Joe Schobert effect: Next 3 Cleveland Browns Andrew Berry could replace

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2. Christian Kirksey, LB

The story of Christian Kirksey has been a pretty depressing one over the past few seasons. He is an incredibly talented linebacker but has had his career derailed by injuries. He’s only been able to play 9 games out of the past two years, and has been making a large amount of money during that time span.

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With a cap salary of around $9 million for the next season, he would be making near the amount of money that Joe Schobert was asking for. If Schobert wasn’t worth $10 million a year to Andrew Berry, then Christian Kirksey is likely not worth $9 million.

The Browns could save about 4.3 million dollars in cap space when you factor in the dead cap the team would take on. The team could invest this money into helping pay for a player with fewer injury concerns, or just save the cap space for later ventures.

The only thing helping Kirksey’s case is the fact that the team would take on $2,400,000 in dead money for 2020 and $1,200,000 in dead money in 2021. Cleveland is paying enough money to former members of the franchise to not play for them, so they might not be willing to pay Kirksey $3.6 million over the next two years to play for someone else.

If Kirksey is cut, the team would also have no seasoned veterans at the linebacker position. Mack Wilson and Sione Takitaki would be the projected starters for 2020 then, so that would create an even bigger need than they already have at the linebacker position.

I do think, however, that he will likely not be on the Cleveland Browns in 2020. I would love to see Kirksey in a Browns uniform again, but I do not think his contract is team-friendly enough for the front office to want to keep him.

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