Vikings trading pass rusher
Za'Darius Smith to Browns
After months of waiting out the market, Andrew
Berry is executing a deal to bring a complementary edge rusher to Cleveland.
The Browns are acquiring Za'Darius Smith via trade with the Vikings, NFL Network Insiders Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported on Friday.
The full trade will see the Browns acquire Smith and 2025 sixth- and seventh-round draft picks in
exchange for sending 2024 and 2025 !fth-round
picks to the Vikings, Pelissero reported.
Smith has also reworked his contract, which
guarantees him $11.75 million in 2023 and he'll be a free agent in 2024, Pelissero and Rapoport reported. Smith heads to Cleveland to join two-time All-Pro
Myles Garrett as an edge-rushing tandem. Most
importantly, Smith replaces the departed Jadeveon
Clowney, who showed "ashes of production
potential in his two seasons with Cleveland but
never performed consistently enough to warrant
bringing him back on a third one-year deal.
Smith's trade follows an excellent season in which he recorded 10 sacks, 44 tackles (15 for loss), !ve passes defensed (a career-high) and one forced
fumble with Minnesota. He'll move to his new
destination just a few months before his 31st
birthday, joining a Browns defense that has invested in its front, but needed a starting-quality rusher opposite Garrett. Smith will also bring plenty of AFC North playing experience, where he cut his NFL
teeth with the Ravens from 2015-2018.
The Browns have been living year by year opposite
Garrett for the last few seasons, and this trade !lls a glaring void as the team prepares to enter the
summer months. If Smith can replicate his 2022
production, Cleveland should enjoy an improvement
at a position that was seen as a weakness since the start of the new league year.
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