The Illegal Tampering portion of the NFL season is here. On February 27 the 2024 NFL Combine begins. Young draftable men will be running around in their shorts and t-shirts attempting to impress NFL front offices to draft them as high as possible. Draft experts will try and convince you as NFL fans, that this guy is the best value for your team. Browns twitter will pick their favorites and tell you they’re better at drafting players than Browns GM Andrew Berry. Ha. Yeah right, selecting for your fantasy draft is the same as a billion-dollar industry. Let’s recap where the Browns stand as of now.
With the news by Tom Pelissero, http://@TomPelissero that the NFL salary cap will be $255.4 million, you would think all Browns fans would be rejoicing. Andrew Berry has an extra $16 million to spend. The Browns are only $7.7 million over the cap according to https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space. But no, the Browns fan base who hated the Deshaun Watson trade are mad. Their “the Browns are going to be in salary cap hell because of the trade” argument went poof. I’m sorry people it’s basic economics, you have to spend money to make money and the NFL LOVES to make money. Bless their hearts. If you live in the south, you know what that means.
Let’s take a deeper dive into this new salary cap number. For those who have read my blogs in the past, you had to know I’m about to nerd out on the new salary cap news. I. Can’t. Help. Myself. If you watch my podcasts, my eyes are blinking to send help. The Browns incorporate a part of the NFL salary cap better than any other team known as cash spent. Its upfront cash given to players that does not, repeat, does not count against the salary cap. The Browns on average spend $50 million more in cash spent than any other NFL team. So because of the increase of $16 million, the Browns cash spent on payroll will go from about $292 million to about $308 million. Thank God Jimmy and Dee have that Warren Buffett money. This cash spent money allows the Browns to put up front cash directly into the players pockets when they sign. But wait, why doesn’t every team do this? Because not every team has filthy rich owners, a very creative team front office and an aggressive GM who can find talent. The next question you ask is when the NFL owners will put a stop this nonsense and salary cap wizardry. If they try, the players union will stop them at every turn. More money for the players is non-negotiable.
As Browns fans we are about to enter the part of the season that creates the most clickbait known to man, or woman. Remember, pick your source carefully. Chose a local Cleveland media member you can trust. Ignore the clickbait from the useless national media. Did you really think the Brown were going to cut Nick Chubb? Really? No freaking way and Mary Kay Cabot backed that up. By the way, have you noticed Mary Kay has been talking about WR Gabe Davis a lot? Just remember she talked about WR Elijah Moore last year. Food for thought. Finally, teams can now designate Franchise and Transitional players. To no one’s surprise, the Bengals Franchise tagged WR Tee Higgins. The tag number is estimated to be $21 million, which would be about 42% of Cincinnati’s salary cap savings. I can’t see them paying that much for the season, so they’ll ether have to negotiate a multi-year deal or trade him and no they won’t be trading him to the Browns. Stay safe and Go Browns.