Smart moves

The word of the day, at least this day, is restructure. As in a lifeline that frees up nearly $36 million toward the Browns' salary cap for this season.

Entering salary-cap hell for the first time in can't remember when with hefty contracts to stars like Nick Chubb. Jack Conklin, Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, Joel Bitonio, Wyatt Teller, Deshaun Watson and Amari Cooper, General Manager Andrew Berry would have been fiscally strapped with free agency and the college draft coming up. 

Something had to be done. Fortunately, there was an available and quite sizable target that needed to be, um, restructured. Berry took aim and fired Monday, the first day of legal-tampering in free agency. His target? Watson's bloated $230 million contract.

That is was all guaranteed made it the prime target. What difference does it make how much it is and when Watson gets paid. He's going to get it all eventually because it's all guaranteed.

So after Berry added the roughly $36 million toward this year's cap by reducing Watson's contract this year to about $19 million, the club will owe Watson about $64 million per year for the final three years of his pact. Maybe.

The guess here is the Browns will restructure that contract at least three more times as a salve toward keeping the cap from spiraling out of control. They can keep deferring the money well beyond Watson's stay in Cleveland. After all, it's totally guaranteed. Makes no difference when he gets it.

Theoretically, he can receive the money right up until he retires and beyond. That would be a smart move for both parties. He would technically become a long-term resident of the cap until the money is exhausted.

This situation brings to mind what the New York Mets did with veteran infielder/outfielder Bobby Bonilla back in 1999 when he failed to stick in his second stint with the club and was released with about $6 million left in his contract.

He and his agent negotiated how and when that money would be distributed. The two sides agreed Bonilla would be paid $1.2 million every year on July 1 until 2035. To achieve that, the Mets invested the rest of the money at 8% interest and the accumulated total reached nearly $30 million over the years.

Now 60, Bonilla still gets that check on July 1. Call it a slow-motion restructure because it gave the Mets some salary relief (even though baseball doesn't not have a salary cap) and satisfied all parties.

What's to prevent the Browns from striking a similar deal with Watson and his agent, David Mulugheta, taking all that's left in the final three years ($192 million or whatever that becomes with further restructuring) and invest where they can make money?

What difference does it make over what period of time Watson gets his money? It's all guaranteed. All that needs to be negotiated, in the form of an addendum to the original contract, are the per-year amount, say $5 million a year; date of the annual payment, say Jan. 1; and determine the final year, which probably would be well after Watson's retirement.

That way, Berry or his successor (maybe sooner rather than later) can avoid whatever salary deterrents come their way.

Next: Catching up with the Browns' haul in free agency.