The Cleveland Browns continue to believe in Deshaun Watson, at least in part because they have no other choice.
General manager Andrew Berry recently downplayed the quarterback’s onerous contract, which balloons to a salary cap charge of over $64 million in 2024 and will remain there until the end of the agreement (2026) unless the Browns restructure again.
Zac Jackson of The Athletic interviewed Berry during the Senior Bowl and asked him directly if the front staff intends to shift more of Watson’s hefty salary burden into the future in order to make way for new talent this summer.
“I’m not there yet,” Berry said. “It’s not a necessity (to lower that), but it just kind of depends on how we put the plan together.”
Deshaun Watson’s contract will make winning that much harder in Cleveland over the next three years.
Berry is more knowledgeable than most individuals on the earth about NFL team development and wage cap negotiations. Despite Watson played only six games this season, he established a winning team in Cleveland, winning 11 games and earning a playoff berth.
However, the notion that the quarterback’s contract, which Berry mortgaged the franchise’s future to secure, isn’t a serious concern stretches belief. The Browns’ general manager will almost certainly never concede publicly that it was a mistake to give up five major draft picks, including three first-rounders, in exchange for Watson and the opportunity to pay him the richest fully guaranteed contract in the sport’s history ($230 million).
But one thing is certain, whether Berry and the rest of the organization realize it or not: winning over the next three years will be far more difficult given the financial conundrum Watson poses.
Spotrac presently estimates Cleveland is $20.5 million short of next season’s anticipated salary limit, while Jackson stated that the team will carry over around $30 million from last year. Still, extending current players and adding additional talent, which the Browns definitely must do to compete at the top of the AFC, necessitates difficult decisions on tentpole players, some of whom may not be required absent Watson’s financial number.
“Last month, Berry said the Browns hope to retain Nick Chubb but acknowledged that the running back will likely have to re-do his current deal, which calls for Chubb to count around $16 million on the 2024 cap,” Jackson wrote in an email. “Chubb is rehabbing from two knee surgeries, and the Browns would only incur around $4 million in dead money if he’s not on the roster.”
Andrew Berry says Browns’ primary concern with Deshaun Watson is his health.
According to Jackson, the organization can free up approximately $33 million in cap space if it restructures Watson’s contract by “pushing guaranteed money into potential dead money down the road to lower salary-cap numbers for the upcoming season.”
To be clear, opening up additional cap space today further hampered the team’s future — all for a player like Watson, who has barely played and has been subpar at best when healthy.
“We have a good feeling about Deshaun. “I think the most important thing is that he stays on the field,” Berry told Jackson. “But we’re really pleased about Deshaun. We just want to make sure he is healthy.”
The assumption is that injury has been the sole impediment to Watson’s progress during the last two years. However, an 11-game suspension from the NFL for breaking its player code of conduct policy following more than two dozen charges of sexual misconduct against the quarterback has had as big of an impact on Watson’s absence as his ailments.
Watson’s suspension cost him all but six regular-season games in 2022, while his shoulder injury cost him all but six games in 2023. However, Watson’s cost to the organization has remained as consistent as it has been onerous, and the 2017 season is make-or-break for both the quarterback and the general manager in what could go down as one of the worst agreements in NFL history.
Anything short of the playoffs in Cleveland next season should bring Browns management and quarterback under serious scrutiny.
Joe Flacco rescued the Browns from a difficult scenario last season, helping the team make the playoffs for under $2.5 million. Any deterioration in 2024 without Flacco might, and probably should, signal a significant reassessment of the organization’s direction under Berry and with Watson at the helm of the offence.
In other words, Watson needed to behave himself and resemble at least a shell of the Pro Bowl player he was before his off-field issues and subsequent move from the Houston Texans to Cleveland.
Berry, meanwhile, must do everything it takes to free up cap space for the current window and create a consistent winner around his quarterback, since the clock is ticking and the long-term future isn’t looking good.
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