With three moves this offseason, the Cleveland Browns have been spending Dee and Jimmy Haslam’s money like it will disappear if they don’t. Fans don’t care about very wealthy owners’ money but they do care about the salary cap. The cap is an often discussed mechanism of the NFL that seems to be so flexible as to “not be real” while being so important that teams make roster decisions based on it.
The shifting sands of the salary cap depend on where a team is in its competitive window. The Browns obviously believe they are squarely in a window to win a Super Bowl. So far this offseason they have:
- Traded for Amari Cooper and his three years, $60 million contract
- Traded for Deshaun Watson then gave him a fully guaranteed contract worth $230 million
- Extended Denzel Ward’s contract for five years, $100 million with over $70 guaranteed
