With the emergence of Isaiah McGuire and the pending return of Alex Wright, the Browns had a bit of a logjam of edge rushers. They added Joe Tryon-Shoyinka and Julian Okwara in free agency as depth pieces as well, which decreased the need for former free agent addition Ogbo Okoronkwo.
On Thursday, the team announced they have signed kicker Andre Szymt and terminated Okoronkwo's contract. Per Spotrac, the Browns will save $3.3 million in 2025 cap space with the release, by taking on dead cap hits of $1.95 million this year and $4.75 million next season.
Browns release Ogbo Okoronkwo and sign kicker Andre Szymt
Okoronkwo signed with the Browns before the 2023 season on a three-year, $19 million contract. He put in a solid first season, grading in the top half of edge rushers with 12 tackles for loss including 4.5 sacks. Unfortunately, Okoronkwo took a step back in 2024 with the rest of the defense, and graded 192 out of 211 edge rushers with just five tackles for loss.
Anthony Reinhard pointed out Okoronkwo was owed $6 million for the season, but none was owed until his $3.3 million option bonus due August 30th, which always made him a late cut candidate. Reinhard suggests they could have been discussing a pay cut, delaying the move, but this had to happen after June 1st to spread out the dead cap hits over two seasons. Cleveland used their two post-June 1st designations on Dalvin Tomlinson and Juan Thornhill back in March, so they had to wait until this month to get the cap help this year.
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Since 2024 will be more of an evaluation year than a true contending year, it makes sense to allow McGuire and Wright to step into bigger roles to see if they can become staples of the defensive line going forward. Along with that, releasing Okoronkwo provided some instant cap relief. Tryon-Shoyinka and Okwara should be able to give them a bit more than Okoronkwo did in a rough 2024, and they created some cap flexibility.