Source: Browns restructure Deshaun Watson’s deal to get cap compliant
The Browns have once again restructured quarterback Deshaun Watson’s contract, a source told ESPN’s Field Yates, clearing nearly $36 million in salary cap space that will make Cleveland cap compliant ahead of the new league year.
Before the restructuring of Watson’s deal Thursday morning, the Browns were about $22 million over the cap.
Watson, 29, has two years remaining on the five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract he signed in March 2022 and is owed $46 million in each of the next two seasons. He has been rehabbing at the Browns’ practice facility in Berea, Ohio, after re-tearing his right Achilles tendon three months after the initial injury in October.
Browns general manager Andrew Berry said last month at the NFL scouting combine that the team’s focus for Watson is “making sure that he gets healthy” and emphasized that “there’s nothing nefarious — it’s just an unfortunate accident.”
While the Browns still owe Watson $92 million, Berry has been adamant that the deal would not prevent the organization from being active in free agency, where they are expected to sign a veteran quarterback.
Berry added at the combine that the Browns’ cap and cash situation will “not be prohibitive for us to do things if the opportunity presents itself.” On multiple occasions, the Browns have executed a restructure of Watson’s contract, converting his salary to a signing bonus that can be spread out over five years to clear immediate cap space.
The Browns expect Watson to miss significant time in the 2025 season as he rehabs the lower leg injury. Because of suspension and injuries, Watson has played in just 19 games since the Browns traded three first-round draft picks to acquire him from the Houston Texans. Watson posted the lowest Total QBR in the NFL before his season-ending injury.
Cleveland also is expected to receive some cap relief via its insurance policy on Watson’s contract after he missed 10 games in the 2024 season.
The Browns have the second overall pick in this year’s draft, and there is growing speculation that they will target a quarterback with their first selection. Cleveland is hosting top prospects Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, among others, on top-30 visits this week.
Jeremy Fowler joins “SportsCenter” to break down Myles Garrett’s record-breaking contract extension with the Browns. (2:08)
The Cleveland Browns and Myles Garrett have agreed on a record contract extension that averages $40 million per year and includes $123.5 million in guaranteed money, making the star defensive end the highest-paid non-quarterback in NFL history, sources told ESPN.
The Browns announced the four-year extension, which runs through the 2030 season, on Sunday but did not disclose financial terms.
Garrett’s agent, Nicole Lynn of Klutch Sports, and Browns general manager Andrew Berry finalized the deal Sunday, according to sources, ending a standoff that started last month when Garrett requested a trade out of Cleveland.
The extension also includes a no-trade clause, according to sources, and re-establishes Garrett’s Hall of Fame trajectory that he referred to as “Cleveland to Canton.”
The sides agreed to the deal two days after reports circulated that Browns owner Jimmy Haslam recently declined a request to meet with Garrett over the trade request and instead referred the four-time All-Pro to Berry.
Both Garrett and the Browns had been dug in on their respective stances — the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year wanted to be traded to a contender, and the organization was adamant that they would not acquiesce to the request.
Garrett officially announced his trade request on Feb. 3, saying in a statement that his “goal was never to go from Cleveland to Canton, it has always been to compete for and win a Super Bowl.”
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Garrett had previously mentioned that he did not want to endure another rebuild with the Browns, who are coming off a 3-14 season and hold the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s draft amid uncertainty at their quarterback position.
Garrett’s deal also eclipses the value of the recent extension signed by Las Vegas Raiders star defensive end Maxx Crosby, who agreed Wednesday to a three-year, $106.5 million deal that made him the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback at the time.
This past season, Garrett became the first player to record 100 career sacks before his 29th birthday since sacks became an official stat in 1982. He was named the AP Defensive Player of the Year for the 2023 season, and his 14 sacks in 2024 ranked second in the NFL.
The Browns originally selected Garrett with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 draft. Since entering the league, Garrett’s 102.5 sacks only trails the Pittsburgh Steelers’ T.J. Watt, who has 108.
ESPN’s Daniel Oyefusi contributed to this report.
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Latest Deshaun Watson restructuring leaves $135 million in cap charges for future years
When it comes to arguably the single-worst transaction in NFL history, the Browns keep kicking the salary-cap can. They’ve kicked it so frequently that, through 2025 (the fourth year of the deal), the Browns will have absorbed only 41.1 of the total cap dollars in the contract.
The numbers don’t lie. The five-year, fully-guaranteed contract pays out $230 million. Through 2025, Watson will have been paid $184 million. But roughly half of that amount — $94.6 million — will have hit the cap.
That leaves $135.4 million to be charged in 2026 and beyond. And while last year’s tweaking of the deal makes it easier to push the dead money out as far as 2029, they won’t be fully free of the albatross contract for years to come.
The exercise of the 2025 restructuring sends two other messages. First, our cockeyed idea for dumping the final $92 million by including the Watson deal in a Myles Garrett trade won’t happen. By converting the maximum amount of his $46 million 2025 salary into a bonus, the deal has only $47.255 million in cash remaining. At this point, they’ll continue the relationship in order to minimize the cap havoc that a sudden move would make.
Second, to the extent the Browns were considering whether to parlay the off-premises re-tear of his Achilles tendon into an escape hatch for the remaining guarantees, cutting him a check for $44.745 million means that they won’t be pursuing that option.
In the end, he’ll get the full $230 million. And the Browns eventually will take $230 million in cap charges. And the three first-round picks they sent to Houston three years ago (plus multiple other picks) that could have become young, cheap, and possibly ascending players are long gone.
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