The infiltration of baseball-style analytics has created a basketball-style dynamic in the context of a football trade.
Per multiple reports, the Browns won’t be keeping quarterback Brock Osweiler for long. They’re expected to trade him or to cut him.
If they’d trade him, it would surely be for much less than the $16 million in guaranteed salary Osweiler will earn this year. The new team would take Osweiler’s contract at a reduced rate, and the Browns would pay the difference.
The same thing will happen if the Browns cut him, however. Given the presence of offset language in the contract, the Browns would pay the difference between whatever Osweiler gets on the open market and $16 million.
It’s an unprecedented situation for the NFL, with the Browns acquiring a player who will never play for the team.
And so the Browns can now add a new jersey to the one with all the starting quarterbacks dating back to 1999. Starting in 2017, we can start listing the names on the back of a jersey of quarterbacks who will never wear the jersey.