CLEVELAND, Ohio — Rashard “Hollywood” Higgins would love to keep walking the red carpet with the Browns, but he knows he might hit the free-agent market in a couple of weeks.
“I haven’t seen an offer yet,’’ Higgins told cleveland.com on Friday.
Higgins and most of the Browns other pending free agents haven’t received offers yet because the salary cap hasn’t yet been determined, and the start of free agency is still a little more than two weeks away.
Teams can begin negotiating with players with expiring contracts on March 15th, and consummate those deals on March 17th, the start of the league year.
The Browns like Higgins a lot, and would like to have him back at the right price. According to spotrac.com, his market value is about four years, $24.75 million — an average of more than $6 million a year — which might be more than the Browns want to pay.
They have more than $30 million tied up in 2021 in Odell Beckham Jr. ($15.75 million) and Jarvis Landry ($14.753 million), and might not want the receiver room taking up more than 20% of the anticipated $185 million cap.
But Higgins had a good 2020 season, catching 37 of 49 targets for 599 yards and four TDs despite starting only six games after Beckham suffered a torn ACL. A fifth-round pick in 2016 out of Colorado State, he’s also a favorite target of Baker Mayfield, who had a 126.1 rating in 2020 when targeting Higgins, a club high.
Last offseason, Higgins entered free agency, but re-signed a one-year deal with the Browns worth $910,000, turning some slightly higher offers to remain in Cleveland. In an interview on ESPN 850 Friday afternoon, Higgins acknowledged that he’s not positive he’ll be back.
“We want to see when we can get this contract and stuff done,’’ he said. “Obviously if it’s not with the Browns — we want it to be with the Browns — but it’s up in the air right now.’’
He indicated he’d jump at the chance to re-sign here.
“Listen, don’t give up on me. I never gave up on y’all,’’ he said. “Tell Andrew [Berry] to send the papers and I’m signing wherever I’ve got to sign.’’
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