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The Bears can upgrade their tight end position with a trade for David Njoku.

The Bears tried to solve their tight end issues through free agency and the NFL Draft, as they added veteran Jimmy Graham, formerly of the rival Green Bay Packers and Notre Dame’s Cole Kmet with their first pick. Those moves ought to make for some improvement, but it’s not enough. If Matt Nagy and Ryan Pace want to survive the next year and offseason in the Windy City, they’ll trade for Browns tight end and former first-rounder David Njoku.

When healthy, Njoku is one of the more talented young tight ends in football. He’s still just 23-years-old and feels overshadowed in Cleveland.

Should the Bears trade for David Njoku?

Reports out of Cleveland suggest they’re trying to convince Njoku to stay, but that’ll be a tough case, as the Browns signed Austin Hooper and drafted Harrison Bryant this offseason. Njoku’s targets are bound to go down even if Baker Mayfield ascends to Pro Bowl status in 2020. He’s far too talented to waste away on a middling AFC North squad.

In Chicago, Njoku would be relied upon as arguably the No. 1 receiving threat after wide receiver Allen Robinson and allow for Kmet to adjust to the pace of the NFL as a rookie.

Whether the Bears go with Mitchell Trubisky or Nick Foles next season is irrelevant if they don’t provide their signal-caller with appropriate targets. An ancient Graham isn’t enough.

To make such a trade, Chicago would have to part ways with a mid-round pick. Njoku is under contract until 2022, which benefits the Browns in negotiations. Still, he’s coming off an injury-plagued season in which he only caught five passes. If Cleveland were truly happy with their situation at tight end, they wouldn’t have brought in reinforcements. Such a trade screams a third-round pick in return and even that’s being generous.

It’s a price Chicago ought to be willing to pay.

Next: 5 NFL teams that should trade for David Njoku

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Baker Mayfield has 100 million reasons to have a bounce-back year.

The Cleveland Browns failed to live up to the hype last year after their offseason saw them add Odell Beckham, Jr. and Jarvis Landry. Unfortunately, for the Browns, quarterback Baker Mayfield regressed after a promising rookie season and felt the weight of expectations crush him.

Will 2020 be a different story for Mayfield and the Browns?

Well, he’s hoping so and the fans are too. In fact, Mayfield has about 100 million reasons why he should be positioning himself for his best season to date.

Mayfield will be eligible for a contract extension after the 2020 season, along with Denzel Ward and Nick Chubb, but quarterbacks usually take the priority when it comes to new deals.

If Mayfield has another season as he had in 2020 when he threw 21 interceptions to 22 touchdowns and saw his completion percentage drop to 59.4 as the Browns limped to a 6-10 record.

With Beckham, Landry and Chubb back and the Browns upgrading the offensive line in free agency with the signing of Jack Conklin and in the draft with first-round pick Jedrick Wills, Mayfield has been supported by the team who won’t tolerate any excuses in 2020.

This is the year the Browns need to return to the playoffs. If that happens, Mayfield will be in line for a rich contract extension that will easily top $100 million and make him one of the top-paid young quarterbacks in the entire NFL.

No, he won’t get the type of money that Patrick Mahomes will get from the Kansas City Chiefs. But Mayfield should command a deal that locks him up in Cleveland for the next five-plus years and north of $30 million per year. Mayfield could be looking for the type of deal that former No. 1 pick Jared Goff or No. 2 pick Carson Wentz received. That would put Mayfield in range of a $130-plus million deal and among the top six-eight highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL.

If Mayfield has a career-year and looks like the Heisman winner from his days at Oklahoma and puts himself in contention for the NFL MVP, he could be looking at a very big contract next spring.

If Mayfield looks like he did in 2019, then he could be looking at a Jameis Winston scenario where he isn’t even re-signed by the team that spent the No. 1 pick on him.

The post Baker Mayfield has 130 million reasons to show out for Browns in 2020 appeared first on Bet Sunday.

2020 felt like it was going to be David Njoku‘s last year with the Cleveland Browns anyway.

Though the Browns extended their fifth-year option on the former first-round pick out of the University of Miami this offseason, once they decided to bring in two-time Pro Bowl tight end Austin Hooper in free agency, it felt like the writing was on the wall for Njoku in Northeast Ohio. He was now expandable and very much Cleveland trade bait.

Cleveland owes Njoku $1,763,877 in base salary this season. He would be a $3,030,714 hit against the cap if he was released by Cleveland in this campaign. While that number is manageable, Njoku would be a $6,013,000 dead-cap hit in 2021, as that’s what he’s slated to make in base salary because of the fifth-year option he was extended.

