Browns cornerback Greg Newsome claimed on Tuesday that he doesn’t want to be traded. He also said he wasn’t happy about reports that he wanted one.
“I was mad,” Newsome told reporters regarding the report. “I really just don’t understand something like that. I wouldn’t do that. I truly adore Cleveland. I was definitely mad.”
Per a league source with knowledge of the situation, Newsome wanted a trade.
As the source explained it, Newsome fired agent Damarius Bilbo after Bilbo was unable to engineer a trade. Newsome is now represented by Drew Rosenhaus.
Newsome, a first-round pick in 2021, declined to elaborate on the reasons for his decision to make an agent change.
“That’s a personal reason,” Newsome told reporters on Tuesday. “I didn’t change agents to try to get out of here. I changed agents because I think for my career, it will help me in the long run. I changed agents just for personal reasons.”
As we understand it, the personal reason is that Bilbo wasn’t able to get Newsome the trade he wanted.
Newsome enters the third year of his rookie contract, at a salary of $1.818 million. He’s not even eligible for a second contract until after the coming season; thus, he couldn’t have changed agents in order to get a new contract now.