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Cleveland Browns cornerback Denzel Ward.
The Cleveland Browns may tear it all down this offseason and have a handful of options to start stockpiling draft picks.
Among the team’s most tradable players is star cornerback Denzel Ward. He is in the middle of a $100 million contract and has among the most concerning concussion histories in the NFL. Still, he has played in all but 10 games over the past four seasons. Ward has also earned Pro Bowl honors in three of those four campaigns.
Still Ward is a particular sort of player that only makes sense for a team that has salary cap space, can win immediately and is in desperate need of help in the secondary. Fortunately for the Browns, the Minnesota Vikings fit that bill exactly. Their top three cornerbacks will all hit free agency in March and the team owns just three picks in the entire 2025 draft, including the No. 24 selection in the first round.
Gary Davenport of Bleacher Report authored a trade pitch on Saturday, February 1, in which the Browns send the Vikings Ward and a sixth-rounder in exchange for Minnesota’s top pick.
“Calling pass defense the Vikings’ biggest weakness this season doesn’t do it justice. They were 28th in the NFL during the regular season and got shredded by the Rams in a playoff loss,” Davenport wrote. “Ward would be a massive upgrade at their most vulnerable position. He’d all but surely [be] a more impactful player in the short-term than that 24th pick.”
Browns Have Expensive Defense, Can Trim at Cornerback
GettyCornerback Denzel Ward of the Cleveland Browns.
Benjamin Solak of ESPN predicted in January that the Browns will move on from one of their two most expensive cornerbacks with Martin Emerson Jr. entering the final year of his rookie contract in 2025. He went so far as to actually name Minnesota among the most likely trade candidates.
“Both cornerbacks Denzel Ward (who had an excellent season) and Greg Newsome II (who had an uncharacteristically shaky season) should be made available, and one will be dealt,” Solak wrote. “For my money, I expect a young, rising team to put a first-round pick on the table for Ward (Packers? Vikings?) and give the Browns the draft capital they need to aggressively rebuild.”
Newsome is considerably cheaper than Ward in 2025, playing on a fifth-year team option worth less than $14 million. Ward’s base salary is roughly the same, though his salary cap hit comes in above $24.5 million next season and his contract runs two more years beyond that.
Vikings Have Money, Motivation Necessary to Deal for Denzel Ward
GettyCleveland Browns cornerback Denzel Ward.
Minnesota has the salary cap space to absorb Ward’s deal with $64 million available as of Saturday, according to Spotrac.
Furthermore, the Vikings won 14 games last season and were a victory away from the No. 1 seed. They have been fortunate that circumstances surrounding defensive coordinator Brian Flores allowed them to hold onto him for a third season, and they have a win-now window in front of them.
Cleveland can remain competitive at the cornerback position with Newsome and Emerson as their starting duo, and two first-round picks will give the team the type of mobility it needs to either try and restock immediately with young talent and attempt run in 2025, or play the longer game and set up for a post-Deshaun Watson future.
Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group's family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible
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