When Sheldon Richardson signed with the Vikings last week, he reportedly eschewed a better offer from the Browns.
Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com reports that the Browns offered Richardson more money than the one-year, $3.6 million contract he signed with the Vikings. The report doesn’t specify the Browns’ offer but said Richardson’s contract with the Vikings (which includes incentives that could pay him up to $4.35 million) wasn’t as good.
So why did Richardson go to Minnesota? The report indicates that Richardson was miffed by the Browns’ decision to cut him this year and then offer him a lot less than the $11.9 million he was originally slated to make.
Richardson also reportedly has a good relationship with Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer, who coached Richardson in his previous stint in Minnesota in 2018. It was Richardson’s strong play in Zimmer’s defense that led to the big contract he got with the Browns in 2019, and Richardson may think another trip to Minnesota could yield similar results next year.