Trade Pitch Nets Browns $50 Million Playmaker for Day-2 Draft Pick

The Cleveland Browns aren’t likely to contend in their division or the broader AFC next season, but that still remains the goal, and meaningful improvement from their three-win campaign in 2024 may prove crucial to management and the coaching staff remaining employed.

Cleveland is thin enough at the skill positions that last-chance wide receiver Diontae Johnson and rookie tight end Harold Fannin Jr. will compete for the role of fourth pass-catcher on an offense featuring wideouts Jerry Jeudy and Cedric Tillman along with tight end David Njoku as the three players ahead of them.

Fannin, a third-round pick, reads like the longterm replacement for Njoku who is entering the final year of his contract in 2025. Njoku missed six games last season due to injury and saw his production dip significantly from a Pro-Bowl campaign in 2023.

Cleveland hasn’t traditionally played a ton of 12 personnel, though analysts have consistently mentioned the team as a potential trade destination for some of the better tight ends likely to be on the trade block this summer.

Kristopher Knox of Bleacher Report on Sunday, June 21, dubbed Atlanta Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts as the No. 6 candidate on B/R’s trade block big board and named the Browns as among the top potential landing spots for him.

“The Cleveland Browns may also want to kick the tires on Pitts. They’ve shown a willingness to add promising players who have underwhelmed before — they traded for Jerry Jeudy last offseason—and could view Pitts as a potential long-term contributor,” Knox wrote. “Cleveland did just draft [Fannin] in Round 3, but David Njoku is entering the final year of his contract.”

Pitts could make sense in Cleveland, though Cole Kmet of the Chicago Bears — Knox’s No. 3 trade candidate — might actually be the better option.

Bears Will Have Hard Time Justifying Paying Cole Kmet After Drafting Colston Loveland

Chicago selected Colston Loveland out of Michigan with the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft, which means the writing is on the wall for Kmet.

That isn’t to say he couldn’t still remain with the Bears as a productive member of the offense, but he’s probably the No. 2 option moving forward. That is a bit of a hard sell given that Kmet has three years remaining on a $50 million contract.

New Bears head coach Ben Johnson showed he favored two-tight end sets as the offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions over the past three seasons, but wrapping up north of $75 million in the top two tight end slots is an extremely expensive proposition for a team that won five games last season and is rebuilding in a tough NFC North Division.

Cole Kmet Can Offer Browns Better Longterm Value Than Kyle Pitts

It is for those reasons, and others, that Knox listed Kmet even higher on his trade big board than Pitts, naming the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers as two of the top potential landing spots.

However, Kmet might make more sense for the Browns on a longterm play than Pitts for a couple of reasons. Pitts is entering the fifth-year team option of his rookie contract as a former first-rounder (No. 4 overall) and represents a cap hit of $10.9 million. Kmet costs roughly the same amount ($9.9 million base salary) in 2025, which drops to $8.9 million in each of the next two campaigns.

Pitts is going to be looking for a new contract next summer, which probably means a higher price point annually for more years than the two remaining on Kmet’s deal through 2027. So over a span of multiple seasons, Kmet may actually prove considerably cheaper, even though his total contract is technically bigger right now.

Kmet has been healthier and more productive than Pitts over the past three seasons and is just one year older. Furthermore, given Kmet’s lower profile and draft position, the Browns could potentially trade less in terms of a draft asset — likely something in the late Day-2 range to acquire him — than it would cost to get Pitts. At worst, they probably each go for a pick in the same round.