accounted for in the signing bonus alone; $17MM guaranteed at sign (60%). Cap hits of $3.3MM and $8.3MM in 2022 and 2023 respectively which seems SUPER low. They can get out of it in 2024 with a dead cap hit of $6.8MM (not minor, but not anything wild). Even if they like his production in 2024, I think that will be a restructure year regardless because a $18MM cap hit seems SUPER high at this point.
Just my initial reaction to the numbers but I could be missing something.
Franchise deals are great for a high price, one year commitment. Big dollar Multi-year contracts have much more potential to hurt your cap situation if things don't go as well as hoped/expected. Depending on the team, you might have cap room for a high priced franchise tag this year but that cap space might diminish next year depending on what other 'stars' need to be resigned/retained. I think Berry is managing our cap very carefully so probably less of a concern than other teams? And hopefully Njoku will earn every penny and this be a non-issue.
And this contract looks like Berry working his magic.
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