Insider updates how Browns view Deshaun Watson amid uncertainty

The Cleveland Browns are widely expected to bring much-maligned quarterback Deshaun Watson back for the 2025 season largely because they're stuck with what remains of the fully guaranteed five-year, $230M contract they gave him in March 2022. 

While the franchise reportedly will also retain general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski despite the club's 3-12 record, it sounds like Berry and Stefanski are done with Watson. 

"Because Watson’s money is guaranteed, he probably still will be on the roster in some fashion in 2025 even though he’s not in the team’s plans," Zac Jackson of The Athletic explained in a piece published Thursday. "The Browns could explore a post-June 1 cut that would accelerate their 2025 and 2026 cap commitments to Watson, or they even could look to again reduce his 2025 number and push money further back. But it’s too early to know which route they’ll take."

Watson has made just 19 regular-season starts since putting pen to paper on his historic contract, spent last offseason recovering from a serious shoulder injury and was arguably the NFL's worst QB1 of the ongoing campaign before he went down with a ruptured Achilles on Oct. 20. According to ESPN stats, his 23.0 adjusted QBR would be the league's worst for this season if he was among qualified players. 

The fact that the Browns "fully approve of" Watson recovering from his latest setback away from the club as other injured quarterbacks such as Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys hang around their teammates has caused some outsiders to believe Cleveland would happily part ways with the 29-year-old if the team could escape his deal. Recent stories have linked the Browns with Atlanta Falcons signal-caller Kirk Cousins, as Stefanski was Cousins' quarterbacks coach/offensive coordinator from 2018 through the 2019 season when the two were employed by the Minnesota Vikings. 

Cousins has lost his starting job in Atlanta and could sign a team-friendly contract if he's released when the new league year opens in March.

"The Denver Broncos took on a record $85M in dead money to move on from Russell Wilson in March," Jackson added. "The Browns are committed to double that with Watson."

With that said, it seems that Berry and Stefanski could view parting ways with Watson this coming offseason as an addition-by-subtraction roster move.