The Cleveland Browns might be considering releasing Jarvis Landry to save money and look to rebuild the wide receivers room next season, and one writer thinks this will come to fruition
There’s been a lot of speculation swirling around the Cleveland Browns and their wide receiver Jarvis Landry because according to some sports media outlets Landry could be a cap casualty this offseason. The team could save over $15 million if they released him, according to a recent story by Andrew Falce of the NFL Spin Zone.
According to Falce, the team has a healthy cap to spend on new players and free agents but freeing up the expensive cost of keeping a receiver that hasn’t lived up to the hype, would give the team even more money to try and attract more significant free agents.
This past season, Landry struggled on the field and had one of his worst seasons on record. He only finished with 570 yards receiving on 52 catches. He only played in 12 games and scored just two touchdowns. All these statistics were the lowest in his career. He’s one of the league’s highest-paid receivers, so the output has not been up to the money he’s been earning.
With Cleveland trying to decide what they do at the quarterback position and if they’ll sign Baker Mayfield to a new contract, the opportunity for the team to move on without Landry might be the best move and give him a chance to begin a new and have a fresh start with a different team. Let’s look at these topics about Landry and see if releasing him would be the best move.
Cleveland Browns: Money saved
The Browns would be saving a lot of money if they were to release Landry. Right now, the team has around $37 million in cap space to sign new players this offseason. There will be numerous moves by the organization but releasing Landry soon would give the team more money to attract more high-profile free agents.
Cleveland Browns: The time is right
When Landry’s best friend Odell Beckham Jr. was released by the Browns this past November, Landry was emotionally hurt and missing his former teammate. He hasn’t said much of anything publicly about Beckham’s departure.
Instead, he’s been critical of the Browns offense and himself not getting the ball enough this season. While he hasn’t said much about his support to his team, he’s gone out of his way recently to praise his friend Beckham Jr. and him making it to the Super Bowl.
His numbers have dwindled these last three seasons in Cleveland too. He had 83 catches for 1,174 yards two years ago. That fell to 72 catches and 840 yards a year ago and now he’s bottomed out at 570 yards. He’s never been a high producer of scoring touchdowns.
His high mark was nine touchdowns in 2017 when he was still playing with the Miami Dolphins. In his time with the Browns, he’s only caught 15 touchdowns over the four seasons. That’s not enough for a player the team is paying $15 million.
If Cleveland does release Landry, it would give both sides a new beginning. The Browns are trying to figure out what they’re going to do at the quarterback position. The team says that they are moving forward with their current quarterback Baker Mayfield, but they haven’t signed him to a new contract and now the quarterback is recovering from surgery he just had on his injured shoulder.
Cleveland went the wrong direction this season and finished with a record of 8-9 after having a playoff season the year before. The disappointment felt amongst the organization and its fans has been felt especially these last several weeks since the season ended.
When Landry came to the Browns in a trade with the Dolphins back in 2018, much was anticipated with his arrival. Unfortunately, he hasn’t produced enough to warrant continuing the journey with a player that seems like he already has one foot out the door.
It will be a wait-and-see game with an impending release of the wide receiver on the horizon. It makes too much sense to not release Landry now and save a ton of money for the team.
Cleveland Browns: New talent will be drafted
The other part of this possible release of Jarvis Landry for the team is that the Browns have a high draft pick in the first round at No. 13 and likely will be targeting a wide receiver. They also have several other draft picks where the team might pick up a second wide receiver.
Some of the stars coming in at wide receiver this offseason include Garrett Wilson out of Ohio State, Treylon Burk from Arkansas, and Drake London out of USC — and all could potentially be available for the Browns to try and draft.
In addition, there are numerous free-agent wide receivers that the team might want to try and sign. Mike Williams, a free agent after playing with the Los Angeles Chargers the last several years might be someone Cleveland would try and go after. Or there’s a player like Chris Godwin, from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who might be interested in going to a new team like the Browns.
The Buccaneers star quarterback Tom Brady just retired earlier this week and some of the Tampa Bay players might be looking for a new home.
Either direction the team decides to go or a combination of both would signal that Landry’s time in Cleveland might be coming to an end.
Landry has had many fine moments in Cleveland but many of those types of moments have become more and more scattered. Saving money and knowing that the team can rebuild their wide receiver room sounds like the best move for both the team and player.