The ninth-year NFL receiver and five-time Pro Bowl selection experienced several career lows in 2021, including games played (12), targets (87), catches (52), yards (570) and touchdowns (two). That is partially due to the fact he missed five weeks in the 2021 season (Weeks 3-6 and 15). Moreover, Landry claimed to have returned too early from a Week 2 injury that included a “high-grade MCL sprain, partial quad tear and bone bruise.”
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Whether Landry returns to Cleveland remains to be seen. He is entering the final year of his current contract with the franchise, due roughly $16.4 million. Should the Browns move on from Landry, it would save the team roughly $14.9 in salary cap. Per Spotrac, Cleveland ranks 12th in the league in terms of available salary cap space (roughly $24.9 million).
Landry wasn’t the only one to experience disappointment in Cleveland. A year after the team made its first playoff game since 2002 (and enjoyed its best record — 11-5 — since the 1994 NFL season), the Browns reverted to an 8-9 record, missing the playoffs. The team also experienced a feud with receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who is also Landry’s best friend and former LSU teammate.
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Beckham considered both the situation in Cleveland and his relationship with quarterback Baker Mayfield to be so untenable as to force the Browns to waive him. He was later picked up by the Rams and was a significant contributor en route to their Super Bowl victory.
Whether that situation affected Landry’s decision to tweet on Tuesday is unknown. However, he made one thing abundantly clear: If the Browns don’t want to keep him, he is “confident enough in myself to … (help) do my part in winning a championship elsewhere.”
He certainly wouldn’t be the first.
