The Cleveland Browns have picked up the fully guaranteed 2025 fifth-year option on cornerback Greg Newsome II, a team source confirmed.
The deadline for the option worth $13.3 million was later this week, but there was little doubt that the Browns would pick it up. They believe they have the league’s best cornerback trio with Denzel Ward and Martin Emerson Jr. generally playing outside and Newsome inside in most of the team’s defensive packages.
“We have three guys who can play press-man coverage at a very, very high level,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry said after the draft. “That’s not a skill set I’m looking to give away.”
Still, Newsome’s actual future with the team isn’t clear as Emerson becomes extension-eligible after the 2024 season and Ward is under contract for four more years, three of which are essentially guaranteed. But picking up the option gives Cleveland time to assess whether it wants to keep all three, have Newsome play out the two years for which he’s now locked in or potentially trade one — likely Newsome — ahead of next season for salary-cap reasons.
Though Newsome had an up-and-down 2023, he returned his first career interception for a touchdown in a November win at Baltimore. The Browns view Newsome as a talented and versatile player at a premium position. Slot cornerbacks have become more valuable with more teams employing three- and four-wide receiver sets. In the last two drafts, the Browns have added Cameron Mitchell and Myles Harden as potential slot options.
The Browns have been big spenders and will be for the foreseeable future, but Newsome’s cap number jumping from around $4 million this season to over $13 million in 2025 will be an issue Berry and his staff will tackle next offseason. The 2024 Browns have left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. playing on a fifth-year option worth more than $14 million, and last month the team reworked that contract to spread the cap hits over multiple seasons.
Newsome, the No. 26 pick in the 2021 draft, is the Browns’ most recent first-round pick. They traded three first-round picks to the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson in March 2022 as part of a six-pick package that was completed during this year’s draft.
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Linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah, the Browns’ second-round pick in 2021, is also extension-eligible and coming off his best season. With older players headlining the defensive front, Ward carrying a cap number of almost $25 million in 2025 and the likelihood of the team wanting to keep Owusu-Koramoah and Emerson for the long term, some interesting — and important — decisions will have to be made after 2024.
(Photo: Jason Miller / Getty Images)
