Deshaun Watson is still managing to make his way into headlines as it pertains to the Cleveland Browns, despite never really taking a meaningful snap for the team since arriving in a trade in 2022.
The disgraced quarterback isn't likely to suit up in 2025 after re-tearing his injured Achilles while rehabbing it after a surgery during the 2024 season. That means the Browns have to go out and search for a quarterback again, a year after needing to turn to all of their backups for help down the stretch of their 3-14 season.
There's plenty of options set to hit the free agency market next week, but the issue with Cleveland's ability to sign any of them is their lack of cap space. However, general manager Andrew Berry is always seemingly happy to manipulate cap space by converting a lot of salary into signing bonus money - straight cash - in order to get "cap compliant" for a season.
And, he did just that ahead of the start of the 2025 league year, all but solidifying Watson's future with the squad in the process.
Deshaun Watson's contract restructuring further seals fate with Browns beyond 2026
Per Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the Browns restructured Watson's contract once again. This time, it was to clear up $35.8 million of cap space. While details of how that restructuring happened haven't come to light, it seems likely that Berry simply converted his 2025 salary into cash or signing bonus money to clear up cap space.
Cleveland is currently $23 million negative in cap space per Over the Cap, but those numbers haven't updated to reflect this recent restructuring.
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The Browns have other avenues to take in order to clear up more space. Several players, like Jack Conklin, Wyatt Teller, Dalvin Tomlinson, and MJ Emerson, for example, would save the team up anywhere between $3 million to a whopping $14 million in cap space if cut after June 1. That's why Juan Thornhill, who was already announced as a cut by the team, isn't being officially released until then.
This has become a necessary tool for Berry after making the fatal mistake of trading for Watson and signing him to such a bad contract afterwards. Now, hopefully, the GM can make moves to improve the roster and ideally entice Myles Garrett back for another year with the team. Signing one of the better free agent quarterbacks on the market would be a great start.