Browns offer S Tony Jefferson 'most money by far,' Jefferson picks Ravens instead

Frank Schwab

The good part of having more than $100 million in cap space is obvious: You can offer free agents more money than anyone else.

The bad part comes when you can’t land players you want despite all that cap room.

Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported early Wednesday that the Cleveland Browns, who have about $104 million in cap space, offered former Arizona Cardinals safety Tony Jefferson the “most money by far” among suitors. Jefferson was coming off a good season with the Cardinals and would have been a nice addition to a building Browns defense.

Hold on. On Wednesday night, ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Diana Russini reported that the Baltimore Ravens would be signing Jefferson, barring a late-minute change. Contracts can’t be officially signed until Thursday. So not only did the Browns offer reportedly the largest contract – Rapoport confirmed that Jefferson “left money on the table” from the Browns – they got beat on a key free agent by a division rival … the one that moved from Cleveland a couple decades ago. Ouch.

It’s a good signing for the Ravens, who can pair Jefferson with Eric Weddle for a very good safety duo. And the Browns will sign some players of note. Probably. But Jefferson turned them down, and hopefully that’s not a sign of things to come. But it’s not going great very early on. The Browns were delivered another blow when Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who everyone figured would draw heavy interest from Cleveland if he was cut, agreed to a restructured deal with the Bills. All the while, the Browns were watching receiver Terrelle Pryor, who they decided to not franchise tag for some reason, get interest from several other teams as the legal tampering period began (though Pryor could still come back to Cleveland).

It’s not like the Browns should be in a big rush to spend. They are very unlikely to be in playoff contention this season, no matter what their free-agent class looks like. But they want to land some players to build around and after a 1-15 season, Browns fans don’t want to spend the offseason taking on more losses.

Tony Jefferson bats away a pass for Greg Olsen. (AP)

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!