Browns expect Alex Mack to opt-out next season

The Cleveland Browns expect center Alex Mack to opt-out of his contract next season.

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On the surface, it may have looked as though the Browns quarterback situation was the big issue when their season started to go south last year. However, what really began the tanking was when center Alex Mack was done for the year with a broken leg. Mack is ready to go now, but it sounds like all the upheaval might have him looking for an exit anyway, as Pro Football Talk reported on Tuesday.

The Browns were unable to negotiate a deal with Mack last offseason and so they instead opted to squat on him by adding the transition tag. That gave them the chance to match any deals he might receive from other teams. The Jaguars then tried to pick Mack up, but the Browns added a player option to turn the five year deal into a two year deal worth $18 million and an opt-out after the 2015 NFL season.

That leaves Mack to come back to his seventh season after six losing seasons as well as his fourth head coach and fifth offensive coordinator in that same time period. So it’s not surprising that Mack might be looking around pretty soon and his teammates expect it.

Left tackle Joe Thomas told ESPN that even though he hasn’t personally talked with Mack yet, he thinks there’s a reason the center put that opt-out clause in his contract. He added that this upcoming season will be the Brown’s chance to prove all the things they apparently said to Mack during the recruiting process. In other words, Mack probably wants some sign that the team is moving the right direction. I.e. a winning direction.

Thomas further said that he thought the opt-out language in a player’s contract was a great thing and that more players should start adopting the practice. Essentially it gives the players the power to walk if the team isn’t living up to their side of the bargain. How many players end up on teams in the perpetual rebuilding stage? There’s little incentive to stay on a team with management chaos and no apparent plan to get out of the dumpster.

The reason Mack even has such a contract with the Browns is largely because the Browns sat around and waited for another team to negotiate a deal.

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