What does the trade of Andy Lee mean for the Browns?

After all of their cuts had been made to get down to 75 players on Monday, the Cleveland Browns weren’t done making moves — the team traded punter Andy Lee to the Carolina Panthers.

The Browns also gave up a 7th round pick in 2017. In exchange, the Browns receive P Kasey Redfern and a 4th round pick in 2018. First, let’s learn a little about Redfern (6-2, 215 lbs), who is 24 years old. He was an undrafted free agent in 2014 and has spent time with the Jaguars, Chargers, and Panthers, but never on a regular season roster. This preseason, he had a punt average of 46.8 yards and a net average of 36.2 yards. Personally, I’d like to see the team give P Spencer Lanning a call due to his past with special teams coordinator Chris Tabor, but that’s probably wishful thinking.

Now, let’s get back to the Lee trade. First off, the value that Cleveland received for him is fantastic — a fourth round pick for an older punter? If we’re to believe the Browns will be a bad football team record-wise this season, then you absolutely take that deal and go find a better punter once all of the other pieces start to come together.

Many people are wondering whether the motivation behind shipping Lee off stemmed from the lack of effort he gave against the Buccaneers last week when they scored a touchdown on a punt return. Head coach Hue Jackson wasn’t pleased with Lee after the play:

I feel it’s just a coincidence that Lee was traded after this incident. I refuse to believe that Jackson is so stubborn and egotistical that he’d ship off a top-notch punter just for this. Also, remember that Sashi Brown would more-so be the person orchestrating such a deal, and this comes in the same week or so that OLB Barkevious Mingo was traded and OLB Paul Kruger was cut. (And did I mention we got a 4th round pick for him? I did? Good).