On the surface, there’s no reason for the Browns to walk away from the last year of Deshaun Watson’s disastrous five-year, $230 million contract. They’re paying him $46 million for 2026; why not have him on the team?
At a deeper level (and it’s not much deeper than the surface), it’s time for this failed experiment to end.
The fans don’t want him. And, given the way the fans responded to him during his last two games in Cleveland, Watson no longer wants them.
He was surprised and bothered by the boos he heard on Saturday. And he’s still upset by the fact that fans cheered when he suffered a torn Achilles tendon during the 2024 season.
Watch the full press conference. It’s simply no longer sustainable. And it benefits no one for it to linger.
Watson won’t say it out loud, at least not yet. Asked if he regrets coming to Cleveland in the first place, Watson made the objectively ridiculous claim that he doesn’t regret “anything in my life.”
“I had different thoughts on how it was going to be, but it is what it is,” Watson said. “Sometimes the tables turn, and I’m patient enough because I’m a child of God, to wait for that time to change. So, I’m not tripping on it.”
In other words, he’s willing to count the days until he can get out of Cleveland for good. (Most Browns fans are probably doing the same thing.)
How can the Browns play him this year, especially at home? Asked whether he can put the cheering when he was injured and the booing when he was healthy behind him, Watson bluntly said, “I don’t know.”
“The only time I feel that energy is when I’m in the stadium or it’s on social media,” Watson said. “Like I mentioned before, when I’m in public, no one’s mentioning anything. So I think that’s the only time those people who are holding it in is trying to disrupt the energy. Because on social media, players can’t respond back and in the stadium, players can’t respond back. So, I get it, I understand it. It is what it is. . . . I don’t know. It’s a mental battle every day. I feel like I get more love on road games than I do at home games. So if it is my spot and [coach Todd Monken] does make me the starter, maybe it’s 17 away games, then. I don’t know.”
Here’s what we know. It’s a toxic situation that someone within the Browns organization should admit can’t continue.
At this point, it’s not about football or analytics or finding a way to get value for the investment. It’s about finding the best path forward for the team and for the player.
In many cases, an organization will do only what’s right for the team, regardless of whether it’s right for the player. In this case, the interests are fully aligned. Watson clearly wants to move on. The Browns should want to do the same.
The specific details of the divorce would require some thought. The nuances of the accounting rules could make it impossible to execute the plan to layer lingering cap charges through 2030 if he’s cut or traded (if anyone would want to trade for his $1.3 million base salary, and if he would be willing to waive his no-trade clause).
Even without a trade or an outright release, the two sides can do what the Texans did once the relationship between Watson and his former team was permanently fractured in 2021: pay him to not play.
This time around, the Browns would be paying Watson the last $1.3 million on his $230 million deal, while letting him leave a town that he no longer wants. And that arguably never wanted him.
