Pro Football Rumors
Shortly after the Browns traded friend and longtime teammate Myles Garrett to the Rams on June 1, cornerback Denzel Ward expressed a desire to remain in Cleveland. Ward does indeed remain “fully bought in” as the career-long Brown enters his ninth season, sources told Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com.
While signs are pointing to Ward beginning the 2026 campaign with the Browns, the chances of a move could increase if they are far enough down in the standings around the Nov. 3 trade deadline. Considering the Browns are in a rebuild and stuck in a division with three playoff hopefuls (Baltimore, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh), odds are they will be out of the race on deadline day. Ward will change hands by then, one general manager told Jason La Canfora of SportsBoom.
“Do I think Ward goes, too? Yeah, I do,” the GM said. “This isn’t a June 1 think like the other one (Garrett). But by the deadline.”
If an in-season trade comes together, Ward could be more than a rental for an acquiring team. Thanks to the five-year, $100.5MM extension he signed in 2022, the 29-year-old is under contract for two more seasons. Ward is due a $16.9MM base salary this year, about half of which will be paid by the deadline, and $17.4MM in 2027.
On the field, Ward will attempt to improve on the career-low one interception he registered in 15 games in 2025. Although Pro Football Focus ranked Ward an unspectacular 67th among 112 qualified corners, he nonetheless earned his third straight Pro Bowl nod and the fifth of his career. Since the Browns drafted Ward fourth overall in 2018, the Ohio native and former Ohio State Buckeye has piled up 104 passes defensed and 18 picks over 110 games and 107 starts.
“He’s still playing at a really high level,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry said of Ward after the Garrett trade (via Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk). “That doesn’t change with this transaction.”
While Berry looks poised to keep Ward for now, the defender could be popular in trade talks in a few months. If Berry receives a tempting enough offer leading up to the deadline, he may part with another of the Browns’ longtime defensive linchpins.