Though he barely has over 1,000 career receiving yards in three seasons out of Miami, Njoku only turns 24 years old in a week. He dealt with injuries last year and has been thrust in the middle of perpetual chaos for his entire stint in Cleveland. Njoku is about to be playing for his fourth NFL head coach in Kevin Stefanski in only his fourth season out of The U.

With Njoku and his high-profile agent Drew Rosenhaus expressing his desire to be traded, the Browns may have to look hard into dealing him. While they want to keep him around and run absolutely incredible two tight end sets with Hooper, this situation could become untenable if Njoku doesn’t get his way before the start of the season. He may very well be traded in 2020.

Here are five trade destinations for Cleveland Browns tight end David Njoku.

5

Houston Texans

AFC South

We’ve seen how willing Houston Texans head coach/general manager Bill O’Brien is to make a deal. He sent arguably his best player in wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to the Arizona Cardinals for a running back who used to be good but is on a bad contract in David Johnson. O’Brien also orchestrated a traded for often-injured Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Brandin Cooks.

Houston already has one of the five most talented quarterbacks in the league in Deshaun Watson still on his rookie contract. Though he has weapons, there aren’t any worth writing home about in Houston. It’s why Watson responded to Cincinnati Bengals legendary wide receiver Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson about free agent Antonio Brown potentially linking up with the Texans.

The reason Njoku would be a great fit in Houston is he has two years left on his contract at a reasonable number and would be an upgrade over what the Texans have in the tight end room. Though Darren Fells emerged as a viable red-zone target for Watson last season, Njoku was a former first-round pick for a reason. He has much greater upside than Houston’s current No. 1.

By adding a player like Njoku to the Texans receiving corps, it could be a little move that goes a long way towards helping Houston stay in the mix for yet another AFC South crown. The Texans have won their division four of the last five years. While that hasn’t translated to a single AFC title bout appearance, maybe the underrated addition of Njoku could be an agent of change for them?

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David Njoku wants a trade out of Cleveland, but the Browns should try to convince him to stay. 

Over the offseason, the Cleveland Brownse signing of former Falcons tight end Austin Hooper seemed like a good move at the time it was made. The addition of Hooper gave Cleveland’s offense another weapon and the thought of him paired with 2017 first rounder David Njoku at the tight end position was quite scary.

It doesn’t appear that will happen for the Browns though, as Njoku and his agent requested a trade per Adam Schefter. The signing of Hooper to the deal that he got seems to be a sticking point.

According to Schefter, the Browns want to keep Njoku and that makes perfect sense. Njoku is still a young and very talented tight end. It’s hard to find that type of great talent at the position and the Browns could have had both him and Hooper, but instead could look to add draft picks instead.

Pairing two massive tight ends together in the same offense has, historically, never been a bad thing.

Cleveland took Njoku 29th overall in the 2017 NFL Draft and once they landed Baker Mayfield with the first overall pick in 2018, it felt like Njoku would be a heavy contributor in the Browns’ hopeful resurgent offense.

Njoku was solid in his first two season, totaling 1,025 and eight touchdowns during that time. Unfortunately, he had a huge setback in 2019 due to injury and appeared in just four games while starting one. He hauled in just five receptions for 41 yards and a touchdown. Not exactly the season the Browns were hoping for from their first round pick.

The disappointing 2019 campaign played a hand in Cleveland wanting to add another tight end and they got the best on the free agent market in Hooper, who most definitely becomes the TE1 for the Browns and will be Mayfield’s go-to at the position.

Njoku obviously saw the writing on the wall and knows he can be a starter for another team in the league. The Browns will now will likely grant Njoku his wish and trade him despite wanting him to remain with the team and be the TE2.

Trading Njoku will bring in draft capital for Cleveland, who are looking to turn things around in 2020 after a disappointing 2019 season where they finished under .500 once again. He’s still young enough that teams will be interested in trading for him and while the Browns obviously wanted him to be a part of their future, Hooper is their guy now.

The post Are the Cleveland Browns making a mistake letting David Njoku get away? appeared first on Bet Sunday.

Does a bad 2020 season make Baker Mayfield the next Mitchell Trubisky?

Baker Mayfield can choose to be Mitchell Trubisky or not.

The Cleveland Browns used their No. 1 overall pick in 2018 on the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback out of the University of Oklahoma. After an impressive rookie year in Cleveland, Mayfield and the Browns massively underwhelmed and major organizational changes came this offseason. Kevin Stefanski is the new head coach and Andrew Berry is the new general manager.

