Terry Pluto thinks that the Browns best bet for trading Derek Anderson would be to eat his $5 million roster bonus, due on March 13th.

Q: Anderson makes all that money, who will take him?

A: He will be a bargain for another team. Anderson is due a $5 million roster bonus on March 13, and his salary for 2009 is $1.5 million. The Browns should pay the bonus, then trade Anderson because he will cost the new team only the $1.5 million in salary and on the cap. That increases his trade value.

Q: Don't the Browns take a huge salary cap hit?

A: It happens either way. If they keep Anderson, he counts $8.8 million on the cap. If they trade him, it's $8.2 million on the cap. Going through another season with these two young quarterbacks seems to be another way of having no starting quarterback — and the Browns need draft picks and talent.

Pluto may be on to something.  If a team knows they don't have to pay Anderson's roster bonus, he becomes that much more viable.  No team is going to be willing to trade for Anderson unless they can renegotiate his contract, which seems unlikely given the guarantee on his roster bonus. Once the $5 million has been paid though, Anderson's value should easily rise.

Enter in the Detroit Lions.  Beat writer Tom Kowalski thinks that the Lions are in the hunt for Anderson for those same reasons.  He even goes so far to say that the Lions recently renegotiated the date of incumbent quarterback Daunte Culpepper's roster bonus for that very reason.

The Browns need to look heavily at the Lions as a trade partner.  The Lions own the 1st, 20th, 33rd, 65th, and 82nd picks in the first three rounds.  They also have an extra sixth round pick as a result of the Roy E. Williams trade with Dallas.

What seems likely is swapping picks with the Lions if they are unable to make a straight Anderson for a draft pick trade.  Swapping second picks and then picking up at least a third round pick would be a great boon for a team who has sent several draft picks to the Dallas Cowboys over the past two seasons.

Combine news

Looking for the Buckeyes Malcolm Jenkins to be the Browns pick at five?  He still may be the pick, but not at cornerback.  He had a disappointing Combine per Mary Kay Cabot. Jenkins has lost some steam as a cornerback, but he could still be a prospect at  free safety, per Tony Pauline.

If you're a workout junkie, check out NFL.com Top Performers.  A few workout notes on prospects the Browns are interested in:

Oregon SS Patrick Chung put up 25 reps on the bench press.

Quarterback Mark Sanchez threw in the position drills and was impressive.

Texas defensive end/linebacker Brian Orakpo posted a quality workout that included a 39.5 vertical jump, 4.70 40-yard-dash,

Connecticut defensive end/linebacker Cody Brown posted the fourth highest 20 yard shuttle, which measures a player's ability to cut laterally and pursue sideways, which is highly exciting for his potential to convert to linebacker in the 3-4 defense.

Southern California linebacker Clay Matthews had an impressive 3-cone-drill time of 6.90, good for second best amongst linebackers.  The 3-cone drill is one that is especially important for pass rushers and linebackers.  He also ran an official 4.67 40-yard-dash, which shows he has more than enough speed to play the position.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 10:07 pm and is filed under NFL Draft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.