Three Trades the Cleveland Browns Needed To Make and Didn’t

The Cleveland Browns have been unsurprisingly active in free agency, adding a ton of help on the offensive line, taking care of a handful of their own free agents, and even finalizing one trade.

However, this offseason has been one of the busiest in recent memory in regards to players being dealt, and Cleveland could have certainly worked out a few more trades to strengthen its roster.

Here are three notorious NFL trades made in recent days by other teams, that should have been executed by the Browns:

Michael Pittman Jr., wide receiver, Steelers

Indianapolis needed some cap space in order to re-sign Alec Pierce, and opted to moved on from Pittman, who had been the team’s No. 1 wide receiver for the last five years.

In return for sending Pittman to Pittsburgh, packaged with a seventh-round pick, Indy received a sixth-rounder. Granted, Pittman is not elite like an A.J. Brown, but he won’t be a headache either. Considering what the Broncos just paid for Jaylen Waddle, Pittman seems like a gift.

A high volume receiver, the sixth-year player has five consecutive seasons with at least 111 targets, and is coming off a new personal best with seven touchdown catches. That’s almost double what all wideouts produced for Cleveland last year. And to top it off, he’s been productive despite the turnstile at the quarterback position for Indy over the last few seasons.

But the real bargain could be compensation. Pittman arrived in Pittsburgh on the last year of his former deal, worth about $24 million. The Steelers quickly signed him to a two-year extension that lowered his cap hit for 2026 to under $9 million, with cap hits of a little over $26 million for 2027 and $24 million for 2028. Should things not work out with him, the Steelers could cut him in a year, carrying a dead money charge of only $15 million for next season.

For a team desperate for a No. 1 receiving option on the perimeter like the Browns, Pittman should have been on the radar, even if they're adding at wideout with a premier pick in the 2026 NFL Draft.

Garrett Bradbury, center, Bears

Chicago moved quickly to replace recently retired Pro Bowl center Drew Dalman, finding a suitable replacement in New England.

The deal for Bradbury cost the Bears a 2027 fifth-round pick. Chicago now takes on a 5.7 million cap hit for Bradbury’s last year under contract, with the possibility of extending him to lower that number like in Pittman’s case. In return, the Bears also receive a proven blocker up front who has started all 107 games he’s appeared in as a pro since 2019, including all 17 games in the last two seasons.

Sure, the Browns scored a big one by picking up Elgton Jenkins in free agency, and while Cleveland might be projecting him at the center position as a successor for Ethan Pocic, Jenkins might very well be better suited to play guard or even left tackle, in place of injured Dawand Jones. In other words, adding Bradbury wouldn’t have blocked the Jenkins signing.

Taron Johnson, cornerback, Raiders

Re-signing Martin Emerson Jr. should still be on the table for the Browns, but adding one of the league’s best slot cornerbacks certainly would have made some noise in Cleveland.

Like with Pittman and Bradbury, Johnson was dealt by Buffalo in order to find some cap relief. The Raiders jumped at the chance to acquire him before the Bills released him, which was their original plan. The cost for adding Johnson? A sixth-round swap of picks between Las Vegas and Buffalo, with the Raiders taking on cap hits of $8.6 million and $10 million for the next two seasons. Surely enough, those hits could go down dramatically with an extension.

A second-team All-Pro in 2023, Johnson received very high praise from an unexpected source this offseason after being dealt, when Steelers’ quarterback Aaron Rodgers -- while talking about teams playing nickel as their base defense on the Pat McAfee Show -- that:

"I think Buffalo did this more than anybody, playing nickel to every personnel, because Taron Johnson is one of the best players in the league. He's one of the most underrated players in the league. He can play a box linebacker and stop the run and he can cover guys."

You can never have too many good cornerbacks in the NFL, and adding Johnson would have been a hit for Cleveland.