Browns must deliver QB Deshaun Watson again in 2026
The Cleveland Browns opened the apply window for quarterback Deshaun Watson this week, creating the chance that he may play in some unspecified time in the future earlier than the tip of the 2025 season.
Even with that transfer, His return to the sector this season appears unlikely given the Browns’ want to get prolonged seems to be at rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders. However he might be again because the crew’s quarterback in 2026, as each ESPN’s Adam Schefter and NFL Community’s Ian Rapoport reported on Saturday night that the Browns plan on having him on their roster subsequent season, and will even use him as a possible beginning quarterback.
Bringing Deshaun Watson again subsequent season is the one real looking alternative Browns have
Whereas that looks like an enormous growth, the Browns actually wouldn’t have some other alternative however to deliver Watson again subsequent season as a result of wage cap ramifications that would come from buying and selling or releasing him.
When the Browns initially acquired Watson from the Houston Texans — in what has grow to be one of many worst trades in NFL historical past — they signed him to a completely assured five-year, $230 million contract extension.
If the Browns have been to launch him earlier than June 1, it will include a useless cap quantity in 2026 of $135 million, which might devastate their skill to construct a roster.
In the event that they have been to launch him with a post-June 1 designation, it will be a $53 million wage cap cost.
That can also be removed from very best, and would rival the dead-cap cost the Denver Broncos took on after they launched Russell Wilson two years in the past.
Since becoming a member of the Browns firstly of the 2022 season, Watson has appeared in simply 19 video games and performed like one of many worst quarterbacks in soccer when on the sector. He has missed all the 2025 season on account of an Achilles harm after which an extra setback throughout his restoration.
Whereas he’s more likely to be on the roster subsequent season, the Browns shouldn’t be relying on him to be any form of main contributor. They need to not attempt to power it, both. He’s going to be 31 years previous subsequent season, and when holdouts, suspensions and accidents are added up, he has appeared in simply 19 video games for the reason that finish of the 2020 season. That’s numerous soccer to overlook, and there’s nearly no probability he’s going to provides the Browns what they want.
Their best option is to easily maintain him on the roster to keep away from the wage cap issues that include releasing him, and both hope that one in every of this 12 months’s rookie quarterbacks develops or that they’ll land a greater choice on the high of the 2026 NFL Draft.
