The Cleveland Browns already traded the best player on their team earlier this offseason when they sent Myles Garrett to Southern California, and there is viable reasons to believe that cornerback Denzel Ward might be next.
Ward is 29 years old with a meaningful concussion history and has two years remaining on his $100.5 million contract. Dealing him at this point in the offseason will save the Browns more than $17.4 million against the salary cap in 2026 and an even $20.5 million the following year.
Despite what appear to be back-to-back elite draft classes, Cleveland isn’t likely to compete at a high level this season unless quarterback Shedeur Sanders takes a major step forward or Deshaun Watson regains the Pro-Bowl form that has eluded him since 2020. Barring one of those two developments, the Browns are liable to hunt a franchise QB in the 2027 draft and build toward contention from there.
That timeline doesn’t necessarily fit with Ward, unless he can remain healthy and producing at a high level into his early/mid-30s. Given that betting on such an outcome represents a considerable risk and that Ward could help a contender now, at least exploring trade options for Ward is a reasonable path for the team to tread.
However, general manager Andrew Berry potentially has other ideas.
Andrew Berry Has Stated Intention to Keep Denzel Ward
GettyCleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry.
Another way to bring Ward’s cap hit down is to extend and restructure his contract, adding more money and years but spreading them out across the future in a different form and fashion that pulls down his immediate cap hits.
And that, according to Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN, is something Berry is strongly considering.
“Berry said he wants to keep Ward, and the five-time Pro Bowler also expressed his commitment to Cleveland,” Oyefusi wrote on Wednesday, June 24. “Ward has two years remaining on a five-year extension he signed in 2022 but no more guaranteed salary. Ward didn’t participate in mandatory minicamp — coach Todd Monken said he won’t comment on the nature of the cornerback’s absence — but a new deal that offers additional guarantees could be on the horizon.”
Browns Showed Commitment to Maintaining High-Level Defense When Demanding Jared Verse in Myles Garrett Deal
GettyDefensive end Jared Verse of the Cleveland Browns.
To Oyefusi’s point, both Ward and Berry have spoken strongly about the cornerback staying in Cleveland in 2026 and beyond.
“I definitely still want to be here,” Ward said in early June. “It’s Ohio against the world. So people could doubt us, but we’re going out there still trying to play our best ball and bring wins to the city.”
For his part, Berry said people interpreting the deal that sent Garrett to the Los Angeles Rams as the start of a fire sale on the Browns’ most expensive top-end talent, which very much includes Ward, are misreading the situation.
“[Ward is] still playing at a really high level,” Berry said. “That doesn’t change with this transaction.”
That Cleveland insisted on getting defensive end Jared Verse back in the transaction with the Rams, as well as three picks (1st, 2nd and 3rd) for Garrett offers some tangible evidence that the Browns are retooling and looking to get younger and less expensive in some places, but not necessarily that they’re looking to move off a contract like Ward’s.
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