Cleveland Browns: 3 second-wave free agent targets

2. Haason Reddick, EDGE

There were hopes that the Cleveland Browns were going to land one of the premier pass rushers but that never came to fruition. Names such as Carl Lawson, Bud Dupree, and Trey Hendrickson were all mentioned as possible fits but they each went elsewhere.

They also all got an awful lot of money with Dupree and Hendrickson getting more from their respective clubs than the Browns likely would have spent. For Hendrickson, he got $60 million over four years from the Bengals whereas Dupree landed a five-year deal worth up to $85 million from the Tennessee Titans.

Lawson ended up with the New York Jets for three-years and $45 million, which also may have been too steep for Cleveland who went after Takkarist McKinley instead. Takk wound up signing a one-year deal worth $4.25 million but the Browns might not be done adding defensive end help.

Should they still be in the market for a pass rusher, Haason Reddick could be worth a call. A former first-round pick, Reddick was originally used as an interior linebacker for the Arizona Cardinals and struggled in that role. Once they moved him to a pass-rushing role, he broke out with 12.5 sacks in 2020.

Listed at 6-foot-1 and 235-pounds, he might not seem like an ideal fit in the Browns defense but Joe Woods did use Olivier Vernon in a stand-up role at times. His flexibility with his defensive scheme could mean that a player such as Reddick could still be a possibility.