Dawgs By Nature
Whenever the NFL salary cap is discussed related to the Cleveland Browns, QB Deshaun Watson’s contract is always the first talking point. The reality is that the Browns would have been happy to pay Watson that amount of money, and more, if he performed as he did with the Houston Texans. “Guaranteed” doesn’t really matter with great quarterbacks; they will see all their money or get a huge extension.
Under GM Andrew Berry, much like Philadelphia Eagles GM Howie Roseman, Cleveland’s salary cap has been a very creative and flexible tool used to try to put the team in a position to be successful. Had Watson been even a good quarterback, the Browns roster was set up to win games right away with this approach:
With the failure of the Watson trade, everything else looks worse, including the amount of dead cap space used on players no longer on the team.
Dead cap space is another tool used by teams to have lower cap responsibilities in the present while paying off those responsibilities later at a discounted rate. For example, $10 million spent on a $200 million cap costs 5% of the cap. The same $10 million costs just 4% of a $250 million cap.
With the way that the NFL salary cap is rising, dead cap, void years, and restructuring are smart ways for good teams to improve their present-day roster. If Watson were a quality starter, pushing salary cap hits for players like WR Amari Cooper into later years would have made sense. Instead, Cooper has retired after being traded to the Buffalo Bills and then signing with the Las Vegas Raiders this offseason.
Despite being on two different teams and now being retired, the Browns have one of the highest dead cap hits in the league this year due to Cooper’s contract:
WR Amari Cooper, Browns: $22.584 million
It was clear that Cooper didn’t fit into Cleveland’s long-term plans. His efforts for a new deal were rebuffed. Instead, $5 million of not likely to be earned incentives were added to his contract giving him the opportunity to earn $25 million instead of the $20 million he was originally scheduled to make in 2024.
As a part of the reworked contract, $18.79 million of the $20 million was turned into a signing bonus where dummy/voiding 2027 and 2028 contract years were inserted into the deal for proration purposes. The bulk of Cooper’s dead money ($15.032 million) is from this contract maneuver.
The writer, former agent Joel Corry, does a good job of explaining why and where the dead cap hits come from.
The list of the biggest dead cap hits this year is an amazing one, full of players on their second or third teams, or retired like Cooper, but still costing their former teams a lot of cap space.
All and all, Cleveland is paying over $60 million in dead cap to 13 players, with a lot of that being Cooper.
