CLEVELAND: Browns strong safety Donte Whitner isn’t confident free safety Tashaun Gipson will be retained by the franchise.
Furthermore, Whitner said Gipson isn’t confident he’ll be back, either.
The two defensive backs spoke this past weekend and, after the conversation, Whitner wasn’t left with much optimism about Gipson returning to Cleveland.
A Pro Bowl selection in 2014, Gipson is one of four key Browns players expected to become an unrestricted free agent March 9. The others are center Alex Mack, who has until Friday to opt out of his contract, right tackle Mitchell Schwartz and wide receiver Travis Benjamin.
On Thursday at the NFL Scouting Combine, Browns head of football operations Sashi Brown said the team was trying to re-sign those impending free agents.
But not all of them will be back, and there’s a chance none of them will return. That’s just how business works in the NFL.
“I want to be hopeful,” Whitner said Monday during the Cleveland Auto Show at the I-X Center. “But knowing [Gipson] as a personal friend, having our conversations, I don’t think that he’s too hopeful that he’s going to be back. So we’ll see where it goes. There’s still a lot of time till free agency, till you have to put the tag on guys and so on and so on. But from our personal conversations, I really don’t [think he’ll be back]. But hopefully that can change.”
Actually, there isn’t much time left for teams to prevent players from hitting the open market by placing a franchise or transition tag on them. The deadline is 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Brown said Thursday he doesn’t expect to use a franchise or transition tag on anyone this offseason, even though he mentioned Gipson as a candidate.
“We don’t expect [to use a tag],” Brown said. “We know those are kind of tools in the toolbox here, but we don’t expect to do that. I think there a couple players that you would say we might at those positions, Tashaun in particular. We would hope to come to a long-term deal with Tashaun, so I don’t expect it at this point.”
The NFL Players Association released the costs for the tags on Monday. It would cost the Browns $10.806 million to place their franchise tag on Gipson and $9.116 million to put their transition tag on him.
A player who receives an exclusive franchise tag cannot negotiate with other teams.
A player who receives the more common non-exclusive franchise tag can negotiate with other teams, but the original team has the right to match any offer. If the original team were to decline to match, it would get two first-round draft picks from the other team.
A player who receives a transition tag can negotiate with other teams, but the original team can match any offer. The original team, though, would not receive draft pick compensation if it declined to match an offer from another team.
Gipson wants to stay
Regardless, Gipson is unlikely to be tagged based on Brown’s comments last week. His agent will be allowed to begin contract negotiations with other teams March 7 unless the Browns surprise everyone by re-signing him in the meantime.
“We are in contact with him, and we’ll see if we’re able to sign Gip,” Brown said.
Gipson, 25, has repeatedly stated his desire to re-sign with the Browns.
“I truly love being here,” he said on Jan. 4, the day after the season finale. “I truly love the city, and I want to be a part of it, man, when we go from worst to first. I want to be a part of that when it happens. But, you know, a lot of things go into this free agency, man, and we’ll see how the chips fall.”
Gipson has compiled 25 passes defensed, including 14 interceptions, since the Browns signed him as an undrafted free agent from the University of Wyoming in 2012. Since 2013, Gipson’s first season as a full-time starter, his 13 interceptions are tied for fourth in the NFL.
A high-ankle sprain forced him to miss three games last year. That issue and other injuries contributed to his disappointing 2015 season.
Still, Whitner said it would hurt to lose Gipson, who’s widely considered one of the Browns’ most talented players.
“Knowing what he can do on the football field when he’s healthy, when he’s in the right situation, how he likes to go and attack the football, how he attacks his work every day, still being a young safety and being able to produce in this league, and still having a lot to learn, I think it will be a blow,” he said.
“But that’s what this league is about. Sometimes you lose players. You have to develop players. Sometimes you have to bring guys in, free agency, so I really don’t know the plan. But me, personally, I do think it would be a blow.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.