Notable Contributors Headline: Browns Free Agent List for 2024

Browns general manager Andrew Berry will have his work cut out for him as he seeks to reconstruct the Browns squad into a championship contender with a number of noteworthy players ready to leave in free agency.

Building a postseason contender in the NFL is not an easy task. Maintaining a team’s status as a consistent competitor is considerably more difficult.

Following the Browns’ 11-6 season and playoff berth, executive VP of football operations Andrew Berry will have his job cut out for him in the upcoming summer. In 2023, Berry was the architect of Cleveland’s top-ranked defense, overhauling the roster from the previous season to strengthen the defensive line and add crucial senior leadership.

He strengthened the offensive team by trading for wide receiver Elijah Moore and selecting Cedric Tillman and Dawand Jones. Berry was put to the test during the season as injuries endangered the campaign. However, he continued to acquire players, like as veteran quarterback Joe Flacco, who were a natural match for the Browns locker room.

Roster turnover is an unavoidable occurrence this time of year. The curse of being a good team makes it much more difficult to keep a team intact. The NFL’s projected salary cap for next season is $242.5 million, and the Browns have more than $30 million in rollover cap space to apply on top of that for the upcoming season. With the rule of 51, an offseason accounting measure that only counts each team’s top 51 contracts against the cap until the first week of the regular season, and a few dead money figures to account for, the Browns are currently projected to be $13 million over their allotted cap space.

Berry and his staff will focus on renegotiating high-paying player contracts to free up cap room for next year, notably quarterback Deshaun Watson’s $63 million contract. The Browns’ brass will also have to determine whether any players will need to be released as cap casualties to assist alleviate their salary cap predicament.

Meanwhile, the Browns have a long list of unrestricted free agents to choose from, whom Berry and company must wade through before attempting to re-sign. The list includes a number of important contributors from the past season:

– LB Matthew Adams