he Cleveland Browns have issues all over the field this season, mostly due to injury, but aside from quarterback it is the wide receiver position that breeds perhaps the most uncertainty moving forward.
Setting aside the fact that the QB situation is far from ideal, the Browns at least know they will have Deshaun Watson back healthy and playing in the third season of a massive five-year contract in 2024. Because of Watson’s deal, and several other considerations, Cleveland may need to part ways with wide receiver Amari Cooper and his $23.8 million salary cap hit over the offseason.
Should Cleveland render Cooper a cap casualty, the Browns will need to seek a parter for Watson in the pass game so as not to leave the league’s top-rated defense to fend for itself as frequently as it has had to this year. One option come the offseason could be Buffalo Bills wideout Stefon Diggs, who Connor Livesay of The 33rd Team suggested may be on the trade block in 2024.
With Dalton Kincaid and Khalil Shakir progressing nicely and with a loaded wide receiver draft class coming up, the Bills could seriously look to move Diggs during the offseason.
The Bills-Diggs marriage has been somewhat weird for a few years. We likely look too much into Diggs’ social media responses and sideline interactions with [QB Josh] Allen, but it does not seem like things are all fine and dandy between the Bills and Diggs.
Diggs is just two years into the … $96-million contract extension he signed in 2022. So the team trading for Diggs would give up draft capital and take on a relatively big contract.
Stefon Diggs Offers Browns Upgrade Over Amari Cooper
Diggs’ salary cap hit is actually higher than Cooper’s next season at $27.85 million, which begs the question: why not just stay with Cooper at a lower price rather than cutting him, eating a substantial amount of dead money and paying Diggs more?
That’s a fair query, and the answer is as complicated as it is subjective. That said, there are a few facts that show through the muck that make Diggs the potentially better option. The first is that no matter how the Browns get to their No. 1 wideout of the future, doing so is going to cost the team a considerable amount of money.
For better or worse, the Browns are all-in on their current playoff window and are breaking the bank all over the field. Cleveland is one of a handful of places in the league where it makes sense to play for now and defer as much money as necessary down the road, thereby mortgaging the long-term future for a short- to mid-term chance at a Super Bowl run.
In that context, the organization could so something similar with Diggs as it did when it traded for Cooper — restructure the wide receiver’s contract by converting salary into bonus money, paying that outright and pushing a heavy portion of his cap hit years down the line. That ties the team’s hands down the road, as its hands will be somewhat bound with Cooper heading into 2024.
However, the strategy also pairs Watson with a player in Diggs who is indisputably better than Cooper and only one year older. Diggs has earned Pro-Bowl honors in each of the last three seasons, including two All-Pro selections, and is about to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards for the sixth consecutive year.
Browns Thin at Wide Receiver Behind Banged Up Amari Cooper
Diggs may well prove to be too expensive and/or complicated of an option in Cleveland, particularly because he will also cost draft capital to acquire. But whether the Browns choose to pursue a big-name player like Diggs or not, the team must address its wide receiver room ahead of the 2024 campaign.
Elijah Moore (543 yards on the year) is the only wideout other than Cooper with more than 108 receiving yards in 2023. Rookie Cedric Tillman owns third-place with the aforementioned 108 yards, while the departed Donovan Peoples-Jones put up 97 before heading to the Detroit Lions and second-year pass-catcher David Bell has 86 yards to his name, per ESPN.
Running back Jerome Ford is producing solidly from the backfield with 227 receiving yards, while tight end David Njoku is on pace for a career-high in receiving with 600 yards through 13 games. But Cleveland’s pass attack needs more of a downfield presence, and Moore, Ford and Njoku aren’t the guys who can consistently provide that. Cooper is that player when healthy, but if he leaves next offseason that element of the Browns’ offense will depart with him.
The 2024 NFL Draft is an option, but rookies are a scary bet to make when a team needs them to be premier performers right from the jump. Furthermore, the Browns won’t pick until the second-round, which means the top handful of wide receivers will already be off the board.
As such, a trade or free agency are Cleveland’s best bets, and a proven option acquired through either pathway isn’t going to be cheap.
Max Dible covers the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Cleveland Browns and Golden State Warriors for Heavy.com. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group’s family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible
