Lacking an answer at the game’s most important position, the Browns stood out as potential suitors for quarterback Malik Willis before free agency opened. The former Tennessee and Green Bay backup ultimately landed in Miami on a three-year, $67.5MM deal. Cleveland had interest, but not at that price, Daniel Oyefusi and Jeremy Fowler of ESPN report.
For the Browns, signing the unproven Willis would have meant adding another expensive QB contract, albeit a far more affordable one than they gave Deshaun Watson in 2022. The fully guaranteed five-year, $230MM pact they handed Watson after acquiring him from the Texans has been a crippling mistake, as has the decision to part with a package headlined by three first-round picks. Watson has started just 19 games as a member of the Browns, who have restructured his onerous deal on a handful of occasions.
Watson’s contract is down to its final season, but he will continue to significantly impact their books for two more years after that. He will count a combined $86.2MM in dead money against their cap from 2027-28. There is a strong chance Watson will be off the Browns’ roster a year from now, though a source close to the three-time Pro Bowler told Oyefusi and Fowler “he would be open to” staying in Cleveland if the upcoming season goes well.
It is very much up in the air if the Browns will get anything from the soon-to-be 31-year-old Watson in 2026. He will first have to outperform second-year man Shedeur Sanders in the Browns’ starting competition this summer. That may not be an especially tall order, as Sanders is far from a lock to develop into a legitimate No. 1 option, but Watson is coming off a severe injury. Watson last took the field on Oct. 20, 2024, when he ruptured his right Achilles. While rehabbing in January 2025, Watson ruptured it again. He spent all of last season on the PUP list as a result, leaving the Browns to divide 17 starts among Sanders, Joe Flacco (traded to the Bengals in October) and Dillon Gabriel during a 5-12 campaign.
The Browns spent a third-rounder on Gabriel last year and used a sixth-rounder on Taylen Green last month, but those two do not appear to be in the running for the No. 1 job in 2026. New head coach Todd Monken will decide between Watson and Sanders. The hope is Watson will perform better in Monken’s system than he did under previous head coach Kevin Stefanski.
“The way [Stefanski] wanted him to play didn’t fit his style,” the source close to Watson told Oyefusi and Fowler.
As Oyefusi and Fowler note, Monken runs more of a spread-oriented scheme. Maybe the coaching change and a return to health will revive Watson, but skepticism is warranted for a QB whose stock has plummeted over the past few years.
I think both these things are true: Watson and Stefanski were not a good schematic fit for each other, but scheme alone is not nearly enough to hand wave just how bad he’s been and how long it’s been since he looked like a star, especially with all the injuries since then.
Feel like Watson won’t be suiting up for another NFL team once he’s done in Cleveland.
I predict Pavia ends up on the island of misfit QB’s. You’ve got a pervert who likes to show everyone he sees his “little guy”, an over hyped nepo baby, a guy named Dillon who looks lost on every play and next a fat dwarf with a big mouth. Sounds like a football comedy series on HBO not a QB room on an NFL team.
Very well written.
Was that necessary
how many more times can they revive this topic?
These reporters kill me. Have they not watched Watson play? He might get a shot at starting but after a few games he’s done. As for Cleveland wanting Watson…. think again. There’s a poison pill in his contract that guarantees he will be released June 1st 2027 …
God, I hope you’re right. I’m SO SICK of everything related to Deshaun Watson being a Brown.
I’m sure Watson would absolutely love to stay in Cleveland. He’s “earned” $183M thus far and has only played 19 games with a total of 1185 snaps. He didn’t sign that contract by himself, but he must hope that the idiots on the other side of the table are still feeling generous.
The entirety of the Browns QB saga reminds me of those old daytime Doctor soap operas my mother was addicted to watching – only change week to week is the potential for drama and worthless conjecture regarding whose stupid today.
Kind of sad for the fans yet karma for team management.
To be fair, 12 teams were fighting to trade for Watson, with the Falcons in the lead. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam wants to win and had a roster that seemed a QB away so he took a leap of faith and authorized the fully guaranteed contract…. should he have done his due diligence concerning Watson’s off the field behavior and ran? Absolutely! But 11 other teams didn’t care either…..
This is the Winner’s Curse, which we also see in free agent deals. If you pay more than anyone else is willing to pay, it often means you’re overpaying. Though in this case it worked out extraordinarily badly.
I don’t recall that 12 teams were after Watson, maybe 4-5, and regarding the lack of due diligence you’re suggesting, EVERYONE in the league knew about the allegations about female masseuses. It was no mystery whatsoever about his off-field issues (maybe just the extent…was it 22 or 24 or 26 or 28 women who made these allegations?? Is anything more than 0 acceptable???)…that’s why the Browns agreed to a minimal first-year salary for Watson so the anticipated fine and suspension would be minimal for Watson. Between the off-field creepiness and the draft capital the Browns surrendered and the fully-guaranteed contract, this is unquestionably the worst trade in NFL history, even surpassing the Hershel Walker trade.
The one event where the team I support was properly positioned as being too cheap to participate. Go Chargers!
Herbert also gave them no reason to go nuts for Watson.
No argument this has proven to quite possibly be the worst trade and contract ever. However, how many people would have predicted that Watson would miss SO many games due to injury, and when he did actually play, bordered on being terrible.
Had Watson stayed relatively healthy and played close to the Houston Texan Watson’s level, leading the Browns to be among the top 2-3 teams in the AFC, we all would have likely still been appalled by his off-the-field issues, but would not be crabbing so much now.
Of course, we have to deal with what did happen…but it easily could have been so much different.
In fairness, he did have two ACL tears under his belt before Cleveland spent multiple first round picks and unprecedented guaranteed money on him. He was far from a beacon of health.
Yeah, but I don’t think those injuries have any impact on current problems., and even they resurfaced, who would thought we’d only get 19 games in 4 years?
When the trade was announced, I was not really aware of the off-the-field problems so was not even concerned about that. I was not even concerned about the contract…if he was anywhere near the old Watson, that $46M/year would be at or below market by the end of the contract (I was right about that, at least).
What concerned me the most and it is still my biggest problem, was giving up so many #1s, and some other picks.
So, the worse-than-worst imaginable case scenario developed with Watson and obviously lost all that draft capital. What a FUBAR! Set the franchise back YEARS.
I think you have to know there’s injury risk when a guy has that many serious injuries under his belt already. (I said the same when the Falcons drafted Penix.)
And I get what you’re saying about the money, but giving a guy so much more guaranteed money than anyone else has ever gotten when he had that injury past and hadn’t played in a year was nuts from day one (especially with the picks).
The Browns have been telling us that they have the best analytics department in the league. I would like to see the Moneyball argument for giving Watson this unearned wealth.
Watson may bring the magic back to Cleveland like he had in Houston come back player of the year2026
Signed,
Watson’s agent