Cleveland Browns: Tyrann Mathieu trade on the horizon?

The Cleveland Browns are in the mood to trade. Could a deal for Arizona Cardinals defensive back Tyrann Mathieu be in short order?

The phone lines in Cleveland are open, and the Browns might not be done making blockbuster trades.

In about a two hour span on Friday, the Browns re-shaped their offensive weaponry and added a key defensive piece, trading for Tyrod Taylor, Jarvis Landry, and Damarious Randall.

Are they done making deals after all of those moves? Not likely.

The Browns only relinquished one total draft pick (they received two picks back from the Green Bay Packers in addition to Randall) plus DeShone Kizer, so they have a lot more capital to play with.

Could Tyrann Mathieu be next?

The Cardinals have put Mathieu’s name out there, it seems, as a possible release candidate. There’s not a great chance Mathieu would sign with the Browns as a free agent just because, well, they are the Browns, but Cleveland might be able to trade something for him.

That would also help the Cardinals not only shed salary, but obtain much needed draft capital for a potential quarterback trade.

Over the next two seasons, Mathieu will count a total of $28.2 million against the Cardinals’ salary cap. They will take on a pretty significant dead money hit over $9 million if they trade him, but again, there’s more than meets the eye here.

The Cardinals have until March 14th to decide whether or not they want to pick up an option in Mathieu’s contract which will guarantee him $19 million over the next two seasons. That may be a little too rich for their blood and they could save $10 million by trading him prior to the start of the new league year.

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The Cleveland Browns have some gaping holes in the secondary, even with the new addition of Damarious Randall, and Mathieu could be part of a significant uprising in Cleveland.

In my opinion, the AFC North is pretty wide open with the Steelers not very good defensively as well as Ben Roethlisberger on the backside of his career. The Ravens are not a legitimate contender to me, and neither are the Bengals.

Of course, the Browns didn’t win a game last season, so they’re not really in position to be talking down to other teams, but they certainly have a little something on paper right now that is intriguing. The addition of Tyrod Taylor alone could be worth 5 or 6 additional wins than what this team would have otherwise been.

I think adding Mathieu is a no-brainer for the Browns, considering the Cardinals have gone public with their desire to give him a pay cut. Will the Browns continue their major trading spree and get a deal done?

We shall soon find out.

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