Sheldon Richardson turned down more money from Browns to sign with Vikings?

Sheldon Richardson ended his free agency this past week by signing a one-year deal with the Vikings worth $3.6M with a max value of $4.35M via incentives.

Apparently, he could’ve gotten a little more than that. The defensive tackle turned down more money from the Browns, Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com writes. We had previously heard that Cleveland made an offer, but it wasn’t known what the financials were like.

Kay Cabot writes that Richardson’s decision was “more about principle” after the Browns elected to release him back in April to save around $12M in cap space. She also says that the Browns had a chance to get him back had they gone a bit higher than they did, but that they “set their price and stuck to it.”

Richardson signed a three-year, $37M pact with the Browns in 2019, and made it two-thirds of the way through it. He spent 2018 with the Vikings, so it’s not like he chose a totally foreign environment over returning to the Browns. The 13th overall pick of the 2013 draft turned 30 in November.