Donte Whitner
This cut may come as a surprise to some people. Donte has been a high level safety for years, known for delivering hard hits and racking up fines as a result. As he enters the twilight of his career, it's time to consider whether or not that style of play will begin to catch up with him. After two productive season in Cleveland, his play dropped off in 2015. He also suffered a concussion midway through the season. Whitner turns 31 this year, and it's likely there is nowhere to go but down. We'll cut him with a June 1st designation in order to save an extra $2,250,000. I'm a big fan of Ibraheim Campbell, the Brown's 4th round pick from last year, so we'll slide him into the starting spot for now. Expect us to address the safety position at some point in free agency or in the draft as well.
TOTAL SAVINGS: $6,200,000 on June 1st
Paul Kruger
Another potentially surprising cut. Paul is due to make $7,700,000 million this year against the cap. His first year in Cleveland was disappointing, but rebounded nicely with 2014 with 11 sacks. However, with his age 30 season on the horizon and after a disappointing 2015 season, it's hard to justify keeping him on the roster. We'll cut Kruger now, save about $5 million in cap space and give Barkevious Mingo one last shot to live up to his draft position.
TOTAL SAVINGS: $5,300,000
Dwayne Bowe
Is there really anything that needs to be said? Bowe is terrible and we can save $3.4 million by cutting him. This is a layup.
TOTAL SAVINGS: $3,400,000
Brian Hartline
.jpg)
Like Bowe, another WR that has not lived up to his contract. He's a solid player, but Josh Gordon will likely be back this year and I expect to add 2-3 wide receivers in the draft and free agency.
TOTAL SAVINGS: $3,000,000
Johnny Manziel
This is a cut that won't save any money, but one that needs to be made. Johnny has over stayed his welcome, and doesn't belong on the team anymore. We'll designate him as a June 1st cut in order to save about a million dollar cap hit.
TOTAL SAVINGS: $-1,004,125
After all these cuts, our cap space situation should look like this:
Cap Space before cuts:
We'll have $58.1 million at the start of free agency and $63.3 million after June 1st. Let's be conservative and give a $10 million buffer for the draft. That gives us about $48 million to spend on free agents, a lot of fire power. The next post will be have a write up on our free agent targets and all formal offers that we'll be extending.
