Browns: Waiting doesn’t bode well for chances of signing J.J. Watt

Browns (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)
Browns (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) /
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Waiting doesn’t bode well for the Browns chances of signing J.J. Watt.

The longer the Browns have to wait, the more I fear their chances of signing J.J. Watt go down.

This assumption is based off the Browns having all of their cards in a row, particularly, with the salary cap. With news that salary cap will be $5 million higher than initially thought, Cleveland now has around $26 million in cap room.

It’s for this reason, I believe, Cleveland has made their offer to Watt. Now, it’s on J.J. If the Browns were at the top of his list, chances, are, he’d have signed.

Perhaps Watt is waiting for things to shake out the way he wants them to, meaning, either the Packers or Titans figure manipulate their cap enough to create room to sign him. The Packers have already started making financial moves, but with that said, the organization is still in a deficit. The Titans are still around $2 million over the cap as well.

Maybe Watt is waiting for teams to make their best offers and he’s put the Browns on hold. Time, as it always does, will tell.

Joe Thomas weighs in: We know the usual suspects when it comes to teams interested in Watt, but legendary Browns’ lineman Joe Thomas through out LA as the team he believes is Watt’s first choice.

“I think LA would probably be his first choice, because I know he wants to get into movies when he’s done playing,” Thomas told The Land on Demand (subscription).

Watt and Thomas both went to the University of Wisconsin, but Thomas was playing in the NFL by the time Watt started playing for the Badgers, missing him by two years.

They do have a relationship stemming from when Thomas trained in Madison during the lockout in 2011. Thomas said they don’t talk all that often, but every once in a while, they may “shoot [each other] a text.”

Remember these words: It was recently reported how quarterback would be one of the things Watt would look at in his new teams. The Rams made a huge move in according Matthew Stafford.

But as for that pesky cap space issue, the Rams are in a huge deficit, to the tune of $26 million. That will change once the Stafford deal becomes official, but they’ll still have some heavy lifting to do to get under.

Next. Rumor: Watt decision hinges on his thought of Baker Mayfield. dark

The other LA team has second-year veteran Justin Herbert at quarterback. A nice up-and-comer, but he’s probably not going to lead the Chargers to the Super Bowl next season.