Browns officially beat the salary cap with huge change to Deshaun Watson’s contract

This week has been full of NFL headlines with teams cutting down rosters in order to create the initial 53-man product. With the decisions made and the roster now essentially set, the Cleveland Browns opted to immediately make even more headlines on Thursday morning.

Much of the last couple of years, in Cleveland, has been dominated by quarterback Deshaun Watson. From one topic to another, Watson has been the center of it all, whether it's his off-field situations, coming back from injury or his subpar play when he's actually been on the field field.

And, here we are yet again, with Watson taking center stage. On Thursday morning, the Browns announced they had restructured Watson's contract.

This wasn't just any restructure, though. This single move proved that NFL teams can, indeed, beat the salary cap when they would like to. Cleveland created a whopping $35.8 million in additional cap space.

Somehow, the Watson contract doesn't look too terrible, now; at least, for the time being, as we don't have all of the details just yet.

But, the Browns now lead the league in cap space for 2024 with $62 million freed up. That's an incredibly-high number to be working with this late in the year, which leads us to another question:

Why did the Browns restructure Deshaun Watson's contract?

Browns restructuring Deshaun Watson’s contract might be about more than saving money

Clearly, the Browns are getting ready to make another move. They didn't just want to merely save money for this year. No, Cleveland very well could use that money which was saved.

The Browns had been in the Brandon Aiyuk trade conversation for a while, until the San Francisco 49ers wide receiver showed no interest in playing for Cleveland. But, that certainly begs the question of "who's next?"

The Browns obviously wanted to make a notable move by trading for Aiyuk, and now with added cap space, they could go out and try to make a move once more.

The second part of this restructure might even mean that the Browns would be able to cut Watson after the 2024 season. Again, we don't know all of the nitty gritty details just yet. But, this seems like a strong possibility.

With the way the Watson era has panned out, to this point, no one would be surprised to see the Browns throw in the towel. The team even kept four quarterbacks on the initial roster, which should tell you a whole lot more than the fact they'd like to try and trade one of them.

No, this Browns team kept four quarterbacks because they know they're going to need them. With Watson's recent health history and murky practice updates, Cleveland knows they cannot bank on their starter quarterback.

This is quite a fluid situation, as it always seems to be with Watson, so we'll have to monitor it going forward.