5 worst Cleveland Browns cap moves of the 2022 offseason

3. David Njoku is being paid for future projections

David Njoku is one of my favorite players. He has endured a lot to get where he is and he has been a great teammate. He had been given a raw deal by coach Freddie Kitchens, who made him fifth string for a while. Njoku has become a superior blocking tight end and has a 67.1 catch percentage the past two years, with a yards-per-target average of 9.56.

For comparison purposes, Rob Gronkowski’s two-year record at Tampa bay is 60.2 percent, and yards-per-target is 8.6. This isn’t to say that Njoku is better than Gronk (perhaps Gronk is asked to make more difficult catches), but in some respects they are at a comparable level statistically.

Nobody complains about Gronkowski’s lousy hands. Nevertheless, in the comments below there will likely be a few complaints about Njoku’s supposed inability to catch footballs, as some corners of the Dawg Pound still believe in Kitchens’ opinion. Well, I’m right and Kitchens was wrong.

One difference between Njoku and Gronk is that Gronk’s quarterback liked to throw to him. The Bucs threw to Gronk once every 8.6 snaps, while the Browns threw to Njoku once every 13.2 snaps the past two years.

If you want to make excuses for Cleveland, it may be that the Browns preferred to keep Njoku in to take advantage of his blocking and send Hooper out for the pass. In addition, Brady can thread the needle as well as anyone, thus giving Gronk extra opportunities to catch passes. But if Njoku were playing in Tampa Bay, there isn’t much doubt what would happen, nor should there be much doubt what will happen with Deshaun Watson at the controls for Cleveland.

So it’s all good that they gave him the franchise tag. The tag is the right of each NFL team to tie one player to that team for a one-year contract at a rate set by the top five salaries at the position.

The franchise tag was set at $10.9 million for tight ends in 2022. That is a bargain. Njoku was under-utilized by Mayfield who seemed to have a problem with certain receivers in 2022. Odell Beckham Jr. was the most prominent case, but Mayfield went through streaks in which he seemed to be adverse to throwing to Nick Chubb, Donovan Peoples-Jones, and Njoku. His favorite receivers were Jarvis Landry and Austin Hooper, who just weren’t very productive in 2022.

However, why did the front office extend Njoku’s contract for four years? What’s the rush? Once again, they get a terrific discount for the 2022 Super Bowl run.

According to Over The Cap, Njoku’s hit for 2022 is now only $3.3 million. Then in 2023, it is $8.9 million, in 2024 it is $18.4 million, and in 2025 it’s $19.1 million. In 2026, Njoku will be a free agent, but the Browns will still be paying $5.5 million in the form of a “voidable year bonus.”

Here again, the GM is sandbagging the future as the franchise will be hurting for cap space. The salary cap is going to increase as NFL revenues increase and probably due to an inflating US economy, but it’s doubtful whether that is going to absorb the mammoth increase of contracts like Njoku’s.

Note that if Njoku were to star and then leave as a free agent, the Browns would qualify for a compensatory draft pick, worth in excess of $10 million dollars. If they just cut him, they get nothing.

This isn’t a complaint against Njoku’s quality of play or the amount of his contract. The complaint is that everything is being back-loaded so that the salary cap of the team is going to be choked off. To make a long story short, it doesn’t seem possible that they can afford to pay a tight-end $19.1 million. With depleted draft picks and limited cap space, what is the inevitable conclusion?