The Cleveland Browns defensive line has been dominant to start the season. The position room is headlined by Myles Garrett and Maliek Collins but has a collection of young talent around them in Mason Graham, Isaiah McGuire, Adin Huntington, Alex Wright and Cameron Thomas. Then there are two mid tier contracts on the team with Joe Tryon-Shoyinka who has completely underperformed and Shelby Harris the reliable veteran.
While Shelby Harris has played well, he could see himself traded once Mike Hall is healthy and back playing. With the emergence of Huntington they will need to potentially make a decision on which of the two is inactive. If you are pushing for the playoffs you might lean into Harris' talent but if you are looking more to what the team can be in 2026 and beyond then it makes sense to develop Huntington.
When a team isn't heading towards the playoffs they will tend to look towards veteran players, especially those on expiring deals they don't intend to keep the following year and allow them to depart in a trade or as a cut candidate. If this is potentially Harris' last season after recently turning 34 then he should be competing for a ring on a team with a defensive tackle injury rather than playing meaningless games in December.
The Browns were thinking ahead with Harris' deal and in the offseason he took a pay cut from $4.5m to $3.01m also changing the structure of his contract. This made him much more tradable, opening up the option of moving him during this season.