Every Cleveland Browns player that will be a free agent in 2021

Olivier Vernon, DE

Let’s start off with who will likely be the most expensive to retain of the bunch. Olivier Vernon has been undoubtedly playing his best football as a member of the Cleveland Browns this season. He’s been healthy this season, playing in 13 of 15 possible games. He should be able to finish out and play in the Browns’ final game, meaning this will be the most games he has played in a season since his 2016 campaign with the Giants.

Vernon has been a great complimentary player opposite of the Browns superstar defensive end Myles Garrett, and the two have combined for a total of 20 sacks this season. Garrett and Vernon are the first pair of Browns players to both have seven-plus sacks in the same season since 2004, where Ebenezer Ekuban and Kenard Lang had eight and seven sacks respectably.

Along with his eight sacks, Vernon has stepped up when the Browns have needed him the most. All of his sacks this year have come in three games, two against the Raiders and the second game against the Ravens, and three against the Eagles. All three of these were hard-fought games where the Browns were either playing against potential playoff teams or were missing Myles Garrett, in the case of the Eagles game.

With his talent, it would only make sense to bring Olivier Vernon back to the Browns. However, there are two things stopping this from happening. First, he is currently 30 years old and will be 31 next season. Second, he is currently making $11 million on his contract, so he will have an expensive price tag.

If the Browns can retain Vernon on a one or two year deal around the amount of money he is making right now, it would make sense for both sides. This will be the toughest decision Andrew Berry has to make on this list in my opinion, as the defensive end is one of the hardest positions in football to find a truly great player like Vernon at.