On ESPN’s Get Up Thursday morning, Mike Greenberg, Mike Tannenbaum, Damien Woody and Domonique Foxworth reacted to their colleague Bill Barnwell’s article on what went wrong for Mayfield in his second NFL season and if it can be fixed. Barnwell made an interesting comparison to Mitchell Trubisky of the Chicago Bears in how Mayfield could have his fifth-year option declined.

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Mayfield has a short leash in the eyes of Tannenbaum. The former NFL general manager firmly understands the Browns’ new coach isn’t the one who drafted him. Berry might have been on John Dorsey’s staff in 2018 before spending a year with the Philadelphia Eagles, but Stefanski was deeply entrenched on Mike Zimmer’s Minnesota Vikings staff. Stefanski has no attachment.

If Mayfield is inherently reckless with the football again, don’t be shocked if Stefanski yanks him out of the game in favor of his backup Case Keenum. Back in 2017, Keenum was the Vikings quarterback on a team that went 13-3 and came up one game short of playing Super Bowl 52 in their own building. There is a great deal of trust between Keenum and Stefanski.

So is Mayfield destined to be out of Cleveland after 2021 after not getting his fifth-year option extended to him? Not necessarily, and here is why. Mayfield has had four head coaches in his first two years in Cleveland. Even the best quarterbacking talents can’t overcome that. Joe Thomas’ retirement hasn’t made things easier for him in a forever collapsing pocket either.

By upgrading both tackle spots with Jack Conklin coming over in free agency and Jedrick Wills Jr. in the first round of the NFL Draft, Cleveland got instantaneously more competent on the offensive side of the ball. Also, take a look at the weapons Mayfield has to work with and how can he not succeed in 2020?

Odell Beckham Jr., Nick Chubb, Kareem Hunt, Jarvis Landry and David Njoku were already there. Cleveland went out and signed the best tight end on the free agent market in Austin Hooper. There is a phenomenal chance the 2020 Browns offense looks a lot like what the Vikings have the last two years. Mayfield at the very least can be Keenum in this scheme, maybe even Kirk Cousins.

But the biggest reason Mayfield won’t fail this year is because he knows he can’t. This is the same guy who grew up in Austin, Texas and had to walk-on twice to have his shot at being a full-time starter in college football. What he did at Oklahoma under Lincoln Riley is transferable at the NFL-level. The taboo nature of the Air Raid is falling to the wayside. Just look at the Arizona Cardinals.

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Mayfield is not dumb, as he understands he can hand the ball off to Chubb and Hunt to open up easier passing lanes to Beckham, Hooper, Landry and Njoku. If it all hits, Cleveland is a team that can go 11-5 and maybe win the AFC North for the first time in decades should the Baltimore Ravens fall a few games off their 14-2 mark from the year before.

If you want to count Mayfield out this year, do so at your own peril because he’s got this.

The post Is Baker Mayfield about to become the next Mitchell Trubisky? appeared first on Bet Sunday.

Odell Beckham Jr. is not joining Cam Newton on the New England Patriots.

A Cam Newton to Odell Beckham Jr. connection would have been sweet, but it’s not happening.

While Newton has signed a one-year deal with the New England Patriots after nine years with the Carolina Panthers, Beckham is under contract with the Cleveland Browns, heading into his second season there. Though Beckham may be too big of a star to play in a mid-sized market like Cleveland, he wants to keep playing for the Browns, probably because they’ll be a good team.

On Sunday, Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood tweeted at Beckham, “[Odell Beckham Jr.] to the Patriots before the season is done. BANK IT!”

This came from the Dodgers starting pitcher’s account shortly after Newton had agreed to a one-year deal to play for the Patriots. Wood grew up in Charlotte, so one would think he grew up being a fan of the Panthers and therefore Newton.

Beckham had no time for this. Hours after Wood’s tweet, he quote tweeted him with, “U can find me in The LAND homie! We got unfinished business.”

So what is this “unfinished business”? Before trying to win a Super Bowl, how about winning your division? The Browns have never done this in Beckham or Wood’s lifetimes. Though Wood hasn’t won a World Series in Los Angeles, he’s at least been there. After a challenging year with the 2019 Cincinnati Reds, Wood is back in Dodger blue ready to win Los Angeles a championship.

Odell Beckham Jr. has some unfinished business in Cleveland to attend to.

Besides the financial ramifications and the stigma that would come if he were to go to another team this soon, Beckham has plenty of reasons to stay in Cleveland this year. First, he plays in the same receiving corps with his best friend Jarvis Landry. These guys have been the best of buds since their days playing for Les Miles at LSU. You can’t overlook how cool of a situation this is.

