Cleveland

Browns

It guarantees him a $5.8 million salary. Hickman played a career-high 1,042 snaps in 2025, even playing down in the box more than he used to, and came up with a career-high 75.3 PFF coverage grade. A signing team would have to offer the Browns a second-round pick to sign Hickman, making it extremely unlikely he’ll move this offseason.

According to Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot, the Browns will officially lower the $80.716M cap hit on Watson’s contract for this season. ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi reports the move will free up nearly $36 million in cap space. The 30-year-old QB is in the final year of a record-setting contract he signed with the Browns in 2022, but is expected to get a chance to compete with Shedeur Sanders, along with whoever else the Browns bring in, for the starting job this offseason. Watson has played in just 19 games for the Browns in his three seasons with the team, throwing for a pedestrian 3,365-19-12 while going 9-10.

The Browns are still laboring through the repercussions of the Watson trade. He will remain on the roster this year and was nearly ready to return from his torn Achilles at the end of the 2025 season. He should be a full-go for the start of the offseason program, putting him in line to compete with Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders for the starting job. The Browns could make another addition via free agency or the draft, but our hopes are not high for this room in 2026.

Cleveland also tendered LB Winston Reid and LS Rex Sunahara. Szmyt went 24-of-27 on his field goal attempts in 2026. He missed one of his 26 PATs.

Cleveland scooped Corley off waivers after the Jets cut him at the end of training camp last year. A true gadget player, Corley earned more carries than catches, rushing 13 times compared to 11 grabs. He totaled 206 yards from scrimmage and returned kicks for Cleveland. The Browns also tendered WR Jamari Thrash and TE Brenden Bates.

Lucas played 293 snaps as a swing tackle for the Browns last year, culminating in a woeful 42.7 PFF blocking grade. It was his worst result in the grading in some time and it’s possible he can bounce back. Entering would be his age-35 season, it’s also possible this is simply the end.

Wouldn’t be the first trade of regrets between the Browns and Colts for a Richardson. The Vikings and Richardson reportedly have mutual interest, but the Browns are the second team we’ve seen publicly linked to them by the sourced men. It’s hard to fault any offensive-minded head coach for seeing Richardson’s tools and thinking they can work with them, but it’s going to be a major heat check by whoever ultimately takes the risk.

This is the first big move the Browns have made to address their offensive line. The acquisition of Howard gives them an experienced right tackle who has started all 16 games he has appeared in for each of the last two seasons, and he has allowed just five sacks on 1,175 pass blocking snaps per TruMedia. Shortly after trading for Howard, the Browns announced they would be signing him to a three-year, $63 million extension, keeping him with the team through the 2029 season.

Fowler’s bit on Willis is a bit of cold water on the drumbeat we’ve had on Willis for the past few weeks, noting that “Willis hitting the $30 million threshold as a player with six career starts would surprise some of the teams at the combine.” He named the Dolphins and Cardinals as teams that are likely in on Willis in addition to saying he doesn’t think Cleveland is the ultimate landing spot. If those are the two main teams, it would be hard for the Dolphins to win a bidding war with their implied cap space.

Head coach Todd Monken has already said the team will have an “open competition” at quarterback this summer. Watson, who is returning from a torn Achilles he suffered in 2024, remains under contract through this season for what is the final year of the record-setting deal he signed in 2022. Watson’s deal makes him nearly impossible to move on from this offseason, as a release would count for an absurd $131 million in dead cap money. Assuming he’s healthy and on the roster, Watson should have every chance to win the job in camp and will likely have the inside edge over Shedeur Sanders, who struggled mightily as a rookie.