Cleveland Browns use franchise tag on tight end David Njoku ahead of deadline

The Cleveland Browns ensured David Njoku would not hit the open market next week by applying the franchise tag to the tight end on Monday.

Njoku had been scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent at 4 p.m. next Wednesday.

The Browns had until 4 p.m. Tuesday to tag Njoku.

The club announced its decision to tag Njoku along with three other moves. It also tendered offensive linemen Blake Hance and Michael Dunn and wide receiver Ja'Marcus Bradley as exclusive rights free agents. Players who are exclusive rights free agents are not permitted to negotiate with other teams, so Hance, Dunn and Bradley will be back with the Browns.

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Using a non-exclusive franchise tag on Njoku will cost the Browns a projected $10.834 million next season, the average of the top five salaries among tight ends in the past five years, according to OverTheCap.com. He'll be allowed to negotiate with other teams, but the Browns will have the right to match any offer or receive two first-round draft picks if he were to sign elsewhere.

In other words, Njoku is staying with the Browns for at least one more season.

Njoku insisted Jan. 10 he wanted to be back with Cleveland, despite the Browns failing to meet expectations last season en route to a record of 8-9.

Njoku said last summer he would instruct his agent, Malki Kawa, to work toward an extension with the club, and the two sides are expected to continue those talks with the franchise tag giving them more time.

“I love it here. I love it here to the core," Njoku said in August. "I honestly want to be here for the rest of my career, so my agent and the Browns are still in talks, we're still negotiating, figuring out what we can do, and we'll go from there.”

Njoku, 25, has a huge supporter in Browns General Manager Andrew Berry.

In 2017, Berry was the team's chief talent evaluator and held the title of vice president of player personnel when the Browns traded up to draft Njoku in the first round (29th overall) out of the University of Miami.

But Njoku wanted to leave the Browns in 2020, when his former agent, Drew Rosenhaus, publicized a trade request that summer. Earlier in the offseason, Berry had acquired two other tight ends, signing Austin Hooper in free agency and drafting Harrison Bryant in the fourth round. Njoku wondered how he would fit in the offense.

The cold feelings eventually thawed, though. Njoku rescinded the trade request, and more importantly, the Browns allowed his $6.013 million fifth-year option to become guaranteed in March 2021 — a show of faith the player appreciated.

Last season, Njoku caught 36 passes on 53 targets for 475 yards and four touchdowns and played 16 of 17 games with 11 starts.

In five NFL seasons, Njoku has started 36 of the 65 games in which he has appeared and caught 148 passes on 240 targets for 1,754 yards and 15 touchdowns.

The Browns are obviously betting on Njoku ascending.

“He's come a long way — I would say both on and off the field,” Berry said of Njoku last week during the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis. “That's a credit to him and how hard he's worked. I think David as a player, he's still 25 years old. I think he's close to maturity, and I think as his opportunities increase, his impact will grow.”

Committing big money to Njoku turns the attention to Hooper, who, in two seasons with the Browns, hasn't lived up to the four-year, $42 million contract he signed in March 2020 as an unrestricted free agent.

Hooper is due $9.5 million next season, when he'll carry a salary-cap hit of $13.25 million, according to spotrac.com. But cutting him would be painful from a financial perspective, costing the Browns a dead cap hit of $11.25 million in 2022, unless they were to release him with a post-June 1 designation, which would spread the cap hit over two years. Hooper's dead cap hit would be $7.5 million if he were released next year.

"I can see a universe where [Njoku and Hooper are] both there [in Cleveland] and both being paid, and then you could move on from Hooper next year," former NFL agent Joel Corry told the Beacon Journal in January. "It would make more sense financially, at least from a cap standpoint.”

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cleveland Browns: David Njoku receives franchise tag ahead of deadline