Could Gerald McCoy now cost you Denzel Ward later? Only if you squint. Let's do the math.

On the award winning Ken Carman show with Anthony Lima, Anthony Lima brought up the idea that signing free agent Gerald McCoy now could cost the Cleveland Browns Denzel Ward later. It's theoretically possible, there are a lot of reasons it wouldn't be and it's easier to lay out the facts of the situation and see where they lead.

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The first problem with this idea is the collective bargaining agreement that comes up in the year 2021, which is the real threat to anything with the Cleveland Browns, but more importantly, it's impacting how every team is approaching free agents and contracts.

Most every NFL team is approaching this issue as signing players to contracts that either don't pay them in 2021 or offer them a way out of the contract, should anything major be impacted in a renegotiated collective bargaining agreement.

What Lima or the member of NFL personnel he's referencing might know is what the Browns are offering McCoy. Theoretically, the Browns might be offering McCoy a four-year deal, which is a bad idea on its face. Basically, the thrust here would that McCoy has the Browns over a barrel and they know it, willing to offer a bad deal for a short term pay in hopes of winning a Super Bowl in the next two years and then living with whatever comes down afterward.

This is the same path John Dorsey went down with the Kansas City Chiefs, which ultimately cost him his job. He signed players to some terrible contracts and out of order trying to go for a short term outcome, then the team had to repair the damage and move on. There are more avenues to avoid this and better guard rails in the building, but for some, this is what worries them about Dorsey at the helm; that he doesn't understand the math.

The Browns, at least from a messaging standpoint, are saying they have made McCoy a firm offer and aren't likely to move from it. That would suggest a two-year deal or maybe  a three-year deal, but that third year is not likely to be realized. In this scenario, McCoy is off the books before it would impact Ward.

Ward's contract doesn't come up after the 2021 season, at which point the Browns will could pick up his fifth year option or negotiate for a new contract. Ideally, they just lock up Ward at that point to a long term deal that is lucrative for him and allow the Browns to plan ahead.

The problem with this as an argument is this applies to any number of players on the Browns. Picking out McCoy as the issue is disingenuous. He'd be the last player added to the salary cap pie but any number of contracts would impact this conversation.

So, let's look at the salary cap as it stands right now and how McCoy would impact it. All of these numbers are courtesy of Spotrac.

The Cleveland Browns, with the salary cap management of the previous few years, were able to rollover a total of $56.5M. Adding that to the base salary cap for 2019 of $188.2M, it means the Browns are operating with a budget of $245.M.

To this point, the team is spending $211.7M of that $245.M, leaving them $33.3M in cap space. That is the cap room the Browns currently have to operate. This is where the confusion comes in as far as rollover cap. Whatever amount of cap room the Browns do not spend this year of that $33.3M, they can roll over to 2020, which would give them the $188.2M plus whatever is left from that $33.3M and adding in whatever amount the NFL decides to bump up the cap. The increase per year is not fixed and it can vary. From 2018 to 2019, it went up 6%. If that were case for 2020, it would bump up the cap to just under $200M. It could be more than that, but not it's unlikely to get quite as high as $210M.

This is where Gerald McCoy matters. Assuming he agrees to sign, whatever amount he signs for this year cannot be rolled over to next year. For example, if McCoy signs for $10M in 2019, the Browns would then only have $23M to potentially roll over to 2020 in addition to whatever he's being paid in 2020. So, if he's paid another $10M in 2020, the Browns would then still have to pay for it.

If the Browns do nothing else and rollover all $33.3M to next year, their new operating budget becomes $221.5M plus whatever amount the NFL increases the salary cap for everyone.

The Browns are currently on the books for $187.5M in 2020, leaving them $34M of cap space. In the event McCoy signs, that number is reduced to the combined cost of McCoy in 2019 and 2020.

In that scenario, Joe Schobert, J.C. Tretter, Damarious Randall, and Greg Robinson are all notable free agents. Robinson is pretty much guaranteed to go elsewhere, but the Browns would still have to make decisions on the other three.

From this standpoint, signing Gerald McCoy could have a real impact. This might see the Browns move on from one of these players they would otherwise sign.

The Browns do have options in terms of avenues to create additional cap space by releasing or trading players.

Here are the more notable contracts and the amount of money they could free up if they were to move on from them in 2020.

Jarvis Landry - $10.05M

Chris Kirksey - $7.55M

T.J. Carrie - $6.35M

Chris Hubbard - $4.9M

Chris Smith - $3.75M

Duke Johnson - $3.35M

Britton Colquitt - $2.8M

If the Browns were to move on from all of these contracts, that would create another $38.75M, but any combination could create them additional cap room to either retain or add talent to the Browns.

This shows that the suggestion that McCoy could cost the Browns Denzel Ward in three years is technically true, but that statement would be no less accurate if the Browns kept Landry, Kirksey, Carrie or Hubbard to the end of their respective contracts.

There is one other set of moving parts within the Browns that could perhaps change the math when it comes to the salary cap. Those are renegotiated contracts with both Odell Beckham and Olivier Vernon after their trades, because neither is getting any guaranteed money from the Browns and their agents are going to make sure that changes.

Overall, the Browns can sign McCoy. The fallout from such a move might be losing one of Joe Schobert, J.C. Tretter or Damarious Randall. The Browns can create more cap room to either retain their own players or try adding others if they release or trade up to six contracts. Denzel Ward is not a factor in any of this.

As it pertains to Ward, the real impact for him is going to be what happens with players like Myles Garrett, Larry Ogunjobi and David Njoku who are all up a year earlier and could all demand lucrative extensions. This is one small benefit that came up as a result of trading Jabrill Peppers. They weren't going to be able to afford all of these contract extensions, so moving him for a player like Beckham was a smart accounting move as well as a win-now move.

The discussion made for great show content, but Lima isn't a cap expert as it pertains the NFL, nor would he claim to be (neither would I). He's just relaying what he said someone told him. and my analysis disagrees. Nevertheless, this works to try to combat some of the misinformation out there and get a better sense for where things really stand, whether they sign McCoy or not.