Browns salary cap issues are a myth since there is no cap, No Cap

Chicken Little is crying out that the cap will kill the Cleveland Browns next season. The boogeyman salary cap is as real as the monster under your bed. Neither is real. But they scare a lot of people.

The Cleveland Browns upsetting contract with Deshaun Watson is described as the harbinger of salary cap hell. Hailed as the $230-million disaster, Watson has a salary cap hit of roughly $55 million in the 2023 NFL season. That number, detractors say, is the largest for any player in NFL history.

The coming of Salary Cap Apocalypse

Surely, Watson's outrageous cap number will bring about the salary cap apocalypse heralding the coming of the four horsemen with their riders named poverty, pestilence, COVID-19, and Jimmy Haslam. The NFL's only hope against the beast unleashed by Browns general manager Andrew Berry is prayer, penance, and a new contract for Lamar Jackson.

But Lo! A voice cries out. It is a soft voice. It is barely heard much less harkened to. It is a voice that fails to generate clicks and views. It is the voice of Reason. If one should happen to hear the voice of reason, stop, quiet yourself and pay attention. For you are about to hear the truth.

The voice of Reason speaks. It says: the salary cap is a myth. There is no cap. No cap.

Well, there is a cap. But it is so easily manipulated that it is basically non-existent. For example, the New Orleans Saints were roughly $24 million over the current cap. This gave them the third-highest cap overage in the NFL. How did they fix that? By signing quarterback Derek Carr to a $150 million 4-year contract including $100 million in guarantees. Are these the actions of a team worried about the salary cap?

The Saints, those holy men, harken to the voice of Reason. They know the truth. The salary cap is a myth. There is no cap. No cap.

There are so many ways to manipulate the cap that it becomes virtually non-existent. The Browns are already subverting the cap by doing this.