Cleveland Browns’ biggest move of the off-season so far came via a trade with the Denver Broncos that allowed them to land WR Jerry Jeudy for two later draft picks.
Following that move, the Browns signed Jeudy to a three-year extension that could be worth up to $58 million. There was an issue with the fact that the Browns gave him a $41 million guaranteed deal, which many folks believed that Jeudy was not yet deserving of such a payday.
One NFL executive told The Athletic that the Browns are in a Daniel Jones situation with the deal. It made it seem as if the Browns were playing scared.
“I agree with their theory about getting ahead of the receiver market, which is going to take off, but I’m not sure Jeudy is the guy who makes the theory work,” an exec said. “They are thinking, ‘Shoot, (Justin) Jefferson is about to get paid, and Chase is waiting for him to get paid. But Jeudy is not in that class, so who cares about those comps? This is basically what the Giants did with Daniel Jones.”
The Browns got the Jeudy deal right until they didn’t
Cleveland believes they got ahead of the market that does not only include the top guys. Middle-tier wide receivers are receiving paydays too and so are nearly 30-year-old wideouts like Calvin Ridley, who has never been to a Pro Bowl. The Browns not only got ahead of the big paydays that had nothing to do with Jeudy but the next line of players too.
“We’re firm believers that in that space the best front offices or the best teams are proactive as opposed to reactionary and market dynamics,” GM Andrew Berry recently explained. “In Jerry's case, you already saw two new receiver contracts enter the market that really are a harbinger of things to come in that market. I mean, probably by Week 1 of the NFL season, the top of that market's going to be north of $30 million.”
The higher the top of the market goes, the higher everyone else in the market will look for as well.
Cleveland believes that Jeudy’s best ball is ahead of him at not even 25 years old yet. The Browns are taking the same approach as they did with TE David Njoku, who broke out after the payday he received into one of the NFL’s better tight ends.
Deals have to play out in the NFL before you can judge them and that’ll be the case here.
More must-reads: