TUESDAY, 8:21am: Per Joel Corry of CBSSports.com (via Twitter), Bowe’s two-year deal is worth $12.5MM, with $9MM guaranteed, including a $3.5MM signing bonus. That’s a pretty nice guarantee for a player who has been very mediocre in recent years.
FRIDAY, 10:38am: The Browns have officially signed Bowe, the club confirmed today in a press release.
THURSDAY, 1:07pm: It’s a two-year deal for Bowe with the Browns, tweets Adam Schefter of ESPN.com.
12:47pm: After hosting him for a visit to Cleveland over the weekend, the Browns have agreed to sign free agent wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via Twitter). Rapoport tweets that Bowe was one of Cleveland’s top offseason priorities, adding that the two sides kept working on a deal this week until they eventually reached an accord.
Bowe, 30, was part of the underachieving and record-setting group of Chiefs wide receivers that managed to go the entire 2014 season without catching a single touchdown pass. It was the third straight mediocre season for Bowe, who has averaged approximately 59 receptions and 743 yards per year since 2012, on the heels of back-to-back 1,100-yard seasons in 2010 and 2011.
Having brought aboard Jeremy Maclin on a pricey new long-term contract, the Chiefs cut ties with Bowe a week ago, allowing him to hit the open market. The former first-round pick may have drawn interest from other clubs – Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports tweets that the Jags were “lurking” – but his only visit was to Cleveland, with the Browns putting on the full court press to add him.
For the Browns, Bowe will join Brian Hartline on the team’s new-look receiving corps, which almost certainly won’t include Josh Gordon, who is facing a year-long suspension, and Miles Austin, who is on the free agent market. Andrew Hawkins is currently penciled in as the slot receiver to complement Bowe and Hartline, and it’s possible that the team will address the position in the draft as well.
Browns GM Ray Farmer was a part of the Chiefs’ front office back in 2007 when Kansas City drafted Bowe in the first round.