How Andrew Berry can create additional Cleveland Browns draft picks
1. Obtain Picks in Exchange for Assuming Unfavorable Contracts
Salary cap dollars can be used to assume a toxic contract from another team in salary cap trouble. This was the case with Brock Osweiler in 2017. After flopping as the starting quarterback for Houston, everyone suddenly realized that he was not worth nearly as much as he was getting paid.
He was kind of like that sports car you buy with very little down payment. When you try to trade it in after six months, you find you owe more than the car is worth and you actually have to pay to get rid of it.
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Thus in 2017, the Browns agreed to absorb Osweiler’s salary ($15,225,000) and also received a second-round draft pick for the trouble. They didn’t give anything up other than salary cap dollars.
That draft pick, incidentally, was used to draft Georgia running back Nick Chubb, so there is no excuse for thinking that analytics-based trades are worthless.
Why did the Texans agree to this? Well, they pretty much decided they did not like him from the moment the ink was dry on the contract.
Rumor has it that he had a physical altercation with head coach Bill O’Brien. But by assigning his contract to the Browns, the Texans got to immediately take $15.3 million dollars off their payroll (salary cap), and were able to sign free agents with that money.
This is a classic case of a win-win trade. However it takes rather unique circumstances for this type of trade to work out, and so it is not very common.
The team has to be in immediate cap trouble (i.e., overspent in the 2020 cap), and have one or two high-value players that they really want badly to unload.