Though the Browns had not even been through an offseason practice with receiver Jerry Jeudy, the organization still agreed to sign him to a three-year contract extension to tie him to the club through 2027.
Jeudy’s new deal is reportedly worth up to $58 million with $41 million guaranteed at signing.
Browns G.M. Andrew Berry told reporters at the annual league meeting that Cleveland wanted to get out in front of the receiver market by locking up Jeudy now.
“Yeah, so one of the things that we feel like is a competitive advantage for us has been our contract management philosophy,” Berry said, via Chris Easterling of the Akron Beacon Journal. “And we’re firm believers that in that space the best front offices or the best teams are proactive as opposed to reactionary and market dynamics. … In Jerry’s case, you already saw two new receiver contracts enter the market that really are [a] harbinger of things to come in that market. I mean, probably by Week 1 of the NFL season, the top of that market’s going to be north of $30 million.
“So as we think of the contract management space, rather than be reactive to new market, we try and be proactive. And probably more importantly is when we think about an extension or a signing, we think about, OK, well where is the market actually going to be on September 1 as opposed to maybe an irrelevant market on March 1, so to speak.”
In 57 career games, Jeudy has caught 211 passes for 3,053 yards with 11 touchdowns. He had 54 receptions for 758 yards with two TDs in 2023.