CBJ Board Other Sports Thread: Part XII

[koteka]

Garrett just issued a trade demand/request. Probably the best for the browns since they can say he asked out vs them moving him out. But with the Watson contract crippling cap hits of $73 mill for each of the next 2 seasons, and like $27 mill when he is done the deal in 2027, browns are hard pressed to do much the next 2-3 seasons.

Something like the Mack trade of 2 first and third to get Him with a 2nd coming back as well. Or a straight 1, 2, 3 round picks since he’s about 2 years older than Mack was at the time of his trade. Plus needs a new deal as he has no guarantees left on his contract. Well, they are not fully guaranteed. They guarantee the first week of March I believe.

I think they just need to bite the bullet. Trade guys who have some value for picks. I’d go ahead and trade Garrett, Denzel Ward, and Njoku. Load up on 2025 and 2026 picks. Fill the roster with young guys and see who pans out. Then, when the Watson contract is over they might be ready to spend some money on free agents to add to the youth. And hopefully they’ll draft a good qb in 2026 with a high draft pick.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

I think they just need to bite the bullet. Trade guys who have some value for picks. I’d go ahead and trade Garrett, Denzel Ward, and Njoku. Load up on 2025 and 2026 picks. Fill the roster with young guys and see who pans out. Then, when the Watson contract is over they might be ready to spend some money on free agents to add to the youth. And hopefully they’ll draft a good qb in 2026 with a high draft pick.

Not a browns fan, but yeah. The roster isn’t awful (could even be playoff caliber if they get a decent enough QB) but if Garrett wants to move on it’s time to sell off all the older dudes. Ward, Njoku, maybe even Jeudy. Bitonio will likely retire. But yeah, you ride out the Watson deal until you can cut him.

I wouldn’t draft a QB this year if I was them. Hell I may bring back Jameis Winston or take on a bad QB contract as a cap dump for draft picks in the meantime (Cousins).

 

[StreetHawk]

Not a browns fan, but yeah. The roster isn’t awful (could even be playoff caliber if they get a decent enough QB) but if Garrett wants to move on it’s time to sell off all the older dudes. Ward, Njoku, maybe even Jeudy. Bitonio will likely retire. But yeah, you ride out the Watson deal until you can cut him.

I wouldn’t draft a QB this year if I was them. Hell I may bring back Jameis Winston or take on a bad QB contract as a cap dump for draft picks in the meantime (Cousins).

I don’t think they have the cap room to absorb all of the dead cap from those moves.
Garrett has $36 mill of dead cap. Ward is also a big number $30 mill if traded as his 2025 salary is guaranteed at $13 mill, which would transfer to the new team. Already at $40 mill from mainly cooper and smith for 2025. That would push Clev to over $100 mill in dead cap.

Clev pushed so much cap hit over the past 3 seasons into the future that there is now so much built up Unallocated cap that they have to eat. That can't be transferred to another team as Cleveland paid it already.

Clev can recoup some cap room if they insured Watson contract. Not sure if they did.

 

[KCbus]

Cucho getting sold isn't necessarily a surprise, but I think we figured we had a year left before it happened. Bummer.

 

[CharlotteJacket]

I think they just need to bite the bullet. Trade guys who have some value for picks. I’d go ahead and trade Garrett, Denzel Ward, and Njoku. Load up on 2025 and 2026 picks. Fill the roster with young guys and see who pans out. Then, when the Watson contract is over they might be ready to spend some money on free agents to add to the youth. And hopefully they’ll draft a good qb in 2026 with a high draft pick.

On paper this sounds like it might be a good strategy, but remember we're talking about the Browns here. A team that is notoriously bad at drafting.

 

[StreetHawk]

On paper this sounds like it might be a good strategy, but remember we're talking about the Browns here. A team that is notoriously bad at drafting.

Draft picks almost always sound better than the players that get drafted.

Miami had 3 picks in a draft when they sent Tunsil and Fitzpatrick out. Ended that draft with Jackson and Igbinoghene for those 2 guys. Hard to pull off a Minny taking Jeffersson with the Diggs pick they got back.

Plus, with the dead cap, Clev may have to wait until after the 25 draft to make the deals. Managing Watson contract (which they can restructure), and $40 mill of current dead cap, they can't take the full $36 mill of Garrett and $30 mill of Ward in 2025.