Browns fans have $32.5 million reasons to hate Cleveland’s slow start to free agency

As he showed once again with a cleverly-constructed free agent deal for guard Zion Johnson, GM Andrew Berry and the Cleveland Browns favor the long game with player contracts. The prototypical Browns contract includes back-loaded salary cap hits with void years, leading to frequent restructures and other cap gymnastics.

Those checks eventually come due, though. For the Browns, five player contracts were scheduled to void on Tuesday ahead of the official start of the new league year, per Spotrac, resulting in $32.5 million in accelerated 2026 dead-cap hits.

Through that lens, the Browns’ painfully slow start to the NFL’s legal tampering period is hardly a surprise. Aside from adding Johnson, and swapping Devin Bush for free agent linebacker Quincy Williams, Cleveland has taken its usual cautious approach to the first wave of free agency (to the chagrin of the fanbase).

Cleveland’s looming dead-cap charges could alter its approach to the 2026 free agency

The Browns have never been big spenders in free agency, ranking near the bottom of the NFL over the past five years. No owner has spent more real cash on player salaries over that same timeframe than Jimmy Haslam, though, and that’s hardly a coincidence.

Cleveland has committed hordes of future capital to its own draft picks and trade acquisitions, with Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, and Deshaun Watson at the top of the list. The immediate success of the team’s 2025 rookie class, especially linebacker Carson Schwesinger, could lead to more contract extensions down the line.

The team has been less inclined to engage in bidding wars for free agents on the open market, which might explain why it couldn’t really compete for Tyler Linderbaum and his wild, $81 million deal with the Las Vegas Raiders.

These five contracts that are set to void definitely add another degree of difficulty, though, with one of them clearly standing out above the rest.

The name Browns fans have been watching for is left guard Joel Bitonio, who has three options on the table. He could choose to retire, which would allow the team to spread his remaining cap charges over the next two years. He could choose to return to Cleveland for a 13th season via an extension. Or he could decide to leave Cleveland and enter free agency for the chance to play for a contender, resulting in an accelerated cap hit of $23.5 million. 

The other cap hits are manageable, with Ethan Pocic’s dead-cap hit leading the group at $4.3 million. The others are Devin Bush, who’s now with Chicago and will count for $1.4 million on Cleveland’s cap, Shelby Harris ($2 million) and Teven Jenkins ($1.2 million).

Really, this all traces back to Bitonio’s uncertain situation. And while the team did right by a player who will one day enter its Ring of Honor, Berry also created this mess via a 2025 restructure that converted Bitonio’s contract into a one-year deal worth $15 million with four void years.

Bitonio deserves the right to take his time and contemplate his future, and that decision is imminent. But the Browns have little choice but to stand pat in the interim.