Grant Delpit’s next Browns contract could hinge on one thing that keeps showing up in the numbers: ball production.
That may not be the whole story, but it looks like a big piece of it. Delpit was included this week in ESPN’s anonymous annual poll of league scouts, executives and coaches, where he was listed as one of the top-15 safeties in the NFL. An AFC executive had plenty of praise for the Browns safety, saying, “He can blitz, cover tight ends, aggressive, instinctive,” but also adding, “He would be up there if he had more ball production."
That line may help explain why Delpit’s next extension has become such a talking point in Cleveland. He’s entering the final year of his current deal, which pays him a $12 million salary in 2026, and the Browns could push back the cap hit by extending him again this year. Instead, the team appears to be weighing a player who has been a reliable force against a safety market that has become increasingly expensive.
Delpit’s path to this point has already been a long one. The Browns drafted him No. 44 overall in 2020, and after a freak non-contact Achilles injury during the summer of his rookie year, he eventually developed into the starter the team expected.
His breakout really came in 2022, when he started 16 games, piled up more than 100 combined tackles, and added four interceptions and 10 pass breakups. That season helped set up the three-year, $36 million extension he signed in December 2023.
Now, with Delpit set to turn 28 in September, the question is what comes next. The Browns have a contract structure that includes four dummy years, and per Over the Cap, those placeholder years would leave them with a $16.9 million dead-cap charge in 2027 if the deal voids as scheduled next February, around President’s Day.
The market around him is part of the challenge. Kyle Hamilton’s $100 million extension with the Baltimore Ravens last summer reset the top of the safety market, but Delpit is more likely to land below that level, in the range of players like Xavier McKinney, who got $16.75 million per year, and Tre’von Moehrig, who got $17 million. Spotrac pegs Delpit’s value at $15.4 million annually.
Cleveland also has other moving parts at safety. The Browns drafted Emmanuel McNeil-Warren in April, and Ronnie Hickman remains in the mix at center field. Hickman, an undrafted free agent, is set to play the 2026 season on a $3.5 million restricted free agent tender, which gives the Browns more flexibility.
The bigger issue, though, is that Delpit’s production in the takeaway department hasn’t matched his reputation or his impact. He has seven career interceptions, with four coming in that 2022 season.
Over the past three years, he has two interceptions and eight total pass breakups. Compared with some of the other safeties in his age and talent range, that’s a modest return: Antoine Winfield Jr. has five interceptions and 23 pass breakups in that span, Xavier McKinney has 13 interceptions and 22 pass breakups, Jalen Pitre has five interceptions and 25 pass breakups, Tre’von Moehrig has six interceptions and 20 pass breakups, and Coby Bryant has seven interceptions and 13 pass breakups in the past two seasons.
Delpit has still been around the football plenty. He posted a career-high 111 total tackles in 2024, and this past season he showed more juice as a blitzer with career highs in sacks, at 3, and QB hits, at 7.
But for all the value he brings to Cleveland’s defense, the numbers suggest the Browns may be looking at a player who has done a lot of the dirty work without stacking enough splash plays to force the market upward.
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