Looking at the Browns' 2018 salaries by unit: offense, defense, and special teams

This post is going to take a look at how much money the Browns have invested in offense, defense, and special teams leading into the 2018 NFL offseason, with the data being current as of March 5th and pulled from Over The Cap. When we look at the Browns' available cap space, we are only factoring in the Top 51 contracts on the team. For the purpose of analyzing money committed to all positions, we are looking at all 73 contracts on the team.

Note: This does not include any of the Browns’ UFA, RFA, or ERFA. It is expected the club will bring back guys like Josh Gordon and Austin Reiter, but until they do, those salaries cannot be factored in, since there is nothing to go off of right now.

Offense

The Browns have invested $63.50 million on offensive players, which is the sixth lowest figure in the NFL. The investments, in order from highest to lowest position, are as follows: OG ($18.96 million), OT ($18.35 million), WR ($7.38 million), C ($6.75 million), TE ($5.37 million), RB ($4.65 million), and QB ($2.05 million).

Defense

The Browns have invested $60.35 million on defensive players, which is the 21st highest figure in the NFL. The investments, in order from highest to lowest position, are as follows: OLB ($21.28 million), CB ($14.39 million), DE ($11.61 million), DT ($6.73 million), S ($4.92 million), and MLB ($1.42 million).

Special Teams

The Browns have invested $3,832,292 on special teams players (no ranking currently available).

Total

Cumulatively, the Browns have invested $127.68 million on players against the cap for 2018, which is ranked 28th in the NFL*. These figures do not include dead money toward players who are no longer with the team, but the pie charts should give you a general idea as to where the Browns stand in positional spending. Some figures are a little misleading, since defensive ends, nose tackles, and/or outside linebackers sometimes split work at different positions.

As stated earlier, these rankings do not take into account any free agents, restricted or unrestricted. Smaller contracts, like exclusive rights free agent deals, aren't included either, even though they will likely be tendered.

The Browns' most lucrative-invested position is offensive guard, thanks to the signing of Kevin Zeitler and extension of Joel Bitonio last year. On defense, similarly, outside linebacker is the most lucrative due to extensions last year for Jamie Collins and Christian Kirksey. Are there any position numbers that jump out at you?

*Special teams calculations are approximated to be the same for every NFL team, as Over the Cap's total amounts only include offense and defense.