247Sports Embed Resource
I have written some articles about the Cleveland Browns looking at how they can be competitive in 2025 but some people seem committed to the full tear down and rebuild of the roster in one offseason. So in the sprit of giving everything a look let us play out the scenario of what that would look like and how it would play out.
Here is a quick recap of those articles if you missed them:
Cleveland Browns 2025 Salary Cap Space, How Bad Is It (Spoiler they will be fine in 2025)
OBR VIP - Creating More 2025 Cleveland Browns Cap Space & A Projected Roster (Spoiler, they can lead the league in spending again in 2025)
Rebuilding The Cleveland Browns For 2025 (Look at a potential roster after free agency)
I know it isn't always the chronological order but the way I will look at the process during this article:
- Trading Players
- Cutting Players
- Remaining Roster
- Draft Picks
- Free Agency Budget
At the time of writing the Cleveland Browns the Cleveland Browns are set to rollover $45,215,800 of cap space, the projected 2025 salary cap for the 2025 season is $272.5m per Over The Cap. I would add on potentially another $10m for injury protection and incentives that they will gain in salary cap adjustments. So this gives the team a 2025 salary cap budget of $327.5m in 2025.
Trading Players
Let's say they trade away four players:
Myles Garrett goes to the Eagles for their 2025 & 2026 first round picks
Denzel Ward goes to the Lions for their 2025 first round pick
David Njoku goes to the Commanders for their 2025 second round pick
Greg Newsome goes to the Eagles for their 2026 fifth round pick
For me these are the four veteran players that I believe are realistic trade targets for other teams.
Cutting Players
They already have 2025 dead cap for a handful of players:
Amari Cooper
Za'Darius Smith
Quinton Jefferson
Siaki Ika
David Bell
Nathaniel Watson
(Bell and Watson were cut in 2024 and then re-signed, due to their rookie signing bonuses the team take the dead cap on from that, it doesn't reset once they rejoin the team)
They decide to make the immediate move on from Deshaun Watson, you keep him until the 2nd of June 2025, restructure him and then cut him. His future $46m of guarantees would land on the 2025 salary cap though as this money escalates up the salary cap.
This would mean the dead cap charges would be:
2025 - $83,139,000
2026 - $89,631,000
They then proceed to move on from their veteran group:
Dalvin Tomlinson
Jedrick Wills
Wyatt Teller
Jack Conklin
Jameis Winston
Juan Thornhill
Ethan Pocic
Retirement
Bitonio decides to call it a day so he sign a new minimum contract and then formally process his retirement after the 2nd of June. While it limits them to one less player on their 90 man roster until that date it makes sense in terms of the salary cap and is how calculated. He would then have a salary cap number of $5,958,000 for the 2025 season.
Remaining Players
Here is a look at the remaining 30 players on the roster:
Quarterback
Dorian Thompson-Robinson
Running Back
Jerome Ford
Pierre Strong Jr.
Wide Receiver
Jerry Jeudy
Cedric Tillman
Jamari Thrash
David Bell
Tight End
N/A
Offensive Line
Dawand Jones
Zak Zinter
Luke Wypler
Edge Defender
Ogbonnia Okoronkwo
Isaiah McGuire
Alex Wright
Defensive Tackle
Shelby Harris
Michael Hall Jr.
Sam Kamara
Linebacker
Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah
Jordan Hicks
Mohamoud Diabate
Nathaniel Watson
Winston Reid
Cornerback
Martin Emerson
Cameron Mitchell
Myles Harden
Chigozie Anusiem
Safety
Grant Delpit
Ronnie Hickman
Special Teams
Dustin Hopkins
Corey Bojorquez
Charley Hughlett
Draft Picks
Here are the Cleveland Browns current 2025 draft picks:
1st Rounder
2nd Rounder
3rd Rounder
3rd Rounder - Bills (Amari Cooper trade)
4th Rounder
5th Rounder - Lions (Za'Darius Smith trade)
6th Rounder
6th Rounder - Vikings (Za'Darius Smith trade)
6th Rounder - Dolphins (Bears Chris Williams trade included the Vikings 7th from the Za'Darius Smith trade)
6th Rounder - Expected Compensation Pick (Jordan Elliott)
6th Rounder - Expected Compensation Pick (Joe Flacco)
In this scenario the 2025 draft picks we are adding are:
Eagles 1st
Lions 1st
Commanders 2nd
This would come with a total 2025 salary cap cost of $23,666,805 per Over The Cap based on the current projection of draft slot at time of writing.
Free Agency Budget
With 30 players and 14 draft picks they need an 9 additional players to add to the roster from free agency. This is before we get into the budget for the practice squad players and in season moves which you would ideally have as around $10m.
Here is where this proposed route would be on the salary cap:
Budget - $327.5m
Traded Dead Cap - $87.5m
Current Dead Cap - $53.6m
Watson Dead Cap - $83.1m
New Cuts - $37.1m
Retirement - $6.0m
Current Players - $62.4m
Draft Picks - $23.7m
This leaves them with negative $2.2m for the remaining eight players, so the question comes how do they bridge that game?
Contract Magic
So Watson is currently due $46m in 2025 and $46m in 2026. When he is cut the guarantees for 2026 accelerate onto the 2025 salary cap. You can get Watson to agree to a new deal to change the contract.
Why would he do that?
Because you have the threat of burying him on the depth chart for a season, instead he can get paid a year early and be free of the NFL to rehab separately from the team. The threat would be they decide to keep him on the roster for the 2025 season, restructure him on the second day of the 2026 league year and then Post June 1st cut him in March 2026, here are his salary cap numbers:
2025 - $37,139,000
2026 - $46,124,000
2027 - $89,507,000
The $89.5m might seem like a large number but the salary cap could be around $325m then, significantly higher than the $255.4m it is in 2024.
Compromise
If Watson signed a new deal that pays him $92m in 2025 and then they cut him on the 2nd of June they would get his 2025 salary cap number down to $46.339m and then leave the much bigger number until 2026.
This would give them an additional $36.8m of 2025 salary cap space. This gives them $34.6m of cap space to sign the remaining eight free agents, have some in season budget for moves and practice squad plus roll some into 2026 to deal with that Watson number.
Conclusion
It is certainly possible to do an entire tear down of the roster, it would be a team lacking veteran leadership for the next two seasons but you would be filling it with young talent in the hopes of having a contender for the 2027 season.
In terms of the draft you are looking at six first round picks, four second round picks and four third round pick being added between the current roster and that 2027 team, so the talent level should take a leap forward with young cheap players who can become the core of the roster.
I am not a fan of this model as I think there is enough talent on this team and a good enough salary cap position to be competitive in 2025 with either Cousins or Winston at quarterback. This way you are making the playoffs in 2025 and 2026 while working on finding a long term answer at quarterback. The tank model laid out in this article would be a tough team to watch for two years, while I agree they would be in a better spot in 2027 there is no guarantee you hit on a quarterback but it would probably land you Arch Manning in the 2027 draft.