Hi, back again with some more off-season content.

I've made an overview of our roster for the upcoming season with who I think we'll keep, where we'll spend in Free Agency, what position we'll draft players in, how we'll spend our money etc.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZxHJVbN9EIyYnrGDb8BOAoYQCTv-CC9aORUZe8L_igE/edit?usp=sharing

Below I'll explain what I've done.

Money

First of all, we'll be looking at how much money we have to spend. The salary cap usually grows at about 8% per year. The current salary cap is $279.2M, an 8% increase would put it at $301.5M.

Because the salary cap is easily manoueuvrable, I won't go into much detail as Berry and co. plan this out very well so that we can spend our cash budget without going over the cap.

The Browns' cash budget is usually 120% of the Salary Cap meaning the Cash Budget is likely to be $361.8M.

Our current cash spending (with 53 man roster candidates) is at $202M, $10M of that are likely roster cuts putting it at $192M current spend. Our draft class will cost around $55M in cash for the first year meaning our free agency budget is around $100M. It's actually higher than that but we'd likely leave some cash for in-season moves.

Extension/Re-Signing Candidates

We have quite a few free agents coming up that I think we'd like to keep.

  • Ronnie Hickman, RFA

  • Mohamoud Diabate, RFA

  • Rex Sunahara, ERFA

  • Andre Szmyt, ERFA

  • Teven Jenkins, UFA

  • Wyatt Teller, UFA

  • David Njoku, UFA

The last two have three reasons why I'd like to keep them. For one, they are hard-working players who love Cleveland and have played at Pro Bowl+ level. They're coming off bad seasons for their historical level which means they likely have a bad market and could be relatively cheap to re-sign. Finally, re-signing them would save around $21M on the cap.

In the Sheet, I have allocated money for all these free-agents. RFA's will get around $3.5M next season, ERFA's cost vet min.

Free Agency Needs

There's 3 main needs I see for us which is QB, OT and WR. For this reason I have allocated $20M for those spots each as that was around the top of the market at those positions in Free Agency last off-season.

Outside of that we have the remaining needs:

  • Cornerback depth (Emerson is an option here)

  • Defensive End (Thomas is an option here)

  • Punter (Bojo was the worst ranked Punter in EPA this season)

  • Safety

Draft Needs

The main draft need as with any team without a QB, is a QB. With Mendoza and Moore likely being gone before us, I doubt we draft a QB in the first round.

The other two main needs are WR and OT, I expect us to draft both in the first round.

Our other main need with Jenkins' injury history and Teller's aging is a Guard.

We lack an impact SLOT player so I'd love to get someone like Kamari Ramsay, Dillon Thieneman or Emmanuel McNeil-Warren. I think one of them would add an extra dimension to our defense.

Another piece we could definitely use is a good blocking TE, Max Klare from OSU would seemingly fit this role with potential in the receiving game too.

If we don't draft a QB, we have the picks to add BPA on offense.

Outside of that we mostly need depth at DL, CB, S and LB, we can tick these off with the rest of our picks.

Draft Priority

1 (Starting Roles) QB, WR, OT

2 (Fringe Starters) OG, TE, SLOT

3 (Depth) Offense, DL, CB, S, LB

In the Sheet you can see how we could solve all these needs in both the draft and free agency. We have plenty of money and the 2nd most draft capital to solve it.

If you have any questions or suggestions, let me know!

9 comments

  1. Well thought out and researched, made me forget this was Reddit for a minute.

    The Browns cap issues are way overblown in the media and fandom.

    Thank you for the work.

  2. Im definitely saving this for later!!! Thank you!

    Edit – why did I get downvoted lmfao. I cant read the whole thing now and will have to read it after work. You Reddit people are weird

  3. Devin Bush I think has to be added to the Re-sign candidate section

    He likely has done enough this year to be priced out of what we’d probably want to spend and a team desperate for a LB might throw 10M+ a year at him

    But until the new league year kicks in we should be trying to retain him

    Bush/Carson duo was very very good and there’s still uncertainty around JOK, if JOK is done done then Bush is a must keep, because if he walks, then JOK is done and I don’t think we spend big in FA on LB so we’d be looking at using a 3rd/4th on a rookie which isn’t the worst outcome but still a new hole for a draft pick to fill

  4. I like your plan but what do you see as the likely QB solution, given that we’re most likely out of reach to address it with Mendoza or Moore?

    Is Kirk finally out of contract? Do we go with some other potentially cheap veteran?

    Is it going to be Shedeur, some guy who falls to Day Two, and a cheap veteran maybe?

    Or do you think that kind of thing might be subject to the choice of HC?

  5. Still can’t believe we will miss out on Mendoza.

    I’m not a fan of moving up or down in the draft. We have to many holes and need those to be filled.

    I haven’t been this apathetic of the Browns in a long, long time. Unless we bring in a veteran QB, we need to get ready for another 3-4 win season.

  6. For the Punter EPA; how do they determine that?

    When i think of the punting game I think of poor coverage from our Special Team players. It ia possible that Bojo has not kicked where intended.

  8. 6 – Mauigoa or favorite WR (mine is Lemon rn, subject to change)

    24 – Lomu/Pregnon/Boston

    39 – Thieneman/Bell

  9. I’m willing to bet Bojos leg just got tired from punting so much. Dude has a cannon for a leg

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