What will the Browns actually do in Free Agency? It's very funny, but just as I questioned whether the Browns could sign Jamie Collins two days ago, news reports say that the Browns are very close to signing him. That is very good news for the Browns, and may signal to players and their agents that it is okay to sign with the Browns if Pro Bolwer Jamie Collins thinks its okay.
There are always ridiculous articles every year that the Browns have huge dollars in salary cap to be spend this year splurging on free gents. But let's pump the brakes on that talk for a moment.
The actual numbers are that the annual cap is $168 Million for ALL teams, a healthy $13 million dollar increase from last year. The Browns underspent last year and added to their "carryover" money, which you can think of as money that they would spend if they were going all out to win a Super Bowl this year. But that is very unlikely to happen this year, so forget about spending $50 million in carryover, it's not going to happen. So I think their target payroll this year will be about $165 million, and so they will spend about $57 million more than their current payroll. I'm assuming they can sign both Jamie Collins and Terrelle Pryor for around $30 million. It might be higher if they agree to front-load the contract, which makes sense for a building team. We may or may not re-sign guys like Stephen Paea (who was very good) and Austin Pasztor (who wasn't so good, but who could probably play guard next year). They will also keep a stash to sign a few guys who are cut from other teams as salary cap casualties. We will also sign some undrafted rookie free agents. I think they will also clear additional room by cutting Josh McCown, Tramon Williams and several others from the bottom of the roster. So here's how it might break down, very roughly...
Dead money $5 million (players no longer on the team).
2017 draft $10 million
Jamie Collins $15 million
Terrelle Pryor $15 million
Paea, Pasztor $4 million
Waiver wire pickups $4 million (vets cut at end of training camp)
Undrafted rookies $2 million
Roster cuts -$14 million
Free Agents $21 million
The net net is that there is going to be about $21 million in 2017 salaries that can be spend on free agents. That's enough to sign two or three new starters on the Offensive Line or the Defensive backfield. Of course we will be better this year than last year. Last year, our active payroll was only $103 million, and this year it is going to be about $60 million higher. So we're going to have some better players, and moreover, the young kids are going to improve with a year's additional experience.
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