It’s been a great week for the Cleveland Browns off the field. As he has done with other major moves and decisions this offseason, new Browns general manager Andrew Berry once again proved he had a very impressive start.
The biggest splash is the most important. Berry struck a deal with the team’s best player, Myles Garrett, on a massive new contract extension. Garrett will earn $ 125 million, including $ 100 million guaranteed, with his new deal. The defensive end is one of the NFL’s rising stars and the most devastating passing runner, and he is only 24. He will now be in Cleveland until at least 2027.
Garrett made the equation a little more complicated with his actions in Pittsburgh last season. Getting an indefinite suspension with six games to go and the Browns are still not completely out of the postseason image, in what should have been a tremendous win over a hated opponent on national television, required some patience from the team. Berry and the Browns have trusted Garrett’s primary character, choosing to believe that the man they know as a whole is more valuable than the worst insane moment of their career.
By doing so now, the Browns secured themselves against Garrett’s price increase if he even comes close to his stated, and quite realistic, goal of winning Defensive Player of the Year and taking the franchise to the playoffs and beyond. In fact, there is some risk that Garrett will lose his cool once again and both sides will lose everything here, but it is a risk that Berry and the Browns could not afford not to drink.
Getting the entire preliminary class signed before the start of training camp is not as important as it would have been a few years ago. Salaries and terms are almost entirely predetermined based on the novice salary scale, after all. But Berry and the Browns were the first to lock up their entire class when safety Grant Delpit signed on Wednesday.
It’s that kind of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s that has not always been the case with the Cleveland offices. Then there is the restraint and discipline displayed in the search for free-agent pass-running team Jadeveon Clowney.
Numerous reports indicate that the Browns made a very rich offer to Clowney, the highest he received this offseason. Clowney resisted, for whatever reason, it really doesn’t matter here. What matters is that Berry and the Browns let him go. They did not continue trading against themselves for a player who would be a nice addition but not necessarily worth it for the considerable money it would cost.
Just as they did by choosing to let Pro Bowl LB Joe Schobert leave in free agency, this central office stuck to its weapons and budget parameters. Paying Schobert what Jacksonville spent to attract him would have important implications for the future, and the team’s diminishing emphasis on LB’s position simply didn’t warrant it. Past regimes may have yielded to pressure to keep one of the team’s best players, the cost may be doomed, but this group didn’t bite into that forbidden fruit.
It seems to have learned from its predecessors and previous bosses. Sashi Brown was too analytical and distant, and did not understand the urgency of winning for players, coaches and fans. John Dorsey was too brash and overconfident in his staff evaluations.
We won’t know if everything works until the games start. And the Browns have had impressive seasons before, only to fall when success began to be measured by wins and losses on the field. Berry’s confidence has placed a lot of faith in a rookie head coach and a young QB coming off a second-year losing streak.
Those decisions will weigh heavily on Berry’s final evaluation, VP of football operations Kwesi Adofo-Mensah, Senior Advisor Ryan Grigson and the main office. But it is very difficult to find fault in his first months on the job in Cleveland. There is a definite and tangible feeling of competence and diligence that has not been there in a long time.
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