Second, the Browns have a loaded roster, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Beckham and Landry have three other Pro Bowl-level players in the starting lineup with running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt, as well as the major free-agent acquisition of Austin Hooper at tight end. Upgrades at both tackle spots and an improved Baker Mayfield, the Browns could be cooking.

Lastly, Cleveland grew up over the offseason by adding adults in the room in the form of head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry. These are men who went to Ivy League schools and come from well-run NFL franchises in the Minnesota Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles, respectively. Cleveland is not going to be a hopeless grease fire any more going forward.

At this time, the Browns should be one of the seven teams getting into the postseason out of the AFC this year. Though winning the division may be difficult because the Baltimore Ravens are a Super Bowl favorite, the Browns should be able to end the NFL’s longest active playoff drought dating back to 2002 this January. Beckham would so want to be a part of that accomplishment.

While Beckham and Newton on the same team would be fun, it’s not in the cards this year.

The post Odell Beckham Jr. shoots down Patriots rumors and Browns fans should be hyped appeared first on Bet Sunday.

2020 is the most important year of Baker Mayfield‘s football life.

The Cleveland Browns starting quarterback needs to play like he did when he was the No. 1 pick coming out of Oklahoma in 2018. Though it’s not his fault that former Browns general manager and sweatshirt enthusiast John Dorsey used the No. 1 overall pick on him. However, Mayfield was selected to be the heir apparent to Bernie Kosar, a vacancy that has not been appropriately filled in decades.

While at Oklahoma, Mayfield guided the Sooners to three-straight Big 12 Championships, two trips to the College Football Playoff and brought the 2017 Heisman Trophy back to Norman. Forever playing with a chip on his shoulder, Mayfield seemed like an ideal personality fit for the underdog Browns, as he could be the catalyst to help them overcome their perpetual culture of suck.

Despite having a phenomenal rookie year, Mayfield has shown he can really beat the toothless Cincinnati Bengals in his NFL career and that’s been about it. Former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum said on ESPN’s Get Up Friday that he expects the Browns to have their face of the franchise on a tight leash in 2020. Mayfield’s margin for error in year three is razor-thin.

If Mayfield plays like we all know he can, he’ll get that fifth-year option from new general manager Andrew Berry. Mayfield and his representation could begin to work with Berry on a long-term extension. But should Mayfield falter, 2021 may very well be the last year he’s on the Browns roster. He has to turn things around in Cleveland, but there is a strong sense he absolutely will.

Here is why Baker Mayfield will turn it around for the Cleveland Browns.

Case Keenum, Washington Redskins. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)

5. His NFL prototype Case Keenum is his backup, and that matters a ton.

While you weren’t paying attention in quarantine, this offseason the Browns added Case Keenum, the closest NFL approximation to Mayfield on Cleveland’s roster. Though Mayfield has said he’s some combination of Drew Brees and Russell Wilson, he’s really a better version of Keenum. That’s not disparaging of Mayfield, as Keenum won a ton of games and was a star in college at Houston.

Both signal-callers are undersized but are known for their accuracy and abilities to thrive in winning time. Nobody threw for more yards in college football history than Keenum with the Houston Cougars. He also was the quarterback of 2017 Minnesota Vikings who went 13-3 and Minneapolis Miracle-d the hell out of Brees’ Saints in the NFC Divisional round.

You know who was on that Vikings coaching staff three years ago? Browns’ first-year head coach Kevin Stefanski. He saw first-hand was solid quarterback play can do on a loaded roster. Minnesota nearly went to the Super Bowl for the first time since Fran Tarkenton was scrambling for his life behind a porous offensive line in the freezing cold in the 1970s. Keenum can win.

So if Mayfield decides he needs to pick up the slack in the Heisman Trophy interception club now that Jameis Winston is eating W’s on the Saints bench, Stefanski will have no qualms over benching the former No. 1 pick in favor of Mr. Minneapolis Miracle. You know that Spiderman meme where they’re pointing at each other? That’s Mayfield and Keenum to some extent.

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Baker Mayfield has no margin for error in his third year with Cleveland.

If Baker Mayfield throws a ton of picks this year, it’ll be the end of the line for him in Cleveland.

The 2017 Heisman Trophy winner had a terrific rookie season with the 2018 Cleveland Browns. His team overachieved and were a sneaky pick to qualify for the NFL playoffs last year. However, his team regressed and Mayfield became an interception-throwing machine in Freddie Kitchens’ lone year as the Cleveland head coach. 2020 must be different for Mayfield and the Browns.

