Browns Willing To Let Peyton Hillis Leave?

Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Cleveland Browns are actually willing to allow RB Peyton Hillis to test the open market following the 2011 season.

Negotiations have been on going throughout the season but little has surfaced that would suggest that the Browns have longterm plans Hillis. Mary Kay Cabot’s report basically suggests that the Browns aren’t even willing to use their franchise tag him and would prefer to let him walk.

Cleveland has managed to stick with their valuation Hillis but his representation has been using some of the recent contracts signed by other running backs as the benchmark for a new deal. There’s still a chance that a deal could get done at a later point but it’s hard to image that the situation would gain any momentum in the coming weeks.

Mike Holmgren may feel as though the team is better off moving forward with Montario Hardesty and possibly rookie rather than paying bruising running back big money.

I can see both sides’ arguments in this situation but it will at the very least ensure that there’s going to be an interesting topic to monitor during free agency.