DE Randy Starks
It will cost the team over 3.5 million to keep him for one more season or 625 thousand to cut him. The choice is easy to me. Starks was most recognizable for getting a 15 yard taunting penalty and then being offside on a fourth and one incompletion that eventually led to a touchdown against the Bengals. His numbers never produced and his dumb mistakes have cost the team more than he’s helped.
WR Brian Hartline
Hartline was another signing that the Browns did to try and get enough bodies to fill out the WR position after Farmer decided to only draft one receiver and he wasn’t even good enough to make the team. Now the Browns are left with the decision to keep him or let him walk. His contract is similar to Starks. The Browns are at a 3.75 million dollar hit or pay 750k to let him walk. Hopefully the new GM values WRs and signs some new guys to make up for all of the possible ones on the way out.
WR Andrew Hawkins
He costs the Browns nothing in terms of dead money. He’s already gotten 11 million from the Browns over the last two seasons so his robbery is almost as good as Dwayne Bowe. Hawkins has battled concussions and injuries all throughout his time here. He would cost the Browns one million this year and 1.8 next year, but the Browns have plenty of small wide receivers and might be better off keeping someone like Taylor Gabriel over Hawkins.
Other Notes: I’m just going to include this section to educate some people that are obviously going to cry for us to cut Justin Gilbert, Cam Erving, and Tramon Williams. With the way the new rookie contracts are done, all of these first round picks contracts are fully guaranteed. We can start with Erving. Cutting him would cost the Browns over 7.5 million dollars against the cap. If they keep him on the roster it would cost them 2.1, 2.5, and 3 million for the next three seasons.
So pretty much the Browns would have to take a huge hit to get rid of him now rather than pay him a lot less to be on the team each of the next few seasons. The same thing goes with Justin Gilbert where it would cost the team paying the rest of his contract to get rid of him. Unless the Browns can find somebody to take on their contract the Browns are stuck eating it.
In terms of Tramon Williams contract, he would cost the Browns a little under four million to cut him or seven million to keep him. While you want to say cut him, if the Browns wait until next season to cut him, it would only cost five hundred thousand and the Browns would suddenly have an extra 5.7 million in base salary to spend next season. That makes much more sense so while you want to see these guys gone you’re most likely stuck with them at least one more season.
The Browns are currently set to have around 16 million in cap space next year. If Alex Mack walks the Browns will gain about another eight million and if they do the above cuts can be looking at another possible twenty million in space in addition to the ever growing cap. The Browns are going to need all the money they can get because it’s going to be a hard sell to get people to sign without overspending. Here’s to hoping the new regime knows what they are doing and Haslam doesn’t decide how to spend the money.
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