Dawgs By Nature
In the NFL, there are generally three tiers of teams when it comes to the salary cap: 1) Those who are all in on the season, no matter the cost, 2) Those who are thinking about both this year and the future and 3) Those teams focused almost only on the future salary cap.
The Cleveland Browns went from the first tier over the last few seasons to the second this year as the roster and salary cap needed a bit of a soft reset. The salary cap has continued to see boons over the last few years, including due to a change in how Nielsen Ratings were processed. For the Browns, QB Deshaun Watson’s contract will be a big conversation until his contract is off the books, but even releasing K Dustin Hopkins impacted the team’s salary cap.
Creative teams see the salary cap as an accounting tool that they can work around with the use of signing bonuses, void years and contract restructures. Other teams struggle to afford or understand how to work the cap in those ways. The defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles are the masters of working the cap.
While Cleveland hasn’t had the success on the field that Philadelphia has, GM Andrew Berry has modeled his contracts and salary cap decisions after the organization he spent one season with, including constantly restructuring deals to create rollover cap or free agent/trade options. Just prior to Week 1, Berry restructured Browns CB Denzel Ward’s deal to continue after what he learned from the Eagles:
As always, Jack Duffin is the salary cap expert, especially with all the nuances of Berry’s contract work. Duffin noted that the Ward move leaves the team with the 13th most cap space in the NFL, but they could create more, although it is unlikely:
The two largest remaining base salaries for the Cleveland Browns are Greg Newsome and Ethan Pocic. If they were to do anything with these contracts it would have less impact now week one has been played as the eighteenth of their base salary is already earned and can’t be manipulated.
While it is unlikely that Berry restructured the deal to make a big trade, the cap space does provide flexibility now and rollover cap for 2026, which is vital given the number of pending free agents on the Browns roster currently.
