Cleveland Browns: 5 Free agents who won’t be back in 2021

2. Olivier Vernon, EDGE

Ahead of last season, there were two members of the New York Giants that were traded to the Cleveland Browns and they were both former Pro Bowlers. Naturally, there was a lot of excitement with these moves as both Odell Beckham, Jr. and Olivier Vernon were supposed to become stars on their respective sides of the field.

Beckham ended up having a 1,000-yard receiving season but by his standards, it was a down year for him. As for Vernon, he struggled much more. Vernon finished with 26 tackles and 3.5 sacks and while he performed much better than those numbers indicate, he had a real problem staying on the field. Vernon, who missed a total of nine games in his final two seasons in New York, continued his trend of struggling to stay healthy.

Knee injuries hampered him in 2019 and forced him to miss six games. For that reason, there were rumors he wouldn’t even be on the team in 2020, but after renegotiating his deal to lower his cap hit, Vernon ended up making the team. So far in 2020, he struggled again with health early on and has missed two games, and was unable to register a sack until Week 8.

The good news is, he looked like his old self in that Week 8 game against Las Vegas and recorded two sacks. Sadly, Myles Garrett was on the sideline for much of that game, dealing with an ankle issue so we have yet to see both these guys at full health on the field together for much time at all.

If we hope to see that come to fruition, it will need to happen in these final eight games. Vernon lowered his salary in 2020 but the only way he returns in 2021 is by taking the veteran minimum. He’s a very talented player but with the issues Cleveland has had when it comes to health on defense, it’s highly unlikely Andrew Berry sinks much money in a guy who hasn’t played a full slate of games since 2016.