The Cleveland Browns’ decision to give Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed $230 million contract has resulted in yet another disaster.
It’s the biggest yet for a franchise known for flops.
Watson will miss the rest of the season due to a shoulder injury that will necessitate surgery, a devastating blow for a 6-3 team with a stingy defense and playoff aspirations.
The consequences of the injury go far beyond this season.
Watson will be paid $46 million over the next three years, with a cap hit of nearly $64 million per season. That’s a lot of money for a guy who could be defective.
“It’s going to be a couple of months,” Watson said about his rehab. “And the biggest thing is mobility and just the range of motion and then the strength and stuff will work out. But I’m going to be working with some great doctors and great staff that dealt with this process before with a lot of professional baseball guys and make sure that I come back even better than before.”
Browns general manager Andrew Berry said Watson is expected to be ready for the start of next season. However, a displaced fracture to the glenoid isn’t a common injury for quarterbacks so it’s reasonable to have doubts.
“Although it may be unusual for a quarterback with a throwing shoulder, the medical process moving forward is very clear to us,” Berry said.
“It’s very clear to Deshaun, it’s very clear to the docs, and we do feel really good about him returning and playing at the level that we’re accustomed to. … It’s not like Deshaun’s the first quarterback to suffer this injury in his throwing shoulder, but … you usually do see it with other positions. But he should make a strong recovery.”
The Browns made a significant investment in Watson out of desperation, hoping the risky move would end their decades-long search for a franchise quarterback.
They were willing to trade three first-round picks to Houston and had to give Watson the richest guaranteed contract in NFL history just to persuade him to come to Cleveland.
Owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam and the entire organization were sharply criticized from a public relations standpoint because Watson was accused by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions.
They also ticked off other owners because Watson’s unprecedented deal raised the contract demands for other quarterbacks, though nobody has since received more guaranteed money.
But the move doesn’t look like a wise one from a football perspective, either.
Watson had already sat out the 2021 season while facing allegations because he wanted a trade. He was suspended the first 11 games in 2022. He wasn’t sharp when he returned for the final six games last season and his best football with the Browns came in the second half of Sunday’s 33-31 comeback win over Baltimore after he sustained the shoulder injury.
The Browns were 8-4 in Watson’s 12 starts over the first two seasons, though he didn’t resemble the three-time Pro Bowl QB he was with the Texans. He threw for 2,217 yards, 14 touchdowns and nine interceptions with an 81.7 passer rating in those games.
“We feel good about Deshaun,” Berry said. “We see how talented he is. We could see it since he returned from his last injury, the level that he is able to play. He’s smart, he’s physically tough, he’s mentally tough.”
Berry and the Browns have no choice but to bet everything on Watson. They’re stuck with him for three more years with no way out. Berry stated that Watson’s contract is “guaranteed for skill, injury, and cap.”
The Texans now own Cleveland’s first-round pick in 2024 as a result of the trade, so the Browns would need to find other assets to put themselves in position to draft a top quarterback in a deep class next spring. With so much money allocated to Watson under the cap in 2024-26, they can’t afford another veteran quarterback.
Watson or bust for the Browns. The first two years were a disaster.
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