Cleveland Browns News : Another Jordan, Mass Receiver Panic, and Andrew Berry is Clever

Good morning, Cleveland Browns fans!

Has the post-free agency / pre-draft lull begun? Are we in the eye of the NFL off-season media hurricane?

It sort of looks that way from today’s newswire, where only this report from Aaron Wilson via the NFL transaction wire saved the day from a complete desert of content for Browns fans:

Yes, the Browns just got through cutting and then re-signing linebacker Jordan Kunaszyk, their second Jordan-related signing in as many days. Some may ask why the Browns cut the special teams contributor, and then re-signed him. Per usual, Andrew Berry knows more about the salary cap than your average fellow, and took advantage of something called the “Veteran Salary Benefit.” This allows a team to pay a veteran player on the league minimum a certain amount that doesn’t apply to the salary cap. Jack Duffin explains here:

Compare the calm serenity with which this move was received with the panic which accompanied the Cowboys trading for oft-dealt wide receiver Brandin Cooks:

I’m not going to give the various sports media cartoons the links and attention they crave for the panic they’re trying to create over the Browns losing out on an expensive ($30 million guaranteed) contract on a player who has been traded four times and may lose his speed edge.

Brad reported ten days ago in Rumor Central that the Browns didn’t have much interest in Cooks this year. He reiterated it yesterday on Twitter.

Am I going to panic about the Browns “losing out” on a player they didn’t have much interest in, to begin with? I don’t think so. But if you want to, go right ahead. I will save my energy for important things, like protecting my bourbon supply from potential marauders following the zombie apocalypse.

Have a good one! GO BROWNS!

Jake checks in from vacation with a short episode on the unnecessary panic around wide receiver acquisitions after the Cowboys traded for Brandin Cooks. Everything around the Browns salary cap is misunderstood.

I started shifting the focus on the Buzz forum from free agency to the draft yesterday. We’re continuing buzz trackers on players like Mecole Hardman and others where appropriate for as long as the fun lasts, but it’s time to start shifting focus to players who might be available where the Browns pick in the Draft.

Then, of course, the Browns will trade up or down, and all our work focusing on players likely to be of interest where they select will get tossed away. So it goes.

At any rate, a lot of free agents have signed, and I’ve tossed them into the Buzztracker Archive forum.

More to come as I go through all the databases and spreadsheets that Cody and Jack have created, as well as Jake’s voluminous lists of Mock Drafts and the Browns interviews we know about.

This is a subscriber feature, and we still have our 2 Months for $1 special rolling. So, sign up and play along as I drop links and snide remarks into the Buzz forum to keep me busy and off the streets. That way, I don’t join other roving gangs of AARP members raiding Senior Buffets in the eastern Cleveland suburbs and making a mess for the other customers. Scattered creamed corn everywhere.

Want to know the latest from the perspective of the OBR team as we furiously chronicle the 2023 off-season? Then scrape together some quarters and invest a massive $1 in a OBR monthly trial and see if you dig our premium forums like Ask the Insiders, The Buzz, and Rumor Central.

Meanwhile, here are some new threads in the OBR’s free discussion forum, the Watercooler.