5 Cleveland Browns who are coming back no matter what

Denzel Ward

You know that fancy new contract Denzel Ward got that he probably shouldn’t have? Trading him next year after June 1, the least expensive option to rid the Browns of his salary, will still cost the team north of $35 million across the next two seasons. So the team will still have to pay him even if he’s gone. That’s how dead cap money works. Dead cap money still counts against the Browns regardless of the year. The team will still pay Austin Hooper $3.7 million next year for releasing him when they did.

And the Browns have far more of those types of contracts to worry about. Amari Cooper will get paid $7+ million for two years by the Browns no matter where he ends up after his contract ends. So if Cooper leaves in 2025 and signs with the Steelers (for the sake of argument), the Browns will still owe him around $15 million over the ’25 and ’26 seasons and it will count against the cap.

Andrew Berry isn’t making the debt go away, he’s just making his successor deal with it. That’s why Ward’s deal is so damning. Ward, despite claims from some, has always been inconsistent, long before Joe Woods arrived in Cleveland (are we forgetting 2019?)

So giving him such a massive contract will only further look worse and worse especially if he doesn’t rebound. His cap hit and the cap hit of all the other players are going to work in congress to make it impossible to cut or trade him.

If he were the only player you were still paying off, maybe you can justify it, but considering he’s not going to be, and you’re already looking at gobs of dead cap money piling up, there’s no reason to think about trading Ward. He’s going to count anywhere from $20-$39 million against the cap at some point over the next three seasons.

Browns faithful better hope he outplays his 2022 season, otherwise, woof.