DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Browns News Continued....

Another point is the owners have the inside "skinny" on where the salary cap is likely to go. Not only for the upcoming season, but for several seasons to come, maybe a decade to come. They have fairly reliable projections and know of other deals that are in the works. They share some of those projections with their GMs so they know where the new cap is pretty certain to fall, at least inside fairly reliable parameters so plan for the bottom 1/3 inside those brackets, anything beyond that is gravy.

If it looks like the cap might be reduced based on 3 year projections, the GMs will get that word and start to scale back a year or two before. The word is the Browns might play in Brazil this season. It's obvious the NFL is dedicated to having a global reach...at least in the Americas and western Europe. They still have $billions of growth potential. It's pretty safe to think that the cap is going to increase for at least another 10 years, maybe 20....assuming things remain fairly stable and big bombs don't start blowing up all over the place.

had the exact same thought when I read it... so far this has been a horrible trade for us...

I fully expect the Browns to restructure Watson's contract again, but I wonder with this news of a $30MM increase in the 2024 cap if they'll devote more of his contract to the 2024 books than they originally had planned?

100% - And to add, the idea that paying a QB $250M and the contract that Watson got is no big deal and doesn't impact the team or impact the decision making on who you can sign in free agency and who you can resign from the players you drafted is not reality. Of course the cap can be managed. But huge contracts impact the team no matter what happens to the NFL cap number. And if your huge contract signing then goes on to underperform it's a double whammy.
Hopefully we saw the start of a turnaround in performance for DW this season in one or two games ...

If there is even the beginning of a lean toward them thinking they want out of it, they won't restructure to push money back and will instead let as much as possible be accounted for this year to make getting out of it less costly down the road.


This massive increase plus the amount we carried over should have us sitting nicely to take either approach and still be active in free agency.... though, we had a TON of 1-year deals from last year that we need to revisit.

Does anyone know if last year's one-year contracts turn into compensatory draft picks if Berry cannot re-sign the player this year?

Depends on what they would sign for elsewhere and who we would add in FA (and at what price.)

link

Yup.
They'll be eligible for consideration, but as you pointed out, it depends on a few factors - mostly money replacing them vs what they're getting to leave. I can't recall if playing time/contribution level gets accounted for anywhere. There's a whole crazy formula out there, somewhere, that some guy worked out that covers it all.

Friendly reminder.....

Browns restructure Denzel Ward’s contract
The Browns have a bit more cap space to work with as they plan for the 2024 season.

Tom Pelissero of NFL Media reports that the team has restructured the contract of cornerback Denzel Ward. The move opens up $11.359 million for the Browns to work with this season.

Ward signed a five-year extension with the Browns ahead of the 2022 season and he has a guaranteed salary of $15.324 million for the 2024 campaign. His cap number was set to be nearly $23.5 million, but the restructure kicks a good chunk of that figure into future seasons.

Ward had 34 tackles, two interceptions and a forced fumble in 13 games last season.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profo...browns-restructure-denzel-wards-contract

Exactly. Saying he will or won't play well cannot be predicted. Having an opinion one way or the other is perfectly fine. IMO, there's no reason to say he won't play well. He has the physical and mental ability as a QB to do so. He's done it before. We'll all have to wait and see if he can do it again. We're in good hands with Andrew Berry. The gentleman seems intelligent and articulate, and I enjoy hearing him speak. I feel much the same about KS. It's the best GM and HC combination since we've come back by far maybe the best in the last 40 years.

j/c...



https://nflpa.com/cleveland-browns-report-card-2024

Not a very good report card with an overall rank of 23rd of 32 teams. Grades aside, the highest ranking compared to the rest of the league is Ownership, 17th of 32 teams. Imagine that!

Interesting.

This doesn't mean the results are bad. The replies are compared to the replies of other teams players. What also isn't know is how far are the gaps between being 20th on the report card and 10th on the report card. Just a few replies can impact that standing quite a bit.

I also notice that size of facilities is a big factor for players. You can't put in a family room if you don't have the space. Same for bigger lockers , weight rooms and nutrition.

A new stadium and practice facility would improve the grades. The stadium is locked in place as is Berea. I know many have been to Berea. They have no room to add to the building unless they chop in to the practice fields or kick people out of the homes surrounding the facility to get more space.

The owner is trying to work those out with the city of Cleveland and build new facilities.

I do think it's nice for the employees to have the ability to grade their employers for a change. I just wonder if current players entering the FA market will take any of these grades into consideration?

A lot of this isn’t unexpected. The team drastically needs new facilities.

What is surprising is that the Coach of the Year is actually one of the lowest graded coaches in the NFL by his own team.

The Browns have already bought up a lot of the houses around the facility in Berea. they have been working on this for a few years now. This kind of stuff takes time.

I know. I stay in Middleburg Hgts when I go up to games. Several times a season I drive by the training complex just to take a look-see. I can see the empty lots that once had homes on them.

Looks like a couple more and they could bring the practice field areas out more towards the street, freeing up more space along the east parameter that would allow expansion to the main building.

The parking lot up front is already pretty small as witnessed by the overflow lot across Groza Blvd.

As for the stadium, it is what it is, nothing much can be done to expand things there. I will note that when the stadium was built, the locker rooms were all the rage at the time. It just goes to show how things change over 25 years.

As for things like double bunking, I don't care about that. It said some players. I take that to mean maybe rookies and transitory players. Guys who sign mid-season, things along those lines.

....With a B-?

And the owner of the Super Bowl Winning Chiefs got an F-.
https://www.arrowheadpride.com/2024/2/28/24085853/nflpa-team-report-card-chiefs-poor-grades

Some of the grades correlated to the percentages applied in various category questions seems off by a mile. I'm assuming there are more variables but still...a lot doesn't match.

j/c…

Some great news!

Great news Jim i’m very happy for you!! Hope everything continues to go well. I lost my wife to cancer in February 2022. Terrible to see what she went through. Rotten insidious disease.

I'll be very surprised (but ecstatic) if they can bring back Flacco as the backup for a manageable amount.

I agree. I feel relatively sure there may be other teams vying for his services which may create a situation where signing him would cost more than it did last year. But hopefully that cost will be something within reason.

I like Flacco, but can the Browns sign Joe and sign a top-tier FA receiver that everyone wants? The other thing to consider is whether Flacco is as productive under Dorsey.


Yes, it's nice having a quality backup QB. It not only comes at a price to sign. You also have to subtract funds from another position.

I think this is a bad idea. If Watson doesn’t come out of the gate fast there’s going to be a sizable and loud contingent of Browns fans booing and calling Flacco’s name. I can already read the Mary Kay article in my head.

Flacco is a backup, he’s not a viable starter. He’s a great story but I said this when we signed him and it never stopped being true; he gives the ball away consistently. That’s not going to change. He’s fun to watch but you have a hard ceiling with him as a starter. There’s a big group of Browns fans who think he really could/ should be the starter. That’s a problem.

This is funny coming from me because I’m on the record for being extremely critical of the Watson signing but they need to be all in on Watson this year. No ifs ands or buts. They need zero controversy.

I don't know if it will cost all the much. It won't be rookie money by any means, but Joe is at the point he has made big money and knows he is at the end of the string as a player. Moving around from town to town is a disruption. He seems to like his station in life right now and as you near the end of your career...any career, you just decide this is the place I want it to end, especially if you have accomplished most of your goals and you don't have to chase the $ any longer.

My only concern is if Joe is signed, there are enough people who just don't like Watson and with every incompletion, "We want Joe" chants will echo around the stadium. That's a disruption we don't need.