Browns Restructure New Wideout Jerry Jeudy's Contract, Save $10 Million
Jerry Jeudy has yet to play a snap for the Browns, but he's already helping the team.
On Friday, Jeudy agreed to a contract restructure that will free up $10 million in cap space for Cleveland. The ex-Broncos wideout was due to make nearly $13 million in 2024, all of which came in the form of his base salary number. The $12.9 million figure makes up the fifth-year option year of his rookie deal after being selected No. 15 overall by Denver in 2020.
Jeudy joins Jedrick Wills and Denzel Ward on a short list of Browns players who have agreed to restructures to help the team this offseason. In Jeudy's case, Berry converted all but $1.125 million of the wideout's base salary for next season into a restructure bonus. As Sportrac lays out, the remaining $11.8 million in bonus money was then spread out over the course of five years, four of which are currently voided years after Jeudy's contract expires next offseason.
Berry has executed this move on numerous occasions with players like Deshaun Watson, Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward and Amari Cooper, who all have at least one voided year on the back end of their current contract.
The move could signal the Browns desire to potentially extend Jeudy after this upcoming season in order to have that voided money attached to years he's actually on the roster. If Cleveland ultimately doesn't re-sign Jeudy after the season the remaining bonus money would accelerate onto the 2025 cap in the form of a $9.4 million dead cap hit.
Between all three restructures to this point, Berry has created more than $30 million in cap space, which allowed the Browns to re-sign many of their own free agents like Za'Darius Smith, Maurice Hurst and Shelby Harris in recent days. It also allowed the Browns to add veteran LB Jordan Hicks and new backup QB Jameis Winston.
