Coming into the 2026 NFL offseason, there wasn’t a position group around the NFL that needed more work than the Cleveland Browns’ offensive line.
Through the first few weeks of the offseason, Cleveland has added four possible starters, including Pro Bowler Elgton Jenkins, and starters at right guard and right tackle in Teven Jenkins and Tytus Howard.
But their other addition, a $49.5 million signing of a former Los Angeles Chargers offensive guard, Zion Johnson, was called a mistake by Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport.
Why Browns’ signing of Zion Johnson was a mistake
“But while injuries at tackle certainly played a role in the Chargers having a dreadful offensive line last year, so did the fact that Johnson was one of the worst starting guards in the league,” Davenport writes.
Johnson was one of the bigger additions for the Browns in their offensive line rebuild, as he signed a three-year, $49.5 million contract with $32.4 million guaranteed.
The 26-year-old former first-round pick might still carry some potential, but there’s a reason why the Chargers, in dire need of offensive line help, simply let him walk. They didn’t even use a fifth-year option on the guard.
Cleveland is signing Johnson away from one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL in 2025, and Johnson was one of the big reasons why the OL for the Chargers struggled so much in 2025.
More: Zion Johnson agrees to $49.5 million contract with Browns
What makes this signing for the Browns such a worrisome one isn’t the fact that the Browns are taking a chance on a former first-rounder, but that Johnson’s deal is not easy to move on from.
He carries cap hits of $5.14 million in 2026, $7.75 million in 2027, and while there’s an out after year two, there will be dead cap hits of $3.42 million from 2028 through 2030 if he’s released as a post June 1 cut, according to Over The Cap.
If this signing doesn’t work out, which is very possibly going to happen with how much he struggled for the Chargers in his NFL career already, then this signing will have been a mistake.
Johnson could prove his potential is still there, and have a fine season for the Browns in 2026, which would make his big contract not look as bad as it does now. But, this $49.5 million deal could very well look like a mistake very quickly in 2026.
