Cleveland Browns 2020 big bucks players: Who stays, who goes?

While it appears the Cleveland Browns have a lot of cap room to work with, the fact is they might have to make some tough choices in 2020

The Cleveland Browns have given several players big contracts in recent years, but the 2020 team is probably going to cut a few players and sign some others in order to get their salary cap in shape for 2020.

At the moment the Browns have overspent their annual cap allowance by about $30 million dollars. That’s covered by the huge carryover, some $55 million dollars worth, accumulated by John Dorsey‘s predecessor, Sashi Brown.

A a result, the Browns will carry over about $25 million next year. Overspending is an option next year, but not necessarily a smart idea, as they found out this year.

In round terms, the Browns are currently carrying $178 million worth of 2020 salaries on the books, with an expected cap allowance of $200 million. That leaves a budget of $22 million to sign draft picks, and sign free agents which may or may not include five major players who are currently on the team but not under contract in 2020 and thus will leave the team unless they are re-signed.

The first table is a decision matrix showing players who could be cut with a significant cap reduction in 2020, according to overthecap.com. As a summary of the cap rules, each NFL team can usually avoid paying a player’s salary, but bonus money is spread out over the length of the contract and is not returned.

The team has to charge any remaining bonus money to the season in which he is cut (cuts made later in the season can be charged over two seasons, but let’s forget about that for now).

“Dead money” refers to the bonus money that is charged to this year’s salary cap.  In a sense, it is money that the Browns will be charged for in order that the player can go play for another team. The main number is the number on the far right, which is money that the team will get back to the 2020 salary cap if they cut the player.

The next table shows the five players who are on their way out. It’s impossible to know how much it will cost the Browns to re-sign these players, but your humble analyst took a shot at it, shown in the column on the right.

Joe Schobert is going to get a big pay raise and will receive a multi-year contract with guaranteed bonus money. Whoever signs him — or any new multiyear contract — will probably obtain a much lower 2020 cap number by giving him a small 2020 salary but handing him an up-front check for his entire bonus.

The result is that the 2020 salary-cap charge will be smaller for a new contact, but it will probably have to increase in 2021 and beyond.