3 Cleveland Browns upcoming trades that will have you talking
By John Suchan
Cleveland Browns potential trade No. 2: D’Ernest Johnson to Houston
D’Ernest Johnson seems to be the odd man out in the Browns running back room. Despite the recent signing of a new one-year deal, the Browns would only be out on about $151,000 in dead cap money and save a bit over $1 million in team cap.
If Cleveland was to trade Kareem Hunt here instead, they’d save over $6 million in cap space, but I can’t see the Browns at this stage trading both Baker Mayfield and Kareem Hunt this offseason.
Though that would be the better move financially at this point because Hunt’s more valuable in trade, that might be too much to try in an offseason that has already had its share of fireworks.
Back in Houston, the Texans have simply been awful in their run game. Giving Johnson a new chance with the Texans to be the outright No. 1 running back would bode well for both. The Texans did draft a running back from Florida named Dameon Pierce who was pretty productive as a Gator. Giving Pierce a chance to learn behind a more veteran player like Johnson would certainly make the Texans run game better in time.
Either way, if you look at this deal, Johnson or even Hunt being traded to the Texans would be a good deal for Houston because they have been so bad in the run game. It also seems like Houston has been a place that former Browns have gone to including Carlos Hyde and Duke Johnson.
Hyde was the starting running back for the Browns in 2018 before he was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the early part of the year when Nick Chubb took the lead role. The following year he went to the Texans in a trade from the Kansas City Chiefs, who he had signed a free-agent contract with him in the spring of 2019.
Also going to the Texans was Duke Johnson in 2019, right before the season started in a trade. So, at the start of the 2019 season both Browns 2018 running backs were now Houston Texans. Both teams have done plenty of business together in recent seasons so stay tuned.