Browns Receive Added Flexibility As NFL Announces $30 Million Boost In Salary Cap

The NFL officially announced on Friday that the league's salary cap for 2024 would jump by more than $30 million to $255 million for this upcoming season, providing the Browns with extra flexibility this offseason.

Contrary to popular belief, the NFL salary cap is real. It just continues to go up at an exponential rate.

On Friday the league officially announced the official cap number for 2024, which saw an unprecedented jump of more than $30 million to a whopping $255.4 million figure. Last season the salary cap was just under $225 million. 

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The increase this offseason represents the largest single year jump in the cap since it was first installed in 1994. The previous single season increase was before the 2022 season where it jumped by $25.7 million.

The league cited a couple reasons for the record setting boom. Chief among them was a repayment of all amounts advanced by the clubs and deferred by the players during the Covid pandemic. Additionally, the league saw an increase in media revenue for the upcoming season.

For the Browns, this historic increase in cap space is a huge deal as general manager Andrew Berry attempts to navigate the treacherous waters of an expensive roster. Based on the original cap estimation of $243 million that was floated earlier this offseason, Cleveland was slated to be more than $20 million over the cap, even with $30 million in 2023 rollover space tacked on top of it.

Instead, accounting for the rule of 51 – which allows teams to only count the top 51 most expensive contracts against its cap during the offseason – the Browns are slated to be just $7.7 million over the threshold, according to Spotrac.

That is obviously a much easier number to work around as Berry will explore restructuring several contracts to clear the space needed to execute the team's offseason plans. That assessment could include quarterback Deshaun Watson, or it may not.

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Watson accounts for $63.9 million on the team's cap next year – the largest financial hit of any player in the NFL this upcoming season. Last month, Berry told The Athletic  that he doesn't necessarily consider re-working Watson's deal a top priority. Leaving Watson's contract untouched is even more likely now as Cleveland can eat more than $63 million of what was a controversial $230 million, fully-guaranteed deal.

That could go a long way in not only giving the Browns flexibility this offseason but in the later year's of the deal as well.