Cleveland Browns: Will team come to regret this contract extension?
· Yahoo Sports
The Cleveland Browns traded defensive end Myles Garrett on June 1, which almost immediately kicked off a wave of speculation about what would come next.
The prevailing thought was that the decision to part with the game’s best defensive player surely meant that the Browns were punting on the 2026 season (and maybe a few additional ones) and that general manager Andrew Berry was about to start some form of a fire sale.
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Speculation quickly centered on cornerback Denzel Ward as the most likely trade target – unless someone was dumb enough to covet one of the quarterbacks – as the eight-year veteran would bring back the biggest return in a trade.
Berry had other plans, of course, as he signed Ward to a contract extension that should keep one of the game’s best cornerbacks on the Browns through the 2029 season. The deal pays Ward $52.3 million in guaranteed money, and the overall value of the contract makes Ward the highest-paid cornerback in the league, at least for the moment.
While the deal was met with favorable reviews from fans, not everyone is as enamored with it, a group that includes ESPN’s Seth Walder.
In his latest column, Walder looks at some of the recent contract extensions across the league, and he does not take a favorable view of what the Browns did with Ward:
The Browns handed Ward, one of their defensive pillars, a two-year extension worth $31.1 million per year to keep him in Cleveland through 2029. But it’s not a deal I would have made. Ward is 29 years old and, critically, had two years left on his contract (at a reasonable $20.25 million per year). I would not have been in a rush to add more money to secure his rights in his age-31 and age-32 seasons.
Ward is still well-respected and ranked seventh among cornerbacks in Fowler’s survey of coaches and executives on the best players at each position. But Ward’s Next Gen Stats coverage numbers took a nosedive in 2024, as he allowed 1.8 yards per coverage snap (last among outside corners with at least 300 coverage snaps that season) along with a higher-than-average 17.8% target rate.
His yards per coverage snap returned to better than average in 2025 (1.0), though. But even if 2024 was a blip, Ward’s age and the team’s contractual control make this deal an unforced error.
Making Ward the game’s highest-paid player at his position could also be problematic if the latest rankings from Pro Football Focus turn out to be accurate, as Dalton Wasserman has Ward listed at No. 20:
Ward’s production saw a bit of a dropoff in 2025 after he led the NFL with 17 pass breakups in 2024. He collected just one interception and four pass breakups last season, but Ward has an excellent track record that could foreshadow a bounce-back. He has long been up to the task of covering the NFL’s top wide receivers.
So did the Browns overpay for Ward?
It’s possible that they may come to regret the final year of the deal if Ward does slow down in 2029. But he is still one of the game’s top cornerbacks, which even Waserman highlighted in pointing out that Ward can still lock down the game’s best wide receivers. (Just ask Ja’Marr Chase of the Cincinnati Bengals, who has had plenty of long afternoons when lining up against Ward.)
#Browns CB Denzel Ward gets an interception during today's training camp practice. pic.twitter.com/J8y0IgcwI7
— Camryn Justice (@camijustice) August 7, 2026
The Browns also need leaders on the team, especially on the defensive side of the ball as they transition from defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz to Mike Rutenberg. Having Ward in the secondary to keep everyone on the same page should help that transition go a bit more smoothly.
And while public perception does not factor into contract decisions, after trading Garrett, the Browns needed to give the fans something to hold on to, which is a bonus to keeping a popular player like Ward on the team.
The bottom line is the Browns are better with Ward than without him, so even if the final year of the deal turns out to be a disappointing one, they should get plenty out of Ward over the next three seasons.
What do you think? Did the Browns make a mistake by extending Ward, or was this the right move at the right time? Get the discussion going in the comments!