“(Grant) Delpit is still playing at a high level. It can be hard to judge safety play, whether you use statistics or scouting, but Sports Info Solutions ranked him seventh among all safeties in its "total points saved" metric last season.”
Those two sentences from ESPN’s analytics expert Aaron Schatz kind of say it all for the Cleveland Browns.
General manager Andrew Berry and the front office have had an extremely busy offseason, dating all the way back to their long head coach search back in January. Why they haven’t yet taken care of what seems like a rather straightforward extension for starting safety Grant Delpit remains one of the team’s more puzzling storylines entering training camp.
Delpit’s contract is set to void 23 days before the start of the NFL’s 2027 league year, which should fall around President’s Day. If the Browns don’t sign him to an extension prior to that date, he would become a priority free agent.
Cleveland did use some of its elite 2026 draft capital to trade up on Day 2 for safety Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, so the Browns have some leverage in contract negotiations. Ronnie Hickman recently signed a restricted free agent tender, though, so neither of the Browns’ returning starters at safety are currently under contract beyond the 2026 season.
In Schatz’s view, Cleveland’s next offseason move should be a no-brainer:
“He'll be 29 years old for the 2027 season and could still play an important role on defense if the Browns are actually more successful at rebuilding this time,” he wrote of Delpit. “He would be a good veteran to keep around for the next couple of seasons.”
Why Grant Delpit’s looming contract year clouds his future in Cleveland
The Browns’ front office has routinely mirrored the strategies of the Philadelphia Eagles, where Berry was once mentored under GM Howie Roseman. Through that lens, it’s hard not to compare Philly’s recent situation with safety Reed Blankenship entering 2025 with where Cleveland currently stands with Delpit.
Blankenship was a solid, multi-year starter for the Eagles and was due for a contract extension last spring that never came. Roseman first created leverage by using a second-round pick on Andrew Mukuba in the 2025 draft. He then let the situation play out with Blankenship, who wound up getting his pay day as a free agent in the form of a three-year, $25 million deal with the Houston Texans.
The glaring difference with the Browns and Delpit is that Blankenship was a former undrafted rookie the Eagles signed in 2022. Delpit was the No. 44 overall pick in the 2020 draft whose play has warranted a new deal. His projected market value thus goes well beyond Blankenship’s annual value of $8.25 million. Spotrac expects Delpit’s next deal to double that figure on average.
Delpit’s next contract should probably fall somewhere between the Rams’ Kamren Curl (three years, $36 million) and the Cardinals’ Budda Baker (three years, $54 million). Even if the number falls closer to $13 million per year on average, that would be a sizable investment into a position group that’s been devalued in the modern NFL.
In the spring, teams these days are more likely to draft a veteran safety’s replacement than they are to make a sizable financial commitment into future years. The Browns are already preparing for that potential reality with McNeil-Warren’s rookie-scale contract joining the mix this offseason.
In broader terms, Schatz is spot-on. Delpit has been a reliable, impact starter on one of the best defenses in football in recent seasons. His extension isn’t expected to come close to the top of the market, like Kyle Hamilton’s unicorn $100 million deal with the Ravens. This feels like an easy move for Cleveland to make on paper.
But Berry learned how to play the game from one of the best in Roseman, and at positions like running back, safety, and inside linebacker, this is how that game is played. If Delpit’s contract issue drags into the regular season, like Blankenship's did in 2025, the chances of him landing his next deal with Cleveland will start to decrease with each week.
Add us as a preferred source on Google