Browns restructure another contract to add to their 2023 salary cap space

Slowly but surely the Cleveland Browns roster and salary cap space are coming into focus for 2023. We got the team’s initial 53-man roster on Tuesday. We then got their initial practice squad on Wednesday.

The Browns salary cap has been a big discussion point due to the large salaries paid out to a number of players on the roster starting with QB Deshaun Watson.

Watson’s deal was restructured early this offseason and was followed by the same action for DE Myles Garrett, OL Joel Bitonio and TE David Njoku.

In all, Cleveland was leading the NFL in cap space at over $35 million in 2023. Past tense is necessary because OT Jedrick Wills just had his deal restructured to add even more space:

Overly simplified, a restructured contract gets the player his money sooner in the way of a signing bonus and allows a team to spread out the player’s salary cap hit over multiple years. Doing so with so many players requires an owner who will write those signing bonus checks for millions of dollars which Jimmy Haslam has been willing to do.

The huge amount of salary cap space could open up the team to possible deals before the NFL trade deadline but is most likely going to be used as rollover cap to help next year’s budget.

With Wills, adding void years on top of his fifth-year option creates the possibility of an extension in the future to create even more cap flexibility. For now, we know the former #10 overall pick will be with the Browns for at least another season.