The Cleveland Browns, by their own admission, have plenty of work ahead of them in the coming weeks, starting with the high-pressure free agency and trade situations that will unfold in the next few days. They need a quarterback, they need a wide receiver, they need most of a new offensive line–again, plenty of work.
But an NFL football team carries 53 active players, of course, so the Browns must make sure they have depth on hand. And they took care of a chunk of that depth on Wednesday when they made moves to keep six players in the fold for next season, including starters Brenden Bates and Malachi Corley, plus kicker Andre Szmyt, who will be back for his second season in 2026.
The contracts the six players were offered are tender offers, which are one-year minimum deals given to exclusive rights free agents that basically assure the Browns keep the rights to those players and allow them to sign for a minimum contract. Only players with less than three years experience can get those tenders.
Browns Will Have Andre Szmyt for Year 2
The biggest name, at least on a game-to-game basis, on Wednesday’s list of one-year tender contracts, is that of Szmyt, who had an up-and-down rookie season with the Browns–starting with a missed field goal late in a one-point, Week 1 loss to Cincinnati–but who showed himself to be a reliable specialist by the end of the season.
From the Browns’ announcement: “Szmyt converted 24 of 27 field goal attempts and 25 of 26 PATs last season. He was named the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week in Week 3 last season.”
Browns Bringing Back Late-Season Starters
Bates and Corley were both Browns starters late in the season, with Corley getting five starts in Cleveland’s final nine games. Bates started three of the final seven games of the season with the Browns, who had let him go to the Texans after Houston claimed him off the practice squad in October. The Browns brought him back after Houston waived him, and wound up using him after the team’s tight ends were knocked by injury.
Bates had two catches for 25 years in the Browns’ final two games.
The Browns also gave one-year tenders to long snapper Rex Sunahara and receiver Jamari Thrash, who started one game in Week 5 last year. Linebacker Winston Reid, who was out for all of last season with a back injury, but had played 16 games with three starts in 2024.
Special Teams Contributors Returning
The batch or returnees is surely good news for special teams coordinator Byron Storer, who is taking over the job as a first-time coordinator after Bubba Ventrone left after last season, landing with the L.A. Rams. Ventrone took a lot of heat last season for the many failings of the special teams unit, but he also pointed out that the group was young and inexperienced.
Now, they will have Sunahara and Szmyt back for another season, along with Corley, who returned kicks last season.
“The building blocks are here, the foundation is here,” Storer said on Wednesday. “Those players, I am really excited about. And I think that really, for me, it’s about starting and building a really strong foundation of techniques and fundamentals. We are going to master the basics. We are going to be fundamentally and technically sound and we will build from there.”
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