DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns Release John Johnson

Here is some information about safeties that might be available in free agency. All of these guys are ranked in PFF's top 10 FA safeties. I am going to post their "projected contract" information.

Bates: 5 years. $15 million avg per year. $40 million guaranteed.

Johnson-Gardner: 3 years. $11.5 million avg per year. $23 million guaranteed.

Love: 2 yrs. $7.75 million avg per year. $15 million guaranteed.

Ward: 2 years. $6.75 million avg per year. $8 million guaranteed.

Amos: 2 years. $5.5 million avg per year. $6.25 million guaranteed.

yep!

that's correct

https://overthecap.com/franchise-transition-and-rfa-tenders

next years numbers are daunting!

Franchise, Transition, and RFA Tenders
The NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement allows for some constraints to free agency. Among them, the CBA allows for each team to use one of either the franchise tag or transition tag on a player who would otherwise become an Unrestricted Free Agent. In addition, players with expiring contracts that have earned exactly three accrued seasons are considered Restricted Free Agents. In order to use these designations, the team must tender a qualifying offer on a one year contract. These tables display the current and projected future values of these tenders. Projected tenders are based on future salary cap estimations and are subject to change when a future salary cap is made official.

Franchise and transition tenders are calculated by adding the respective tag numbers, divided by the sum of the salary caps, from the previous five seasons, and finally multipled by the current season's salary cap. Franchise tag figures are based upon the top five salaries at each respective position, while transition tag figures are based on the top ten.

RFA tenders are calculated by increasing the previous year's respective tender by the same rate as the increase of the salary cap.

2023 Franchise and Transition Tenders
Position Franchise Tag Transition Tag
QB $32,416,000 $29,504,000
LB $20,926,000 $17,478,000
WR $19,743,000 $17,991,000
DE $19,727,000 $17,452,000
DT $18,937,000 $16,068,000
OL $18,244,000 $16,660,000
CB $18,140,000 $15,791,000
S $14,460,000 $11,867,000
TE $11,345,000 $9,716,000
RB $10,091,000 $8,429,000
ST $5,393,000 $4,869,000
2023 RFA Tenders
Type Amount
First Round $6,005,000
Second Round $4,304,000
Right of First Refusal $2,627,000
2024 Projected Franchise and Transition Tenders
Position Franchise Tag Transition Tag
QB $41,768,000 $36,328,000
WR $24,855,000 $22,525,000
OL $24,618,000 $22,242,000
DE $24,478,000 $19,766,000
CB $21,552,000 $18,642,000
DT $21,412,000 $17,448,000
LB $20,802,000 $17,446,000
S $19,048,000 $15,822,000
TE $13,956,000 $12,067,000
RB $13,888,000 $11,317,000
ST $6,299,000 $5,750,000
2024 Projected RFA Tenders
Type Amount
First Round $6,838,000
Second Round $4,901,000
Right of First Refusal $2,992,000


Herbert, Burrow, and Jordan Love (club option) are FA's in 2024 and the tag on them would be a blistering 42 mill.

If Lamar gets tagged this year... there is very little chance Baltimore brings him back in 24.

Technically you are right unless those teams exercise the 5th year option by May 1 putting them all under contract until 2025.

Who will play safety with Delpit in 2023 is anybody’s guess. JOK in a hybrid role? Maybe it’s time to not look at JOK as a linebacker, in the traditional sense of the word
Just throwing ideas out

The problem is the Browns are desperately in need of a Free Safety. JOK would be a bigger Delpit and put us right back in the same situation as with Johnson - no true FS. Though I don't necessarily disagree with your thought process because JOK gets pushed around too much at the LB position, JOK at SS might be his best position but still doesn't address FS and creates another opening on the defense at LB. It should be interesting to see if the new DC has plans to capitalize on JOK's skillset.

We haven't had a good free safety since Felix Wright (who filled the void left when Don Rogers passed, RIP). Should have kept Tashaun Gipson.

I don't think the Browns will pay Bates that much. Probably won't pay Johnson-Gardner that much, either. Here are PFF's comments on Love, Ward, and Amos.













https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-2023-free-agent-rankings-safety

Nice post, what you don't know is the big picture either. We are both going on personal assumptions so neither is right or wrong. One thing I do know is the history of what Berry has done. Let's not kid ourselves at all, everyone here on this forum wants a Super Bowl winner. How the Browns get there is the base for most discussions here. I'm eagerly watching what Berry and team will pull off just like you.

I will voice the opinion that I don't like what Berry has done to this point specifically because it continually looks like he's always taking a 1-year shot instead of building a consistent winner. IMHO, you build your team to get you to the playoffs as consistently as possible. The more times you get to the playoffs the better chance you have of eventually getting to the Super Bowl. Signing a bunch of guys to one-year deals and pushing that cost into void years like he has done with guys like Clowney and Walker doesn't give me as warm and fussy of planning for the future. Signing big FA's like Johnson and Hooper only to take dead money hits of over 10M in future seasons doesn't make me confident in Berry making a game changing acquisition in free agency.

I really hope that Berry can prove me wrong, but NFL resumes are based on wins and losses and Berry's record of building a better team after a playoff appearance has not proved to be fruitful to this point. That's before we get into the draft where (IMHO) his only real successes have been DPJ, Emerson, and Newsome to this point yet none of them can be called "real" game changers yet.

Berry is going to obviously restructure Watson's contract again. That will give him big funding to make an impact this year after just sitting on those excess funds in 2022. He better do something this year because he's setting up his QB as having 20M more of a yearly cap charge than any other team in the NFL with close to 20M per season in prorated bonus going forward. Kicking the can down the road will eventually have consequences.

I wasn't trying to direct the conversation to the salary cap. We've been down that road more than enough. My point is that we have multiple needs and it isn't wise to throw that much money at Bates. We need to address the DT and DE positions in FA.

What I was trying to do was steer the discussion toward player evaluation and how they might fit w/the Browns. It's cool if you think that Bates is the guy we should go after. I politely disagree and it's cool to offer differing opinions on what players the Browns should pursue.

Ward played for the league's best defense. He is a FS and can also play in the slot, when needed. That's a bonus when we run different coverages. He should be affordable and we can still go after defensive linemen.

What I like about Love is that he can play in space. We haven't had a guy like that in years. He is also a good tackler. Some of the other guys like Thornhill [KC] and McLeod [Indy] struggle with.

Amos would be very inexpensive. He's had a very solid career. Intelligent player. His slippage last year is a concern.