Breakdown of DT Maurice Hurst’s contract with the Browns

One of the more simple contract structures that you’ll see from Andrew Berry.

The Cleveland Browns let DT Jordan Phillips walk in free agency this year, but re-signed their two solid depth performers from 2023 in DT Maurice Hurst and DT Shelby Harris. We’ll look at the contracts that each of them signed, starting with Hurst in this article.

• When Hurst first signed with the Browns, it was reported that he signed a 1-year deal worth up to $3.2 million. In reality, it is a 1-year deal worth $1.8 million, with $1 million of that guaranteed. There must be $1.4 million in unlikely to be earned incentives also, but we don’t know what those are.
• His base salary is $1.17 million, and $625,000 of that is fully guaranteed. When you combine that with his $325,000 signing bonus, that’s how you get his $1 million in guaranteed money.
• Hurst has a $15,000 per-game roster bonus. He played in 13 games last year ($15,000 x 13 games = $195,000), so only that amount counts toward the cap as a likely to be earned bonus.