The incredulous responses to a obviously known fact is obnoxious. How about you show me what is wrong with my statement and further the conversation?
Every team has to spend 90% of their cap space every year. So giving players front loaded contacts (overspending on them in one season).
Its not like I said the Browns haven't made good moves in the process of doing that, but yes they had to spend the money somehow.
Anyhow the idea that the Browns are spending more money on the RB position than other teams because of the Duke Johnson and Carlos Hyde contracts is not the case.
They're not facts. They're bad assumptions. Below are the facts:
QB - Mayfield (draft), Taylor (trade), Stanton ($4.15 mil gtd)
RB - Chubb (draft), Duke (draft), and Hunt (scrap heap)
WR - Landry (trade + extend), Higgins (draft), Callaway (draft), Ratley (draft), Perriman (scrap heap)
TE - Njoku (draft), Fells ($4.65 mil gtd)
OT - Hubbard (9 mil gtd), Robinson (scrap heap), Harrison (udfa)
OG - Zeitler ($23 mil gtd), Bitonio (draft), Corbett (draft)
C - Tretter (6.5 mil gtd)
DE - Garrett (draft), Ogbah (draft), Smith ($4.5 mil gtd), Thomas, (draft), Zetter (scrap heap)
DT - Ogunjobi (draft), Coley (udfa)
LB - Schobert (draft), Kirksey (draft), Collins (trade + extend), Avery (draft)
CB - Ward (draft), Carrie ($10 mil gtd), Mitchell ($3.5 mil gtd), Gaines ($1.4 mil gtd)
S - Randall (trade), Peppers (draft), Kindred (draft), BBC (scrap heap)
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2016 money > $3 mil (just picked a reasonable #) - Tramon Williams + Demario Davis (they fit your criteria but I'd argue they weren't overpay's - they were positive contributors at positions void of a starter), RG3 (he doesn't fit because Hue), McCown (was already here)
2017 - Brock (but actually Chubb), Haden (already here), Britt (facepalm) - but would have been used to extend Pryor if he weren't an idiot
2018 - nobody
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So in 4 years you can easily point to one player that fits your criteria - Britt - and he wasn't even what the team wanted to. Flimsily point to two - because Brock wasn't about Brock, it was about what turned into Chubb. And...really can't make a strong argument for anyone else.
The facts are this team was ripped down to the studs and was rebuilt via acquiring draft capital, taking shots on cheap young talent, and (for the most part) unproven but young(ish) free agents who would accept modest contracts the team could get out of easily. The team was either 1st or 2nd in cap space in each of the last 3 years. The only free agents that received > $10 mil gtd were Zeitler, Brock, and Britt. And if you wiggle to $10.5 then it's only Zeitler and Brock. And again, Brock wasn't brought here to QB - he was brought here to acquire a pick for when this team would be good. And he wasn't a free agent anyway. All of this is why this team has so much cap space now along with extra draft picks (again), despite already having a capable starting lineup.
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tl;dr - WAT