Mack Wilson Earned An Extra $415,296 For Outperforming His Rookie Contract

On Thursday, Cleveland Browns linebacker Mack Wilson got some good news: he’s getting paid extra.

Because he’s outperformed his rookie contract — Wilson was a fifth-round pick out of Alabama in the 2019 NFL Draft — he earned an extra $416,000. Wilson also took to Twitter celebrate almost matching the $495,000 he made in his base salary last year:

The only player to learn more was Chiefs cornerback harvarius Ward, who earned $428,335.

Wilson, 22, got a chance to play right away after veteran weakside linebacker Christian Kirksey went down with an injury in Week 3 and was placed on IR. He played in all 16 games, including 14 starts, and racked up 82 tackles, 1 sack, one interception and one forced fumble. With Kirksey having been released by the Browns, and Joe Schobert hitting free agency, it seems as if last season is just the start of Wilson starting for the Browns. He’s also now the owner of DAWG CHECK with Kirksey gone.

The Browns have cap space to work with — almost $68 million as today with the potential to still add more, per Over The Cap — but upgrading on Wilson wouldn’t appear to be a top priority for Andrew Berry and his staff. The market for linebackers isn’t exactly robust and the team just has more pressing needs like both tackle spots and safety. If they had wanted a veteran player who, at least on paper, is a better player than Wilson, they could have just kept Kirksey and paid him the $9.9 million salary he was owed next year. The team, per ESPN, did try to restructure his deal, so perhaps they were open to bringing him back, just at a lower number.

The biggest question for Wilson is just how good Wilson actually is. Pro Football Focus gave him an overall grade of 42.9 — meaning they rate him as having a below average player. For comparison, Kirksey had a PFF grade of 62 in 2017 aka the last time he played a full season. In the three years before that, Kirksey rated out higher in the 60s. So, assuming Wilson is the starter next year, there will be a drop-off from peak Kirksey.

That doesn’t mean that he didn’t earn his money or that he can’t improve. Wilson is 22 and could reasonably improve as he gets into his 20s just like Kirksey did. He’s also only making $585,000 next year, per Over The Cap. Unless the Browns draft someone on later in the draft — just like they did with Kirksey — they aren’t going to find another player to start that counts for so little against the salary cap.