After tearing his Achilles tendon in a Week 7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, quarterback Deshaun Watson’s 2024 NFL season is over. However, comments from the Cleveland Browns’ general manager have many wondering if Watson’s tenure in Cleveland is over as well.
With the trade deadline in the rearview mirror, and the Browns having a bye in Week 10, the team’s general manager, Andrew Berry, held a press conference on Wednesday to give a state of the team. Naturally, the topic of Watson’s future came up and Berry was asked what his plans were for Watson in 2025.
“Everything else we'll deal with at a later moment.”
Even before getting posed a question regarding Watson, Berry was proactive in his press conference in indirectly addressing Watson’s future and said now wasn’t the time to make any statements about who will and will not be on the 2025 Cleveland Browns team.
“Before I open it up for questions, I know there will be a lot regarding the ‘25 roster and decisions that are approaching,” Berry stated. “I always think that type of discussion and reflection is appropriate for after the season. Really, our focus is on the next eight games and playing quality football moving forward.”
His backup in Jameis Winston has thrown as many touchdown passes (five) this season as Watson, despite Winston playing in less than half as many offensive snaps. Watson’s 2024 woes are just a continuation of his first two years in Cleveland, which included an 11-game suspension in 2022 and then him missing 11 games due to injury in 2023.
Then there’s the contract aspect for Watson, who infamously signed a fully guaranteed $230 million contract with Cleveland in 2022. At the time, it was the largest contract in NFL history and remains the most guaranteed money in league history. The deal runs through the 2026 season, and since it’s fully guaranteed, there are major salary cap ramifications if the Browns cut him.
Cleveland may have to get creative to rid itself of Watson, but there is a bit of precedent for a team to rid itself of a bad contract, and ironically, the Browns and Texans were the two teams involved in it. In 2016, quarterback Brock Osweiler signed a four-year $72 million contract with Houston but then flopped in his lone season as starter, which led to the Texans searching for ways to get out from under his contract.
They found a trade partner in Cleveland as Houston traded Osweiler—and his contract—plus a second-round pick in the 2018 NFL Draft to the Browns for a fourth-round pick. Cleveland had the cap space to absorb Osweiler’s contract, and the Browns then promptly cut the quarterback before he’d ever play a game for them. However, there’s no guarantee that there will be suitors for Watson, especially with him coming off injury.
Berry did say that not all of the team’s offensive struggles fall on the shoulders of Watson, as Cleveland ranks in the bottom five in points scored, yards gained, passing offense, and rushing offense. But he also knows that the quarterback disproportionately gets both the credit when things go well and the blame when there are struggles.
“I would say more broadly we didn’t play well. We haven’t played well as a team, and we haven’t played well as a unit on offense,” Berry said. “I think oftentimes when you don’t play well on offense, obviously your starting quarterback and your play-caller will get the most criticism. But the reality of it is, offenses, it comes down to organization and synchronization. There’s just a lot of shared ownership across the different position groups in terms of why we didn’t perform.”
The Browns never scored more than 17 points in each of the seven games Watson started this year, and it’s worth noting that when Winston got his first start in Week 8, Cleveland put up 29 points in a win over the Baltimore Ravens. The high that the team experienced with a new quarterback under center only lasted a week, though, as Winston and the Browns scored a season-low of 10 points in their ensuing game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
