Cleveland Browns: Dollars don’t add up for Gerald McCoy trade

A Cleveland Browns trade for defensive tackle Gerald McCoy sounds tantalizing, but the dollars may not add up when looking long term.

The Cleveland Browns are rumored to be interested in a trade for Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

CantonRep.com’s Steve Doerschuk wrote general manager John Doresy’s interested in McCoy is “Ongoing.”

Here’s why the Browns won’t make a trade for the 31-year-old.

He’s already 31 and has three years left on his contract and will earn $13 million in 2019, $12.5 million in 2020 and almost $13 million in 2021. McCoy led the Bucs with 21 quarterback hits last season. Despite the production, new coach Bruce Arians sees the writing on the wall. They have a player on the wrong side of 30 eating up a ton of cap space.

Besides, it’s unlikely he would start of Larry Ogunjobi, who’s playing on his rookie contract, or newly acquired free agent Sheldon Richardson.

As NFLSpinZone contributor Pete Smith pointed out, a trade of this magnitude could very well signal the end of a player for next season.

As Sportrac shows, The NFL salary cap is around $188 million. The Browns will pay out around $211 million to the roster and can do so because they rolled over around $56 million in cap space from 2018.

That leaves them with $33 million in cap space the season, which if they don’t use, can be rolled over into next season. If you add McCoy’s $13 million, that numbers falls to $20 million the Browns can carry over next season, so it’s not as much wiggle room as you’d think.

And yes, the salary cap will go up after the season, but during the 2020 offseason, it will time for the Browns to start working on an extension for 2017 first-round pick Myles Garrett. In the 2021 offseason, it will be time to line up extensions for Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward.

Paying to keep their own good players. It’s a concept foreign to Browns’ fans, but a good problem none-the-less.

So while the Browns are OK with their salary cap right now, adding another contract may have a ripple effect on the roster.

For example, the Browns have a potential out with Jarvis Landry after this season because he carries a $4.5 million “dead cap” hit. This term refers to the salary that counts against the cap even though the players is no longer on the team.

Landry, who is set to earn $14.5 million in 2020, carries an $18.5 million dead cap for 2019 season, just to give you an idea of how much this figure goes into the Browns’ favor when 2019 is finished.

Then there’s the Schobert extension. How plausible would it be for the 2016 draft pick to sign a lucrative deal with McCoy making nine figures?

Ultimately, if Dorsey really wants to add McCoy to this team, they’ll wait for the Bucs to flat out cut him. They obviously don’t want him and if they really had a serious buyer, they would’ve moved him before or during last weekend’s draft.

Once he becomes a free agent, McCoy can be had on the cheap, assuming he wants to play in Cleveland. That’s the problem with letting him hit the market. There’s 31 other teams out there who can make an offer.