Browns whiffed on trade deadline with only Za'Darius Smith and Amari Cooper moves

The 2024 offseason saw the Browns propose a later trade deadline so teams had more time to evaluate themselves and determine if they wanted to make a playoff push or try to stockpile picks for the next year's draft. An extra week was granted, and the Browns hoped to be buyers in the first week of November.

Unfortunately, that isn't the case as Cleveland is tied for the worst record in football, and off-loaded contributing veteran players rather than adding pieces for the stretch run of the regular season. But why weren't more deals made by general manager Andrew Berry?

Read more: Andrew Berry offers zero hope for future of Browns in bye week press conference

Things on the field began to go south for the Browns late in September, and a five-game losing streak coupled with losing starting QB Deshaun Watson for the season should have been the light-bulb moment to prepare the team for a fire sale. Every roster has "untouchable" players, but that list should have been paper thin for the 2024 Cleveland Browns.

Veteran players on expiring contracts are perfect trade candidates, but the Browns only traded away Za'Darius Smith and Amari Cooper. These deals brought back multiple picks but other opportunities were there given the proven talent on the roster, and the Browns couldn't get it done.

To answer the question above, yes, the Browns missed a chance to stockpile picks to prepare for an important 2025 draft. There are two reasons this happened - hanging onto the feeling that this team is a quarterback away from returning to the playoffs, and money. The second reason is easier to explain.

Many of your tradable players (David Njoku and Greg Newsome to name a couple) have bigger salary cap hits this season, and the Browns didn't want to eat the money to have those guys play for other teams. That doesn't explain why guys like Elijah Moore or Shelby Harris weren't moved. You're 2-7, the season is cooked, the WR trade market was hot, every team needs defensive line depth late in the season, and both cap hits were $3.1M or less. They easily could have been flipped for picks.

The first reason is a bit tougher to talk through. On paper, this roster was built for the playoffs coming into the season. There were obvious questions at quarterback and offensive line, but the defense returned many key pieces and the expectation was for this team to make a deep playoff run. A lot of critical players are under contract for 2025 so I understand the hesitation to blow things up, but this management group has favored draft capital in the past and surprisingly, they didn't look to add more from a lost season.

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