Explaining the Cleveland Browns Salary Cap Situation Entering Minicamp

Here's a look into the Browns current salary outlook heading into their early summer minicamp.

General manager Andrew Berry watches the Browns OTA camp in Berea on May 20, 2026. | Lisa Scalfaro / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Cleveland Browns are officially ready to kick off their summer minicamp sessions in Berea this week, expecting all players to report for their mandatory training.

It’s safe to say the players that will make up their 53-man roster are already in the building, unless an unexpected addition comes at any given time. That means their salary situation should be expected to be unchanged from now to the start of the season.

Contracts can be restructured, and players can be signed, but as of now, the predicted 53-man roster is about as close as it can get to being set in stone.

When it comes to the NFL’s salary cap, especially when looking at one team in particular, it can be a bit confusing. The easiest way to look at it is simply by pulling up their list of current contracts to see how much money they may have left to spend.

For the Browns, nothing is simple, clearly. To make this easy, here’s a breakdown of Cleveland’s current salary cap situation through the first week of June.

Players salaries and available cap space

According to Over the Cap, the Cleveland Browns currently have $18,570,580 in cap space, which ranks 18th lowest in the league as of June 2026.

This might appear to be a pretty solid amount of the Browns still to spend, but it’s highly unlikely that would happen. It would be smart for Cleveland to let that cap roll over into next season if they can.

In terms of dead money for the 2026-27 season, the Browns currently sit at approximately $116,820,743, which ranks them second highest in the NFL. A concerning number, yes. But a lot of players from their past are still owed money through this season.

Their top two players atop the dead money list are Joel Bitonio and Myles Garrett, now both former Cleveland Browns. Garrett was traded to the Los Angeles Rams last week in a blockbuster trade, and Bitonio announced his retirement early Tuesday morning.

Joel Bitonio jokes with members on the media at the team’s facility in Berea on June 10, 2026. The longtime Browns guard announced his retirement from football on the same day. | Nate Ulrich / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The rest of the players that make up that list aren’t worth noting. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah is the lone player that makes up the physically unable to perform list, and his total remains a manageable $4,772,765.

That gets the boring totals out of the way, and more into the main cap situation Cleveland finds themselves in. There are only two players now at the very top of their active roster making over $15 million this season. 

Those two players are quarterback Deshaun Watson and cornerback Denzel Ward. Of course, the Watson contract still haunts the Browns, but only for one more season. His cap hit this season is just over $40 million, while Ward’s is just over $30 million.

For an all-pro cornerback like Ward, $30 million sounds about right. He’s committed to playing for the Browns this season and beyond if the team chooses to keep the Cleveland native, while Watson’s is a bit outrageous considering the minimal games he’s played with the Browns.

Dec 28, 2025; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns cornerback Denzel Ward (21) celebrates after the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

The good news for Cleveland is that they have a young roster mostly made up of rookie contracts, which will give them plenty of flexibility to make moves in the coming offseasons. Even the bulk of their veterans aren’t making crazy money, which is so important for them.

Browns GM Andrew Berry is notorious for “kicking the can down the road” when it comes to owed money for his roster. While a majority of their team won’t make large amounts of money this season, they may be owed more down the line.

Either way, moving forward the Browns will have plenty of cap space to sign free agents and their current players to long term extensions.