The Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers will lead the NFL in cap space in the 2018 offseason by a wide margin.

Spotrac currently projects the 49ers to have $119,909,412 in salary cap space available, assuming a league-wide salary cap of $178 million plus the $59,518,621 in remaining cap the team will roll over from 2017. The Browns project to have just over $112 million.

The next closest team are the Indianapolis Colts at $35.6 million.

The 49ers would like to agree upon a contract extension with Jimmy Garoppolo that could be front-loaded.

"I think we'll always be aggressive," Kyle Shanahan said. "I think we were aggressive last year. I think being aggressive is you've got to look at what your options are and what you believe is the right way to go. Whatever you decide on that, being aggressive is going out and getting those guys. I think that's exactly what we did last year, maybe not a lot of high guys that seemed like it, but we went and got all the guys that we wanted to, that we targeted from the beginning. I didn't feel like we lost on anybody. We'll go into this year the same way."

Six of the top-10 spenders in free agency in 2017 reached the playoffs as it has become one of the NFL's best competitive advantages.

The Seattle Seahawks have agreed to hire Ken Norton Jr. as defensive coordinator.

Norton previously worked for the Seahawks from 2010 until 2014 as linebackers coach. Norton left the franchise to become defensive coordinator of the Oakland Raiders. Norton was fired during the 2017 season.

Norton was hired recently to join the San Francisco 49ers as linebackers coach.

The Seahawks had been expected to fire current defensive coordinator Kris Richard. Seattle previously has had Gus Bradley and Dan Quinn as defensive coordinator during Pete Carroll's tenure. The Seahawks had been linked to bringing back Bradley this offseason.

Tom Brady is disputing a report by ESPN last week that he "seemed liberated" and "especially excited" the day after the New England Patriots traded Jimmy Garoppolo earlier this season.

"In 18 years I have never celebrated when a player was traded or cut. It is such a poor characterization, it's disappointing to hear," Brady said during his weekly appearance on WEEI in Boston.

The Cleveland Browns were willing to trade the Houston Texans' first round pick in 2018 as a starting point for Jimmy Garoppolo. The Texans' pick has landed at No. 4.

The New England Patriots traded Garoppolo to the San Francisco 49ers for a second round pick while also adding Brian Hoyer as Tom Brady's backup.

Cleveland attempted to engage the Patriots multiple times leading up to the deadline.

The Browns' front office was baffled by how the Patriots were unwilling to negotiate with them on Garoppolo after they had made two trades together in 2016.

While Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo were friendly and share the same agent, Brady didn't see it as his role to advise Garoppolo.

Similar dynamics have played out between Joe Montana and Steve Young as well as Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers.

Brady didn't even want to advise Garoppolo on simple things such as footwork.

When Garoppolo played well in 2016 with Brady suspended, Bill Belichick began to see Garoppolo as the final piece of his legacy in being able to compete without Brady.

After Garoppolo was knocked out of his second start because of a shoulder injury, he set up a visit at TB12. When he arrived, the door was locked and they also wouldn't answer his calls. Two weeks after he showed up, Garoppolo was eventually treated after a high-ranking staffer of the Patriots inquired.

The Jimmy Garoppolo trade looks like a win so far for the 49ers with the Patriots only acquiring a second round pick back for him.

Ian Rapoport was asked on The Not Sunday podcast whether he believed the Patriots made the right decision in trading Garoppolo.

“A hundred percent I think they made the right decision making the trade. In terms of them only getting a second-rounder, that happened for two reasons. One, that is basically the market. For a young quarterback who is going to get a contract extension, the market is a second-rounder — the same thing [Matt] Cassel got. Alex Smith was a proven commodity and he got traded for two second-rounders — a little more, but not a ton more. That is just the market. [Belichick] sought out the Niners, wanted to make sure [Garoppolo] was in a great situation, which obviously he is and sacrificed a little bit on draft picks to make sure he was in a good situation.

“Here is the thing about Bill Belichick. He trades a lot, obviously. He talks to everyone, and I am not sure there’s a team he won’t do business with. It helps him if this trade works out for both sides. The Patriots are going to get a second-rounder. It is going to be much cheaper. It might be a quarterback again, but we’ll see. It is definitely going to be much cheaper and it allows them big time flexibility in the draft, which you can do all sorts of fun things, and the Niners got their quarterback of the future. That is a win-win.

"One thing I always understood about Belichick trading is he does not want to win every trade. If you win every trade you start to become like the Atlanta Braves used to be in the early 2000s and the late 1990s. If the Braves wanted to trade you a pitcher, you would run for the hills because you knew something was wrong with him. If Belichick trades, he wants it to be where he is not trying to screw you over. I think he likes when trades are successful for both sides, so that means more people are going to want to do business with you. More possibilities for good trades. I would imagine he’s happy Garoppolo is doing well and that it is a win-win.

“Let’s say they didn’t trade Garoppolo. There were options. They had contract talks with him, tried to sign him to a new deal in the spring. They could have done it. They could have done it, but Jimmy wanted to play, and are you really going to trade Tom Brady for a young quarterback you just don’t know what you have? I don’t see it.”

The San Francisco 49ers will make every effort to make Jimmy Garoppolo their quarterback over the long-term.

"Look, we want Jimmy to be a Niner for a long, long time, and that process is going to take place here and we're eager to get that done, to have the opportunity," John Lynch said in his season-ending news conference on Tuesday.

Garoppolo is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent in March, but the 49ers would prefer to sign him to an extension before he hits the open market.

"I think one thing that we really believe is that those things should take place between us and his representatives, not occur and transpire in the public," Lynch said. "That's the way we're going to treat that. But you have our assurances and the fans do that we'd like nothing more than to make him a Niner for a long, long time."

The NFL has five teams ranking in the top-10 in DVOA on both Offense and Defense at the end of the regular season in the Vikings, Rams, Saints, Steelers and Eagles.

The Chiefs, Cowboys, Chargers, Falcons and Patriots also rank in the top-10 on offense, while the Jaguars, Broncos, Panthers, Ravens and Cardinals rank in the top-10 on defense.

The San Francisco 49ers went 5-0 with Jimmy Garoppolo as their starting quarterback.

“It was a good match between the 49ers and myself, and myself and the 49ers,” Garoppolo said.

“I think it was kind of the perfect match and it happened at the right time, and good things are coming from it.”

Garoppolo will be a free agent this offseason and the 49ers will tag him if they are unable to agree upon a long-term contract.

“I like being here,” Garoppolo said. “I think we had a good thing going at the end of this year. And we’ll see what happens.”

Garoppolo plans on speaking to his agent, Don Yee, about their approach to negotiations.

“We really haven’t even gotten that far, yet,” Garoppolo said. “I’m supposed to talk with him (Yee) in the next couple of days and I’ll get down to L.A., and we’ll figure all that stuff out and go from there, I guess.”