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The Cleveland Browns are in a terrible spot with wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. He created a sea of drama right before the NFL trade deadline, but the team decided to keep him on the roster.
24 hours have passed and Beckham appears to be on his way out, as he was not at practice Wednesday. So what happens if the Browns outright release Beckham? According to OverTheCap.com, the Browns would take on a $12.79 million dead cap hit.
That is not ideal and the best solution is to patch up this problem, but if the damage is irreversible, there may not be another option.
How much will it cost for a team to sign Odell Beckham Jr.?
If the Browns do cut Beckham, he will immediately hit waivers. If a team claims him via waivers, they are in for a steep price.
A new team would simply take on his current deal which pays Beckham just over $8 million for the remainder of the season. However, the deal is completely non-guaranteed in 2022 and 2023. So a team could eat $8 million with the idea of him as a rental.
Having that much cap space at this time of year is obviously difficult. So one plan of attack could be to just hope and pray Beckham clears waivers upon a hypothetical release. If that happened, he would be a true free agent and would sign some sort of minimum deal for the remainder of the year.
The Browns are the team that messed up here by not finding a trade partner for Beckham. That leaves them with a disgruntled player who could cost millions in dead money while he plays for another team.
There is truly no telling what will happen in this scenario. It is entirely possible the Browns will just tell Beckham to stay home this week with the hope he can return at some point. They still have to pay him, but at least the money is going toward a player on the roster.
Cleveland is in a nightmare scenario in 2021. The team is 4-4 and instead of focusing on a tough divisional game against Cincinnati, all the talk is about Beckham's status. That is a bad sign for Sunday.
