Trading for Deshaun Watson would make the Cleveland Browns worse

Don’t repeat the mistakes of others

Mayfield will count just over $10.5 million against the salary cap in 2021, and his fifth-year option, which is a no-brainer, shouldn’t be more than $25 million, which is a steal for the level he played at over the second half of the 2020 campaign. The team will probably be discussing an extension with him this offseason.

Watson will make just under $16 million this upcoming season, which is highway robbery. The problem is that his cap hit skyrockets to over $35 million in 2022 for his new team. The Browns have about $24 million in rollover cap space this offseason, which has always been intended to allow the team to keep its core players (Mayfield, Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward) while retaining the capability to fill in holes elsewhere on the roster.

Hypothetically, let’s say the Browns swap Mayfield for Watson, which leaves them with $10.4 million in dead cap from Mayfield and a bit over $10.5 for Watson’s cap hit (his signing bonus would be counted against Houston’s cap). So Cleveland would be cutting their remaining cap space almost in half by trading Mayfield for Watson, and when Watson’s cap hit more than triples in 2022, there would be some very difficult decisions that would need to be made, such as moving on from Joel Bitonio, J.C. Tretter, Nick Chubb, Ronnie Harrison Jr., and perhaps even Denzel Ward.

In other words, the Browns wouldn’t be able to build a team around Watson, which is the whole reason why he wants out of Houston in the first place (well, aside from the organizational dumpster fire that has come to light over the past few years).

Moving on from Odell Beckham Jr. in this scenario would ned the Browns nearly $16 million in space this season, but then you’re robbing Watson of a No. 1 receiver, the only WR on the roster who can consistently win deep and beat man coverage.