Cleveland Browns: 5 Ways Haslams can best help the team

5. Salary Cap Management

Just as the President gives a State of the Union address, the Haslams will assess the state of the team. However, to make a long story short, this team backslid from its performance under Gregg Williams in the second half of 2018. The offensive explosion did not continue with Freddie Kitchens as coach.

The Haslams will need to be told why they spent $23 million dollars over the salary cap for a team that was not dominant and got in its own way all too often. The 2019 team reversed the trends from the previous few years, trading away several draft picks and aggressively spending on salaries.

Consequently, the carryover stash, which was around $55 million last year, is around $32 million this year. It is all right to overspend if the team is in the hunt for a Super Bowl. It is not okay if the team is building and looking for a .500 finish.

While acknowledging that the blame can be spread between the front office, which had an overly optimistic view of the team’s ability, and a coaching staff that did not maximize the wins from the personnel, let’s give salary cap management a big fat juicy “F” this year. That has to be fixed.

Briefly, the team needs to establish budget guidelines to determine its spending level for 2020 through the next five years. That top-down structure will allow the team to determine who to re-sign and who to let go for next year, as well as the amount of money that can be used for new free agents.

Needless to say, ownership must clarify the marching orders. Is John Dorsey going to be directed to spend salary cap and future draft picks to win this year at the expense of future seasons?

Or will the Browns keep its draft picks and build a sustainable team? The team cannot expect the talent level of the team to continue to improve if they are trading away high draft picks, but they could create one shot to win it all.