Why it makes excellent sense for Cleveland Browns, OBJ to renegotiate his contract

How the Browns create cap space by renegotiating

If the Browns do renegotiate, they are going to get a discount because of the bonus rules. If it is a three-year contract, the bonus money is charged to all three years of the contract, even though he gets the money immediately.

This is just too good of an opportunity to pass up.

For the moment, let’s suppose that they use the roughly same numbers that are in the current contract rounding off to $15 million a year for three years ($45 million over three years) to keep the math simple.

Let’s say they guarantee a little less than half, $21 million.  OBJ gets that money up front. He can put the extra in the bank, so he already benefits. But only one-third of that amount, $7 million, is charged to the 2021 cap.

The Browns can say, well, since we’re paying you this huge bonus, we’ll give you a low salary this year, say $1 million, then we’ll pay $11 million in 2022 and $12 million in 2023.

The cap charge for 2021 is $7 million, plus $1 million which equals $8 million, which cuts seven million from the current cap charge!

However in 2022, the Browns cap is charged $7 million, plus $11 for a total of $18 million, and in 2023 the total charge is $7 million, plus  $12 million for a total of $19 million

That is how the Browns would cut money from the 2021 salary cap by renegotiating the current contract and adding some additional guarantees.

In this example, it is assumed that the dollar value of OBJ’s contract would not change. In reality, this writer believes the entire NFL is going to see salaries shrink for a year or two because the Annual Salary Cap Allowance is tied to revenues, and since Covid prevents the usual attendance, there is just not going to be as much money spent on player salaries for the next few years.