Browns’ Deshaun Watson nightmare is unfolding just as fans feared

Typically, the big NFL news drops are saved for Sunday mornings, but Adam Schefter couldn’t wait. His Saturday night bombshell report sent shockwaves throughout the NFL world — everywhere except for Cleveland, that is.

According to Schefter, the Browns are unlikely to put Deshaun Watson on the field this season as he continues to recover from a twice-torn Achilles tendon. They do, however, plan to keep him on their roster in 2026 as a potential veteran bridge option as they continue to work on a succession plan.

This is not really news to Browns fans (or those who cover the team). Unless Watson has a trade market (which he doesn’t), the team essentially has no choice but to keep him on the roster until his contract finally voids in 2027. 

As Schefter detailed for ESPN, releasing Watson prior to June 1 of next year would incur a dead salary-cap charge of close to $132 million, the most egregious amount in NFL history; that number makes the Denver Broncos’ historic, $85 million dead-cap hit for cutting Russell Wilson in 2024 look reasonable.

The Browns could still cut ties with Watson in 2026 by designating him a post-June 1 cut at the start of the new league year. But even after restructures and some potential injury insurance relief, Cleveland would incur a $53 million cap hit next year, per the ESPN report, with the remainder spread out into 2027 and beyond.

So as much as Browns fans want (and deserve) to be done with the biggest trade and contract blunder in franchise history, it doesn’t make a ton of sense for the team to cut ties early. Cleveland will be stuck footing an unprecedented bill for Watson regardless, and given the state of its current QB room, there's only one path forward, as painful as it may be.

The biggest loser of the Cleveland Browns’ Deshaun Watson mess is painfully obvious

It's easy for fans to point the finger at general manager Andrew Berry, whose roster is in rough shape entering 2026 due mainly to the Watson fiasco.

But no GM has the power to trade six draft picks — including three first-rounders — and commit $230 million fully guaranteed to a quarterback amid sexual assault allegations without heavy involvement from ownership.

This one falls squarely on Jimmy Haslam, whose 10-year anniversary of owning the team came in 2022, the same year the franchise went all-in on Watson via a blockbuster trade with the Houston Texans. 

The Browns have gotten exactly 19 starts to date from Watson, who was suspended for 11 games of his first season and has since struggled with various injuries, from his season-ending shoulder injury in 2023, to his Achilles tear in 2024.

Some of that is misfortune, but with a move this massive, you make your own luck. Watson’s character concerns off the field should have been reason enough to pass on the deal. Instead, the Browns have dragged their fans through a brutal stretch where the quarterback’s a mystery, the roster lacks premium young talent, and the finances are a mess with three players — Watson, Denzel Ward and Myles Garrett — accounting for 45 percent of the team’s salary cap number, per Spotrac.

Being a Browns fan is kind of like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. Players have come and gone, but nothing has really changed since Watson arrived in Berea. Him sticking around isn’t so much news as it is another punch in the gut for a fanbase that’s stuck behind its dysfunctional franchise through thick and thin.

All Schefter’s report really did on Saturday was remind the NFL world how Browns fans deserve so much better than what Haslam's given them.