Written by Chris Hutchison

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The Cleveland Browns have extended LB Chris Gocong to the tune of 3 years, $16.8 mil (according to the PD).  Details of the contract structure are not available.

Gocong joins Joe Thomas, Evan Moore, and Ahtyba Rubin as players that GM Tom Heckert has re-upped this year in an effort to solidify the young veteran talent on the team.

The way it sounds is that the contracts are front-loaded and partially tagged onto this year's cap, so the extensions will not be seriously crippling on future caps.  If this is indeed the case, it somewhat helps explain the Front Office's refusal to sign veteran backups to one year contracts this season.  It appears that their mission all along was to extend a number of players, load as much of that onto the current cap as they could, and (hopefully) use the future cap room to turn this team into a contender.

Hard to really bitch about that (but some people will anyway).

Look for Heckert to target D'Qwell Jackson and Peyton Hillis for similar extensions as the season progresses.