On Tuesday, the Browns announced the promotion of Senior Offensive Assistant Bill Musgrave to Quarterback Coach. Musgrave brings a wealth of experience and knowledge as an Offensive Coordinator and Quarterback Coach. This experience will be a benefit to first year OC Tommy Rees. Head coach Kevin Stefanski put the wheels in motion for this promotion by approaching Musgrave to see if he would consider the move. After talking with Rees, Musgrave decided to accept the role and is looking forward to being a coordinator again. Moving forward, how does this change effect the Browns last place offense?

Musgrave makes sense because he has a history of running a wide zone type rushing offense along with a passing game similar to the west coast offense. While Minnesota’s OC in 2012, the Vikings were the number one rushing offense in the league and star running back Adrian Petersson rushed for 2097 yards and earned the Offense Player of the Year award. Musgraves also has experience with an up-tempo offense while serving as Chip Kelley’s quarterbacks coach for the Eagles in 2014. The following year, Musgrave was hired by the Oakland Raiders to be their offensive coordinator. He took over an offense that ranked last in total offense (282.2 yards per game) and 31st in the league in points per game (15.9) in 2014. In two seasons, the Raiders improved to 373.3 yards and 26.0 points per game finishing seventh in the league in both categories. In those two seasons, Raider quarterback Derek Carr passed for 60 touchdowns and almost 8000 yards. That year Oakland finished 12-4.

There has been speculation the Browns may try and acquire Carr, who now plays the Saints. Prior to any acquisition, the Saints would have to restructure his current contract. A trade or release would create a dead cap hit of $40 million for New Orleans. In 2024, the Saints carried dead cap of over $60 million and currently expected to carry dead cap of over $48 million for 2025. The problem for the Saints, they are currently $54 million over the projected 2025 salary cap. To further complicate things, on March 17, $30 million of Carr’s contract becomes guaranteed. If a trade were to happen, it would probably only cost the Browns a third or fourth draft pick in 2025 and a possible third-round conditional pick in 2026.