The Cleveland Browns Have $77 million of Potential Dead Money in 2026

 

Fans, the Browns are getting their butts kicked in the Front Office, and current players scheduled to depart  as free agents could cost the Browns up to $77 million dollars in additional Dead Money charges if they are not re-signed.  This is on top of the $31.7 in "Dead Money" that the Browns are paying off to players no longer with the team such as Dalvin Tomlinson, Juan Thornhill and others.   

Nothing can be done about the 2026 Dead Money. It comes out of the 2026 Cap and it is gone, gone, gone.  But let's talk about the impending Voidable Years money that is scheduled to turn into dead money but isn't quite there yet. 

Jimmy Haslam, Andrew Berry and the Browns are fond of using "Voidable Years" in player contracts to allow them to sign players at a reduced rate, with cap charges due when the player leaves the team and the contract expires.  That is, teams are allowed to defer bonus money until AFTER a player's contract expires.  But if that player leaves the team (retires, is traded or is cut), that money gets charged to that year's cap.  

So for example, Joel Bitonio signed a contract for 2023, 2024 and 2025.  Great.  He got paid $46 million in bonus money.  Great!  That check is cashed and in his bank account.  However, the cap charges are spread over 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029.  If Bitonio is not signed to a new deal, the charges for 2026, 2027, 2028 and 2029 are going to be deducted from the 2026 salary cap.  That's an appalling $23 million for a player who would not be playing.  That makes no sense, granted, but we're not talking about sense, we're talking about the accounting rules for the NFL salary cap.  

Conversely, if the Browns can talk their players with expiring contracts into signing a new deal, they can continue to spread the bonus money charges five years into the future.

In the case of the Browns O-Line, all five starters plus backup Teven Jenkins have expiring contracts and everyone except right tackle Cam Robinson has "Voidable Years."   Tight end David Njoku and  defensive end Shelby Harris are also scheduled to leave with Voidable Years.  In all, if nobody re-signs and restructures, the "Dead Money" charge to the Browns amounts to $77 million and would come out of the 2026 salary cap.  

Jeepers peepers, that would make $108 Million in Dead Money if nothing is done about it.  

How do you get out of this?  Well, one way would be to re-sign some of these players for one more year, and once again restructure their deals and push the Voidable Year money into the future one more time.  If a player wants to retire, you could even convince a retiring player to sign a contract anyway for a token amount of money, occupy a roster spot, but never show up for work, and that would allow the Browns to once again extend the voidable year money into the future.  You would lose the roster spot, but in effect obtain a loan. This is a horrible way to run a football team, but the Browns are a horrible team.    

"Voidable Years" money is like Crack Cocaine. Haslam  and  Berry seem to be terribly addicted to the concept.  

Not counting the Voidable Years issue, the Browns are currently on the hook for a $301 Million payroll (Top 51 salaries), according to Overthecap.com.  To that you have to add several million for the NFL draft, plus the practice squad, plus in-season injury replacements.  In all we might project $320 M right now.  Prior to refinancing, the Voidable Years adds $77 M, or potentially close to $400 million in commitments.  However, the cap limit will be around $295 million, meaning they must restructure or cut about $105 million.  Needless to say, this will be a very painful process, but it is barely possible.  Restructuring most of these "Voidable Years" is essential, one way or another.

It will mean, however, that more talent will leave the team than will be brought on board.     

Now, to my fellow sportswriters and fans who are fantasizing about expensive free agent wide receivers that are going to come flocking to Cleveland for 2026, you might as well stop deceiving yourselves and the public.  It is not going to happen.  There is no money for free agent extravaganzas like in previous years. Plus nobody with a career wants to come to Cleveland now.  

The Browns Jimmy Haslam III: Galactic Scale Quarterback Meddler

Jimmy Haslam has done many good things for the Cleveland Browns, but he has also been a major league meddler, especially at the quarterback position. On a great team, the players play, the Coaches coach,  the General Manager manages, and the Owners own.  That's not the way it works in Cleveland. At times the Coaches try to do the GMs job, the Players do the Coach's job, and the owner meddles in damn near anything he pleases, including drafting, signing free agents, selecting the starter for a particular game as well as placing players on the inactive list. In particular, he is in charge of quarterback acquisition and development. Sometimes, give him credit, it actually works, but most of the time it blows up, with the Johnny Manziel and Deshaun Watson fiascos as cases in point. 

