Breakdown of WR Elijah Moore’s contract with the Browns

The Browns acquired WR Elijah Moore this offseason in a trade with the New York Jets. Cleveland may have given up a pricey draft pick for Moore, but one of the return benefits is that the third-year receiver is still on his rookie contract and counts very little toward the cap. This will be one of the simpler breakdowns we have to do:

• On Moore’s rookie contract with the Jets in 2021, he had a $3.862 million signing bonus spread over four years. Most of the time, with trades, the remaining years become a dead cap hit for the team that traded the player. Therefore, the Jets have a $1.931 million cap hit for Moore in 2023.
• Cleveland’s cap hit for Moore is only related to his base salary over the next two seasons. $1 million of his 2023 base salary is guaranteed, so if he was god-awful for some reason in camp and the team wanted to cut him, they’d still be on the hook for that. There is no guaranteed money in 2024. Moore is a promising player who the team believes in, though, so his contract value is a bargain in their minds for these next two seasons.