For a second straight year, the Browns are restructuring the NFL’s most player-friendly deal. As a result, another quarterback will set the NFL record for single-player cap hit.
Cleveland’s Deshaun Watson restructure will create $35.83MM in cap space, ESPN.com’s Field Yates reports. The Browns moved $44.79MM of Watson’s base salary into a signing bonus. While more cap space will be available to the Browns this year, they will need much of it for carryover money because of the quarterback contract they authorized in 2022.
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Watson had been set to carry a record-obliterating $63.77MM cap number this season. The Browns have dropped it to $27.94MM. Of course, with restructures, future cap hits spike. This will be the case here, as Thursday’s reworking inflates Watson’s 2025 and ’26 cap numbers to an astonishing $72.94MM. More restructure work likely remains for a Browns team desperate to see its historically expensive trade piece take steps forward.
The Browns are now an NFL-most $51.6MM under the 2024 cap, but as The Athletic’s Zac Jackson notes, they will need much of this for rollover purposes. Entering today, the Browns resided ahead of only the perpetually cap-strapped Saints for projected 2025 cap space, sitting $66.9MM over. Rolling most of their 2024 total to 2025 would obviously create considerable relief, but the long-term Watson ramifications remain steep for a Cleveland franchise that has not seen anything remotely close from its QB to justify the 2022 trade and extension costs.
No one has followed the Browns’ lead for guarantees; the league has deemed this an outlier contract. The Browns gave Watson a five-year, $230MM fully guaranteed extension in March 2022. Nearly 2 1/2 years later, no other team has guaranteed a quarterback more than $146.5MM (Joe Burrow) at signing. The Browns had previously restructured the Watson contract in March 2023, beginning a process that has seen the eighth-year passer’s future cap hits balloon.
The team remains pot-committed with Watson through 2026. The restructures, which have two void years in place as the QB’s signing bonus is now spread through 2028, would lead to a $26.8MM dead money hit if Watson does not re-sign by the start of the 2027 league year. That seems manageable to a Browns team that has unimaginable — even in a world where the Broncos just took on $83MM-plus in dead cap by cutting Russell Wilson — dead money figures attached to its QB in 2025 or ’26.
Cleveland has seen its QB miss 11 games in each of his two seasons, with the former Houston Pro Bowler suspended upon arrival and then battling a shoulder injury that eventually shut him down in 2023. Watson, 29 in September, did not play any preseason games and was only cleared for full work August 11. The Browns shuffled their coaching staff, hiring Ken Dorsey, to better capitalize on their QB’s strengths. For the most part, those have yet to be on display post-Houston.
With this contract adjustment further tying the Browns to Watson, they will need to see notable improvement from him this season. Though, Watson’s guarantees do not exactly provide much incentive for an extreme turnaround. Dak Prescott‘s $55.13MM cap hit is now in place to set the NFL record, and the Cowboys appear prepared to carry that into the season.
Fantastic trade. It keeps getting better.
Massaging that contract
Tug at that bank account
All it took to get him to renegotiate was throwing in a few tug and rubs and unlimited supply of NDAs to hand out.
The Factory of Sadness continues production…
I feel bad for Browns fans. They get kicked in the nuts every year by the team they love.
yup glad Miami didn’t trade for him . I would have been ok with it had they gotten him for a discount when he was going Thu the legal stuff and signed him to a extension that was reasonable but the browns just screw themselves over and over which is fine with me . I don’t think he will get back to what he was at least not with the browns
I’d say he’s r**ing them, but the Browns asked for it. Paid for it, even.
think baker feels just a little vindicated ?
Baaaaaaaakerrrrrrr
Is there a percentage limit on how much of a contract can be allocated as a signing bonus?
I’m confused. How does restructuring to be able to roll over dollars owed to Watson help the cap in future years when he’s the one you will have to be paying these rolled over dollars to?