The\u00a0Cleveland Browns\u00a0spent big to lock down interior defender\u00a0Dalvin Tomlinson\u00a0last offseason, and at least one prominent insider expects them to try something similar with another stud defensive tackle in the coming days.<\/p>\n

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Jeremy Fowler of ESPN reported\u00a0on Sunday, March 10 that there will be a substantial free agent market for\u00a0Christian Wilkins\u00a0after the\u00a0Miami Dolphins\u00a0opted not to utilize the franchise tag to keep him. Cleveland was among three teams Fowler mentioned by name as suitors for Wilkins, who has established himself as one of the most dominant front-line defenders in the NFL over his five-year career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWilkins\u2019 market is heating up after Miami opted against the franchise tag,\u201d Fowler wrote. \u201cExpect at least seven teams to pursue him. The\u00a0Brian Flores\u00a0connection in\u00a0Minnesota\u00a0is one to watch, but\u00a0Houston and Cleveland could take swings, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Browns Can Clear Space for Christian Wilkins by Reworking Contracts of Expensive Offensive Players<\/h2>\n

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Miami selected Wilkins with the No. 13 overall pick in the first round of the 2019 draft, and the 28-year-old defensive tackle is on the verge of the first monster payday of his career.<\/p>\n

Pro Football Focus (PFF) projects that Wilkins will sign a contract paying him\u00a0$25 million annually\u00a0over the next four seasons ($100 million total), which includes $70 million in guaranteed money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWilkins hoped to get an extension done before the 2023 season but didn\u2019t let the lack of one amid many at the position slow him down,\u201d PFF wrote. \u201cWilkins is as good a run defender as any interior defensive lineman in the NFL, setting career highs in every pass-rushing category this season, including pass-rush win rate, pressure rate, sacks, quarterback hits and pressures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cleveland has less than\u00a0$5 million\u00a0in salary cap space as of Sunday, though the team has multiple moves it can make to clear up more financial flexibility in the short-term. Among them is a restructure to quarterback\u00a0Deshaun Watson\u2019s\u00a0deal, which will knock\u00a0more than $30 million\u00a0off of his nearly\u00a0$64 million cap hit\u00a0in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Browns can also extend wide receiver\u00a0Amari Cooper, which will keep the 2023 Pro Bowler under contract for multiple years and significantly reduce his roughly\u00a0$24 million cap hit in the upcoming season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Signing Christian Wilkins Type of Big Move Browns Showed They Are Willing to Make in Trade for Jerry Jeud<\/h2>\n

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Cleveland\u2019s big-money contracts and cap-clearing moves continue to rack up and will create difficult seasons in the years ahead, but the Browns made the playoffs in 2023 as the AFC\u2019s top Wildcard team and are going for it all over the next couple of campaigns.<\/p>\n

To wit,\u00a0Cleveland traded\u00a0with the\u00a0Denver Broncos\u00a0for former first-round receiver\u00a0Jerry Jeudy\u00a0over the weekend. The Browns sent the Broncos fifth- and sixth-round selections in the upcoming draft for the right to Jeudy\u2019s\u00a0$13 million\u00a0fifth-year option.<\/p>\n

The move is risky if Jeudy doesn\u2019t prove out. The Browns would either have to overpay the receiver to keep him, or incur the risk of Jeudy walking out the door for nothing after just one year.<\/p>\n

But, aside from Watson, the Browns have proven quality evaluators of talent during the tenure of general manager\u00a0Andrew Berry\u00a0and continue to have a green light from ownership to spend. Considering that defensive tackles\u00a0Shelby Harris,\u00a0Maurice Hurst II\u00a0and\u00a0Jordan Elliott are all headed to free agency next week, the Browns have a major need on the D-line and a star in Wilkins on the market who can fill it.<\/p>\n

Cleveland\u2019s time is now, so a deal with Wilkins makes sense despite the cost.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0Cleveland Browns\u00a0spent big to lock down interior defender\u00a0Dalvin Tomlinson\u00a0last offseason, and at least one prominent insider expects them to try something similar with another stud defensive tackle… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102978\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nbahang.aweu.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}