This article seeks to enumerate the times when Mr. Haslam has subverted the process in the front office.   Mr. Haslam claims that these decisions are made via a group process, and perhaps this is so to an extent.  In that case his General Managers--Ray Farmer, John Dorsey and especially Andrew Berry deserve to share at least some of the blame.  But in many cases, I infer that Mr. Haslam is to blame on the grounds that the moves have been so egregiously bad that an NFL General Manager, is extremely unlikely to have made them.  For example, signing Deshaun Watson was not completely crazy at some price, but giving up six draft picks and $230 Million in guaranteed money cannot be completely blamed on Andrew Berry. It's just too nuts.  Here then, is my list, in chronological order. 

1. Drafting Johnny Manziel, the wisdom of which was reinforced by the wish of a homeless man who urged Haslam to draft Manziel on Draft Day.  JH3 evidently believed it might have been some kind of omen speaking through a prophetic personality.  No, Jim, he was just a drunk. So was Johnny, by the way. 

One son of an oilman to another, a marriage made in Heaven.

2. Benching Brian Hoyer when the team was 7-7 and still in contention for a playoff spot, so that Manziel could start and lead the team into the playoffs.  Well, Manziel was atrocious as a rookie, so the playoffs went up in smoke.  

3. Brokered a foolish trade with the Bengals for A.J. McCarron. Sashi Brown torpedoed the deal by not signing the paperwork before the deadline, which cost him his job, but resulted in the Browns being able to draft Nick Chubb.  In the middle of the 2017 0-17 tanking season, Coach Hue Jackson whined that he could not win with his current quarterbacks that he had previously proclaimed to be "franchise quarterbacks." Sashi Brown said, "Great, because I want the first overall pick," but JH3 felt sorry for Hue and made a deal with Hue's old team, the Bengals, to bring ace backup A.J. McCarron to Cleveland for the price of two second round draft picks. Brown "forgot" to sign the paperwork and the deal did not go through.  He was fired for this selfless act, but really, we should build Sashi a statue for this move. He left the team with nearly $60 million extra cap space and a ton of extra draft picks--including the second round pick used to bring Nick Chubb to Cleveland.

Boy, A.J. McCarron or Nick Chubb?  Hue Jackson and JH3 wanted McCarron, and when you've got a chance for a Franchise quarterback, you've got to go get him, blah, blah, blah.  Isn't that right, fans? 

4.  Launching the Post-Mayfield era cost 6 draft picks, including 3 Round 1 picks and $230 million for Deshaun Watson, the worst trade in NFL history.  Andrew Berry liked Deshaun Watson, but Jimmy loved him and thought that paying any price was worth it to buy the Super Bowl.  Watson went from $35 Million guaranteed remaining on his deal with the Texans, to $230 million guaranteed in Cleveland.  But that's not the true cost. If you could auction off draft picks, 3 Round 1's,  2 Round 3's and a Round 4 would probably be worth another $200 million. In short the Browns paid three times what Watson was worth, and he started having bad years immediately.  I don't think Deshaun is a bad quarterback, but seeking to emulate the Buffalo Bills deep passing offense was not the right move for him.  

Maybe a Quarterback at any price is not a good philosophy after all. So, did you learn anything from the experience, or shall we repeat the same mistake? 

5.  Signing former Tennessee Vol quarterback Joshua Dobbs as a third string QB in 2022, firing him, signing him again, and then trading him away after training camp.  What?  Doesn't it seem like there was an internal disagreement about Dobbs?  My theory is that Haslam, the staunch Tennessee Vol alum, was the advocate for Dobbs, the former Tennessee Vol Quarterback, and in this case Haslam was mostly right. Nevertheless, the Browns cut Dobbs for no real reason, and then the world found out that he could play when he caught on with the Titans later than year and played well with short preparation. Hey! How about that?  JH3 got one right!  So they re-signed Dobbs for 2023, but then Andrew traded him for a late draft pick to start the season, because Arizona needed a replacement for Kyler Murray, who was injured.  Wait a minute, since when is it the Browns' job to perform acts of charity for other teams' misfortunes?  But don't worry because...

6.  The Browns drafted QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson in Round 5 and he miraculously became QB2 right out of training camp, ahead of Dobbs.  This made zero sense.  Look, your backup quarterback has to be ready to play on opening day.  He cannot be a developmental Round 5 guy who needs two years to learn the NFL-style playbook.  However, the Browns made him second string right out of training camp (why? Because he completed passes in preseason games?? Really??), and the perception became that Dobbs was expendable (FALSE!). Once in a while it does happen (Russell Wilson and  Dak Prescott were exceptions, but was there really reason to think DTR was Russell or Dak?  Then they did it again in 2024, promoting him over Jameis Winston, only to have him go down due to injury. DTR ended his NFL career with 1 TD pass and 10 INTs. Only an owner could have such a great fascination for rookie quarterbacks.  

7.  Firing Comeback Player of the Year Joe Flacco after a bad playoff loss in 2023.  The Browns scouting department keeps on coming up with solid veterans like Brian Hoyer, Josh McCown, Jacoby Brissett, Jameis Winston, and the Browns at the highest level keeps on trashing them.  Joe Flacco save the Browns from DTR and took the Browns to the playoffs but lost to Deshaun Watson's former team, the Houston Texans.  Well, no wonder.  We gave them six draft picks and they used those players against us.  But the main reason Joe had to go was that the Dawg Pound loved him more than Deshaun (in fact we loved darn near everyone more than Deshaun).  JH3 is fearful of the dreaded "quarterback controversy." We can't take it, so to paraphrase Hank Williams, Sr., "Goodbye Joe, you gotta go, me oh my oh!"

Joe Flacco led the Browns to the PLAYOFFS!  Does Haslam care? No. 

8.  Firing Joe Flacco again after a 1-3 start in 2025. We're sorry, Joe!  What were we thinking?  We went 3-14 in 2024 without you Joe! Please come back!  But okay, the Front Office corrected the terrible decision to fire Joe Flacco in 2023, and once again convinced themselves they were Super Bowl contenders. However, after going 1-3 to open the season, they pushed the panic button, and fired Flacco.  The solution?  Rookie quarterback! Enter third round pick Dillon Gabriel.  As mentioned above, it is very rare for a mid-round pick to start early and succeed in the NFL.

9.  Using four (4) draft picks on quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL draft.  Wait, what?  The Watson process obliged the Browns to provide 2 draft picks to Houston in 2022, 2023, and 2024, plus they used another pick in 2023 on DTR. Rather than give it a rest in 2025, they burned four (4) draft pics on quarterbacks this year.  Given that each team gets only seven per year, four is a.  This is the first year that the Browns had a full slate of draft picks after the Deshaun disaster and they had no business burning four picks on QUARTERBACKS.  A Round 5 traded for Kenny Pickett. A Round 3 used for Dillon Gabriel.  Then an additional Round 6 and a Round 5 were traded to move up in Round 5 for Shedeur. That's completely absurd. Deshaun (6), DTR (1) and the 4 for 2025 account for 11 in four years, including three Round 1 picks. Haslam can point out that he got picks back for DTR, Flacco and Pickett, but they were all worth less than what he paid.  Hence these moves were not sound.  They are more symptomatic of an obsession rather than normal football operations.  

The two veterans with winning career records are Flacco and Pickett.  They were both traded away at a loss. 

10.  Bringing Ravens QB Tyler Huntley into camp, teaching him the playbook, and sending him back to Baltimore two years in a row.  I mean, come on, you can't be giving a quarterback from our arch-rival access to our playbook as well as inside information about the team. If you're going to invite him to camp, give him a contract.  Moreover, Huntley was much more qualified to start in 2025 than either Gabriel or Sanders, given that he had six years of NFL experience including preseason 2024 with the Browns, so quit pretending we late-round rookies are better than veterans.  They were late round picks for a reason, and it was FOOLISH to expect instant success from mid-to-late round picks.  With all the talk about being willing to carry four QBs on the roster, how did the Browns wind up with zero experienced QBs on the active roster by Week 5?

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There you have it, fans.  These moves are so stupid it is difficult to believe that a professional General Manager thought them up.  Still, Andrew Berry has to bear some of the guilt because he signed off on them, and in particular, he created the insane contract that financed Deshaun coming to Cleveland. 

You can fire the Coach, you can fire the General Manager, but you cannot fire the Owner, so look forward for more quarterback madness in 2026. How many qbs will they draft this year and who will they be?  How many draft picks will they trade for quarterbacks, quarterbacks, quarterbacks?  Or will we tank the season for Arch Manning next year? Stay tuned!