On ESPN’s Get Up Friday morning, former NFL general manager Mike Tannenbaum said he believes Mayfield will be on a “very short leash” this season and “As soon as those picks start, he will be on the sidelines.”

For Tannenbaum to say Mayfield could get benched in his third year out of Oklahoma certainly raises a few eyebrows. Though it seems strange for the Browns to do that with the presumptive face of their franchise, keep in mind new Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry didn’t draft him and new Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski wasn’t in Cleveland the last two years.

Could Baker Mayfield get benched in 2020 by the Cleveland Browns?

Though Berry and Stefanski don’t have anywhere near the attachment to Mayfield as their predecessors of Kitchens, Hue Jackson and John Dorsey did, the new Browns regime won’t want to bench their starting quarterback unless they feel they absolutely have to. It might be their first years on the job, but Cleveland has the talent to contend for an AFC Wild Card berth already.

So while benching Mayfield seems considerably premature, Tannenbaum did make a few great points that parlay into other reasons why it could theoretically happen. Stefanski comes from the Minnesota Vikings organization, which was a defense-first team under head coach Mike Zimmer. They love to pound the rock in Minneapolis so they can use the ground game to open up the pass.

Tannenbaum mentioning Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins throwing very few interceptions last season in his second Pro Bowl campaign out of Michigan State. So we should expect Stefanski to run his offense in Cleveland similarly to that in Minnesota. Look for running backs Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt to get a ton of carries, while Mayfield and the passing offense plays off that.

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Simply put, Cleveland has too many offensive weapons for Mayfield to be inherently reckless with the football again. He has three Pro Bowlers in his receiving corps in Odell Beckham Jr., Jarvis Landry and tight end Austin Hooper. Cleveland has a dominant running game and upgraded both tackle positions with Jack Conklin coming over in free agency and Jedrick Wills Jr. in the NFL Draft.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, Stefanski has a strong previous working relationship with Mayfield’s backup in Case Keenum. Back in 2017, Keenum helped the Vikings go 13-3 en route to an NFC Championship game appearance. That Vikings roster was about as loaded as what the Browns could have this year. Keenum won’t turn the ball over if given the opportunity to start.

So either way, we’re going to see the Browns offense run like a finely-tuned machine. The run will open up the pass and the quarterback throwing the ball, whether that be Mayfield, Keenum or somebody else, will not be allowed to throw interceptions or turn it over. There is no margin for error here in the Cleveland quarterback room. It’s Mayfield’s job to lose, but he has to lose it first.

If Mayfield plays closer to what he did in 2018 than he did in 2019, he’s not going to get benched.

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Everson Griffen makes more sense for Browns than Jadeveon Clowney.

At last check, the Cleveland Browns were still somewhat in pursuit of Jadeveon Clowney. They apparently even made him a multi-year offer. But all things considered, fellow free agent pass rusher Everson Griffen makes more sense for them.

First, there’s the issue of asking price. Clowney is believed to be seeking north of $15 million per year. The Seattle Seahawks reportedly made an offer in that range, and the Browns were reportedly willing to up their offer to that area on a one-year deal as well. Still, no movement on him signing and the Tennessee Titans linger in the periphery as a suitor.

Let’s be clear, it’s not a financial issue for the Browns regarding signing Clowney. They have a league-high $37.27 million in cap space, with the ability to clear $15.5 million more if they released defensive end Olivier Vernon.

Here’s what Terry Pluto of the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote recently.

“A nice one-year contract for Griffen makes more sense than a long-term deal for Clowney. Depending upon Griffen’s price, the Browns can either keep defensive end Olivier Vernon or cut him. Vernon’s $15 million deal is not guaranteed until a week before the regular season.”

Drafted in 2010, Griffen has spent his entire career with the Minnesota Vikings to this point. New Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski was on the offensive staff there the entire time Griffen was, and defensive coordinator Joe Woods was defensive backs coach in Minnesota from 2006-2013. So there’s some familiarity in Cleveland.

Sacks can be a tricky statistic to attach value to, and advanced numbers smile on Clowney as an all-around edge defender. But Griffen had more sacks than Clowney last year (8-to-3), with 24 quarterback hits and 11 tackles for loss compared to Clowney’s 13 quarterback hits and seven tackles for loss (in two fewer games).

The difference between Clowney and Griffen as players is not necessarily substantial. But the Browns can probably get an older Griffen for half the price per year, and he’s a better fit.

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