INDIANAPOLIS — Catching up on the Browns’ news of the day and notable items from general manager Andrew Berry’s news conference from the first day of the NFL Scouting Combine:
• The Browns have informed safety John Johnson III that they’ll release him at the start of the league year. Johnson has one year and more than $12 million guaranteed on the contract he signed at the start of free agency in 2021.
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This was always coming as the Browns need to create cap space to address their other defensive needs. Now that list that starts with at least two starting defensive linemen and multiple looming decisions on free agent linebackers also includes a starting free safety.
The Browns just didn’t get enough production to justify keeping Johnson, and Johnson really didn’t have a reason to talk to the Browns about staying at a lesser salary because his money was guaranteed. The Browns will need to use the post-June 1 designation in order to spread Johnson’s remaining cap hit over multiple seasons, so the Browns won’t get their approximately $9.75 million in cap savings for 2023 until June.
• That shouldn’t alter any of the team’s thinking or spending in the coming weeks. The Browns will be shopping for help across the defense and at wide receiver, and they’ll create enough cap space to be ready for multiple scenarios — and multiple notable additions — in the coming weeks by restructuring the mega-contract quarterback Deshaun Watson signed with the team last year.
Berry didn’t directly say it — or provide any details — but he strongly hinted that the Browns will work with Watson to convert base salary to bonus money, pushing some of Watson’s remaining $220 million forward. Watson’s current cap number of $54.9 million for 2023 would be the largest any player has ever carried. Though Berry said the Browns could work around that, Berry smiled at the podium when he caught himself saying that a contract alteration “could” be coming, then later he answered a direct question about whether the team needs to create 2023 cap room by reducing Watson’s cap number.
“It could be on the table, but there is a lot of flexibility in terms of what we can do from a cap perspective,” Berry said.
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The Browns in recent years have front-loaded some of their bigger contracts to push money forward. They’ve also used voidable years to extend short-term deals for cap purposes; they did that twice with Jadeveon Clowney, who isn’t expected to be back.
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“Really, we look at really kind of two different mechanisms — we look at the cash that we want to spend and then the cap is really an accounting mechanism for that,” Berry said. “The rules are flexible. Whether it is releasing a player, trading a player, restructuring a deal or negotiating an extension, there are a number of different avenues to create cap space, and the approach we would take would really be dictated by the opportunities in front of us.”
Berry didn’t answer questions on specific players or priorities, which has long and understandably been his policy. The Browns will be keeping an eye on cap-related movement leaguewide and have spent the last several weeks evaluating potential free agent options. The timing of a final decision on Johnson was not coincidental, as Berry considers the start of the combine the start of the player movement period.
How busy and aggressive will the Browns be?
“It depends on the opportunities, to be honest,” Berry said. “I don’t mean that to be an evasive response, but it is really hard to give you a level on the ‘aggressiveness meter’ until we know what will be available to us. I think one of our tenets is flexibility. We have enough flexibility to be as aggressive or conservative as we need to be from a cap perspective.”
• Berry said the Browns “are excited and feel very good about the core of the team,” and last year’s spending spree locked up several key pieces. The top priority among the Browns’ own free agents this year is almost certainly Ethan Pocic, who signed a $1.2 million deal in the second tier of free agency last year and went on to become a solid starter. The Browns already have devoted a bunch of money to the offensive line, which feels like the only potential hold-up this year as Pocic certainly is in line for a raise.
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Berry fielded multiple questions about feeling an extra sense of urgency as the Browns look to bounce back from consecutive losing seasons. He said he feels an urgency and “responsibility” every year, but he wasn’t going anywhere near any talk about job security or significant change that could be coming if the Browns don’t get back to the playoffs in 2023.
“Every year your goal is to make sure that you get to the playoffs,” he said. “I do think that there are different points organizationally where your roster and your core is in a different place. We feel really good about a lot of our key and top players being in the middle of their prime and certainly think that this is a year where we can be very competitive, but we want to be competitive every year. That is really the goal. We want to be playing deep into the season every year.”
The Browns being major players in the free agent market hasn’t always led to winning results. The release of Johnson means the Browns are cutting a player who still had guaranteed money on his deal two years after signing him for the second straight year. Austin Hooper was the Browns’ first signing in 2020 and was cut using the post-June 1 designation last year. There’s always risk in free agency — in overspending, in not finding the right fit, in adding a player whose best days might be behind him — but because the Browns don’t have a first-round pick until 2025 and have so many immediate defensive needs, they’ll be right back involved with the first (and most expensive) wave of free agency again. Tuesday, Berry was asked if he’s happy with his past free-agent additions.
“Largely so,” Berry said. “We have been happy with the contributors that we have gotten in the spring, but really our focus is really more on the guys that we can add moving forward.”
The Browns’ hopes of returning to the playoffs start with fixing and upgrading the defense in March. Any hopes of getting back to the postseason must include a big year from Watson and key upgrades across the defensive front and wide receiver. Whether Berry says it directly or not, there has to be urgency for those in charge this year.
(Top photo: Trevor Ruszkowski / USA Today)
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