{"id":849648,"date":"2026-04-02T17:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/849648\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T17:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T17:08:16","slug":"these-cleveland-browns-have-expiring-contracts-after-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/849648\/","title":{"rendered":"These Cleveland Browns Have Expiring Contracts After 2026 Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

With a few months to go before the start of the 2026 NFL Regular Season, it\u2019s always wise to keep one eye on the future.<\/p>\n

As the Cleveland Browns pile up a bunch of new contracts, either through free agency or the NFL Draft, and restructure a few more, it\u2019s always worth a while to take a look at expiring deals to get a sense at what the roster will need in the mid-term future.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a list of all 40 Browns players who are set to play on expiring contracts at the end of the upcoming NFL season:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s move onDeshaun Watson<\/p>\n

Not to pile on, but Cleveland just needs this to be over with<\/a>. Forget Jimmy Haslam\u2019s comments of Watson turning a \u201cswing and miss\u201d into a \u201chome run.\u201d This is without a doubt one of the worst trades in the history of the league, and the sooner the Browns get over it, the better.<\/p>\n

Bad news is, having Watson off the roster in 2027 doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019ll be off the books<\/a>. He\u2019ll likely account for around $35 million in dead money for 2027 and $51 million in 2028 due to the contract restructures done in the past, spreading out his hits over void years after the money has already been handed over. <\/p>\n

But not having Watson on the roster will nonetheless feel like a giant weight lifted off the Browns\u2019 collective shoulders, as they probably embark on yet another quarterback search.<\/p>\n

This could be an issueGrant Delpit, Maliek Collins, Ronnie Hickman, Dawand Jones, Corey Bojorquez, Andre Smzyt<\/p>\n

Ideally, Cleveland won\u2019t have to lose both starting safeties and both kicking specialists at once. That\u2019s why handing Hickman a multi-year deal now made sense, instead of just tendering him as a restricted free agent. Jones could find a way to make himself valuable enough<\/a> to keep around if the Browns\u2019 offensive line overhaul doesn\u2019t go as planned, and Collins already showed what he can do in this defense. Sure, he\u2019s days away from turning 31, but defensive tackle is a position that allows some longevity in the league.<\/p>\n

The one-year rentalsKalia Davis, Jack Stoll, Teven Jenkins, Tylan Wallace, Rex Sunahara<\/p>\n

In Jenkins and Sunahara\u2019s case, they were re-signed. At the moment, Jenkins is looking at possibly riding the bench once again, after Todd Monken\u2019s comments regarding Elgton Jenkins, and long snappers aren\u2019t usually a roster priority, which is bad news for Sunahara. Davis, Stoll and Wallace were brought in as free agents on low-level deals, so the team isn\u2019t betting too much on them.<\/p>\n

They need to really step upAhmani Marshall, Greg Larvadain, Nathaniel Watson, Winston Reid, Isaiah McGuire, Luke Wypler, Cedric Tillman, Jamari Thrash, Malachi Corley, Tre Avery, D\u2019Angelo Ross, Blake Whiteheart<\/p>\n

All of these players have been afforded the opportunity to leave a mark on game day, and seldom has that occurred. Larvadain could see his return specialist role threatened by Wallace, while Whiteheart could see the same happen with Stoll.<\/p>\n

Wideouts Tillman, Thrash and Corley haven\u2019t done remotely enough when seeing the field, and there\u2019s a lot of space to grow for cornerbacks Avery and Ross, as well. McGuire can make a difference if he commits. Linebackers Watson and Reid will get some chances as well. Wypler is the hardest one here to project, because as things stand now, he would have to step in as the team\u2019s starting center. It\u2019s very likely that his eventual substitute as part of the O-Line haul just hasn\u2019t arrived yet.<\/p>\n

Last chance to make something happenSam Kamara, Julian Okwara, Kendrick Green, Tyre Phillips, Brenden Bates, Sal Cannella, Caden Prieskorn, Edefuan Ulofoshio, Chris Edmonds, Kinglsey Eguakun, Dom Jones, Jeremiah Byers, Nik Constantinou, Isaiah Wooden, Jack Conley, Luke Floriea<\/p>\n

The team was probably high on a few names on this list, but returns have been minimal on all of them. These are players that are usually on the bubble week to week, and a number of these names won\u2019t make it past the final cuts when the regular season gets here. Others will find a way to latch on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With a few months to go before the start of the 2026 NFL Regular Season, it\u2019s always wise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-849648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-clevelandbrowns","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116336217735522475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849648","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}