Browns Show Much Interest In Their Offensive Lineman In Terms Of…

Once again, the Cleveland Browns won’t be active early in the NFL Draft.

Barring a major turn of events, they won’t be on the clock until the second round.

That means they’ll have to do a lot of diligence on some high-upside and not-so-known prospects.

With that in mind, Tony Pauline reports that they’ve shown an interest in South Dakota State interior offensive lineman Mason McCormick (via Noah Schaefer on Twitter).

Standing at 6-foot-4 and 310 pounds, he’s built like the prototypical NFL offensive guard.

He has the strength and raw power to be a force at the line of scrimmage, and he excelled as a run blocker during his time in college.

His ability to make an impact at the point of attack would be tailor-made for this team.

Despite his big frame, he has solid footwork and a set of moves that allow him to be efficient in tight spaces regardless of the blocking scheme.

He’s also a physical force against opposing pass rushers, although he could certainly improve in the passing game, as he struggled with inconsistency for most of his collegiate career.

The potential is most definitely there, and he should be available around the third or the fourth round of the upcoming edition of the NFL Draft.

He has a high football IQ, and his physical traits make it seem like he could be trusted to make an impact right away, even as a rotational piece, so it will definitely be interesting to see if the Browns wind up taking him.

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Browns Are Top-2 Team In Concerning Salary Cap Category

The majority of NFL fans are aware of their favorite team’s position regarding the salary cap.

The NFL increased the salary cap this season, which should help teams be competitive as it pertains to adding players.

While this number is widely known, there is another nuance to the cap that might be lesser known, which is void years.

Void years, at least in the NFL, allow teams to spend more money in the present time by pushing out contracts to future seasons.

This can be a great thing at the time, especially if a team can win the Super Bowl, but it can come back to bite them.

As data analyst Cooper Davis has recently highlighted on Twitter, the Cleveland Browns have the second-highest amount of salary cap space stored in void years of any team in the NFL.

Unfortunately for the Browns, they’ll likely have over $200 million in dead cap space, which doesn’t help their cause to build up this team in the future.

For a team that struggled as much as the Browns at certain points in the 2023 season, they’ll need as much help as they can get in 2024 and beyond.

It will be interesting to see how the team moves forward and what moves they make ahead of the upcoming season to try and improve.

Deshaun Watson’s injury exposed a lot for this team last year, and while Joe Flacco led them to the playoffs, they might have a tough path back to the postseason this year if the team reverts back to its old tendencies.