Browns restructure Deshaun Watson’s contract for 3rd time in 3 seasons

Deshaun Watson is in his third season with the Cleveland Browns. They just restructured his contract for the third time.

According to The Athletic, the player and team have agreed to a restructure that will not affect the $92 million in fully guaranteed money Watson is owed for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, nor the $72.9 million cap hit he’ll have for each season, but it will allow Cleveland to spread his dead money over multiple seasons if he stays with the team through the 2026.

The alternative was a sizable cap hit in 2027, when Watson will no longer be under contract with the team.

It is not hyperbole to call Watson’s fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million contract not just the NFL’s worst contract, but one of the worst deals in sports history. Three years into his Browns tenure, Watson has still missed more games due to a sexual misconduct suspension (11) than starts he’s won with the Browns (nine).

He has yet to play more than seven games in a Browns uniform in a season — having played 19 games total — and is set to finish his second straight season on the injured list, having torn his Achilles tendon in October. Meanwhile, his legal issues stemming from sexual misconduct allegations by more than 20 massage therapists have been so persistent that the NFL closed an investigation as recently as this month.

Here’s the punchline: Those were supposed to be the easier years of Watson’s contract. He still has yet to carry a cap hit larger than the $27.9 million mark from this year.

Because the Browns exercised their right to restructure his contract after both the 2022 and 2023 seasons, which gave them upwards of $35 million in salary cap space each year, they now face gargantuan Watson cap hits for the next two years, without much of an escape valve. By OverTheCap’s calculations, they are currently $17 million above the salary cap for next season and releasing Watson would only increase that number.

Given that the team is currently 3-12, there are a lot of improvements to make and barely any resources to do it. After spending three years doing everything it can to keep Watson happy, Cleveland is now taxed with pulling off a rebuild with the albatross in NFL history on its balance sheet.

The next two seasons could be truly ugly for the Browns, and it would be entirely self-inflicted.