Quarterback Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns have reached a contract agreement that will lessen Watson’s cap charge in future years while keeping his fully guaranteed $92 million intact, sources tell CBS Sports.
The adjustment, which is technically an extension by adding a new year to the existing contract but no new money, is intended to help the Browns field a competitive roster for 2025 and beyond. Watson has $46 million due to him over the next two years to complete the $230 million contract signed in 2022.
As some of the Browns top players like Myles Garrett and Joel Bitonio have publicly questioned the immediate future of the team, this deal signals Cleveland has no intention on pressing the reset button.
The deal also provides the Browns with an easier, less financially painful path out of Watson’s contract following the 2025 season should the team wish to part ways with the quarterback, whose status for the beginning of next season is unclear as he recovers from Achilles surgery.
The Browns acquisition of Watson has been considered by some in the league to be among the worst in league history. In March 2022, the Browns traded three first-round picks to the Texans to acquire Watson, who then signed a $230 million fully guaranteed deal over five years.
At the time, Watson had more than 20 civil lawsuits against him alleging sexual misconduct. Two Houston grand juries declined to indict Watson, and he was never charged with a crime. He settled a majority of the lawsuits at an undisclosed sum.
It was the richest contract in NFL history — in terms of fully guaranteed money — until this fall when Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott signed a deal that included $231 million in fully guaranteed money.
The NFL suspended Watson for 11 games to begin the 2022 season and fined him $5 million. He looked rusty in his six games that year, throwing seven touchdowns and five interceptions.
He went 5-1 as a starter in 2023 dealing with multiple injuries before eventually being shut down for the remainder of the season for surgery on his throwing shoulder. The Browns would start five different quarterbacks that season and went to the playoffs for just the second time in two decades.
Watson performed like one of the worst starting quarterbacks this season before tearing his Achilles in Week 7’s loss to Cincinnati. His 79.0 passer rating ranks 32nd among qualified quarterbacks ahead of only Bryce Young and Anthony Richardson, both of whom are second-year quarterbacks who got benched during this season. The Browns have gone 3-12 this season with Watson, Jameis Winston and Dorian Thompson-Robinson as their starting quarterbacks.
Though Watson’s contract is fully guaranteed, the Browns have used some salary-cap mechanisms to ease the burden on the cap (and the player.) The 11-game suspension in 2022 cost Watson 11 game checks, but his contract was structured so that those game checks came from his salary of $1.035 million while he was paid a nearly $45 million signing bonus.
Before the start of the 2023 and 2024 season, the Browns converted nearly $44 million of his salary each year into a signing bonus. That lessened the cap hit while adding two void years to the end of his deal.
CBS Sports previously reported Watson, head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry would all return for 2025. Though the Browns could have extricated themselves from Watson’s contract this offseason, it would have come at a historic hit of $119 million in dead money that would have crippled the team’s roster in 2025. That led to an open question about Cleveland’s plans for the future.
Last week, reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett laid down a public gauntlet on the team, stating he sought to win in 2025 and not be part of a potential rebuild.
“I mean, it’s a possibility [to play elsewhere], but I want to be a Cleveland Brown,” Garrett said. “I want to play here, play my career here. But if we choose to do a rebuild and it’s two, three, four years out, I want to be able to compete and play at a high level, play meaningful games and be playing past January.”
Left guard Joel Bitonio, an 11-year veteran and most tenured member of the Browns, said this week he also wants to know Cleveland’s plan for 2025 before choosing whether to return for the final year of his contract or retire.
“The goal now, you’re in year 11, year 12, you want to try and win games,” Bitonio said, according to Cleveland.com. “It’s hard to go out there and have three wins right now. That’s been tough. It’s tough on your body. You just don’t feel as good on Monday when you lose a game. So it’s part of the process and you’d love to hear what the plan is going forward and kind of see where we’re at, see how much winning you can do.”
Watson’s contract adjustment clears up some questions about Cleveland’s immediate future, but it doesn’t answer who will start for the Browns at quarterback next season.
Watson underwent surgery on his ruptured Achilles on Oct. 25. Sources have said it’s unlikely Watson would be able to pass a physical until the summer. Winston is set to be a free agent, and Thompson-Robinson has struggled in his spot starts these two seasons.
The free-agent quarterback market is expected to be weaker than usual, especially if Pittsburgh retains Russell Wilson and Sam Darnold stays in Minnesota. The Browns are likely to have a top-10 pick in April’s draft, and they are currently slotted fifth with two games left to play.
Only Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders are considered Week 1 starting quarterback options in this year’s draft class, and the belief around the league is they’ll be taken within the first three to five picks.
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