Browns have reportedly made a decision on defender’s contract status

Cleveland is expected to pick up the fifth-year option on cornerback Greg Newsome II, according to cleveland.com.

The Cleveland Browns and general manager Andrew Berry have an important decision to make in the coming weeks, one that they will not face again until 2028.

Teams across the NFL have until May 2 to decide if they want to exercise the fifth-year option on players who were selected in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft.

In the case of the Browns, that means they have a little less than a month to make that decision about cornerback Greg Newsome II, whom the team selected with the No. 26 overall pick in the 2021 draft.

And just as they did with left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. a year ago, the Browns are expected to exercise the option on Newsome, according to cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot.

Newsome has earned coverage grades of 70-plus in each of his first three seasons from Pro Football Focus. In his first season playing for defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, Newsome picked up his first two career interceptions to go along with 43 tackles and 10 pass breakups.

He also logged a career-high 412 snaps as Cleveland’s slot cornerback and bought into a new role in the defense, as Newsome told cleveland.com after the season:

“I think Coach Schwarz did an unbelievable job and just put me in positions to succeed, just getting around the football a lot more this season. Opportunities to play outside, opportunities to play inside, opportunities to blitz, to get in the run fit.

“So that’s my comfort zone … I think Coach Schwarz is an unbelievable coach. I think he’s the best defensive coordinator to just cater to the guy’s talents and I feel like he did a great job with me this season.”

Newsome is scheduled to make a base salary of $2.398 million this season, and the fifth-year option will pay him $13.377 million for the 2025 season, according to Over the Cap.

It is a smart move by the Browns as they need all the cornerbacks they can get if they are to hold up in the AFC and make a return to the playoffs this fall. Keeping one of the league’s better cornerback trios in Newsome, Denzel Ward, and Martin Emerson Jr. should go a long way to the cause.

After deciding on Newsome, Berry can set aside having to wonder about fifth-year options for a few years as the Browns will not have another first-round draft pick until 2025, at the earliest, thanks to sending three first-round picks to the Houston Texans in exchange for Deshaun Watson.