The name of the game is talent, cash, draft picks and salary cap space in the NFL. For the Cleveland Browns: They have a lot of talent, an owner who will spend the cash, not a lot of high draft picks (but eight total) and a very flexible salary cap.
As we saw Monday after the Super Bowl, teams are moving ahead in the offseason with the Pittsburgh Steelers cutting three players who started multiple games for them last year. The Steelers did so primarily to save salary cap space even though they had to eat dead cap hits.