The Cleveland Browns hoped when they acquired Deshaun Watson in 2022 that he would have a major impact on the franchise, and revisiting the trade four years later, they weren’t wrong.
What kind of impact, exactly, has Watson had on the Browns? A disastrous one. The team gave up five draft picks, including three first-rounders, and then signed Watson to a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract, the largest amount of guaranteed money given to a player in NFL history.
Watson was suspended for 11 games in 2022 after facing several sexual assault allegations from his time with the Houston Texans. Watson has played only 19 games in four seasons with the Browns and has disappointed on the field. Legendary sports agent Leigh Steinberg explained that while Watson has hurt the Browns on the field with his play, his exorbitant contract has crippled the team’s salary-cap flexibility.
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“The fact that they’ve got that contract on Cleveland’s roster, which is all guaranteed, makes it very difficult to do what is advanced caponomics, which is to take a high salary, all of which counts against the cap, and supplement it with a new signing bonus and extend the contract out over a series of years,” Steinberg told OutKick in a recent interview.
“That’s the modus operandi to fit talented players into a cap. But when all the money is guaranteed, there’s no way to escape the cap hit.”
The Watson contract is so onerous that the Browns were forced to push his cap hit into the future beyond the term of his five-year contract by using void years. Early in Watson’s contract, they lessened his cap hit in order to build around him and pushed a ton of money into the future.
Now they are feeling the constraints of Watson’s deal.
Here are Watson’s cap hits from 2022 through 2030: In 2022, it was $9.4 million, followed by $19 million, nearly $28 million, nearly $36 million and a $40.2 million cap hit this season.
Next season, despite not being on the Browns’ roster after his contract expires this season, Watson will have an astronomical $86.2 million cap hit, followed by a $25.7 million cap hit in 2028, nearly $17 million in 2029 and $8.9 million in 2030. In all likelihood, the Browns will have to further leverage their future cap space because carrying an $86.2 million cap charge for a player who will likely not be on their roster next year would be crippling to a front office trying to build a competitive roster.
If the Browns decide to leave that $86.2 million entirely on next season’s cap, it would account for more than a quarter of their salary cap. Despite the cap continuing to rise year after year, a cap hit that high is not tenable for a team trying to win games and spend big in free agency.
The Browns, despite having a 9-10 record in Watson’s starts, named him their Week 1 starting quarterback. Watson has completed 61.2% of his passes for 3,365 yards with 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions in his tumultuous tenure.
Watson has not played since he tore his right Achilles tendon in October 2024, and re-tore it during rehab in January 2025.
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The Browns hope Watson can recapture some of the magic he had with the Houston Texans this season under new head coach Todd Monken because, if he can, his massive cap hit won’t hurt as much.
But Steinberg isn’t sure Watson will play well enough to fend off backup Shedeur Sanders, and start the whole season.
“Now, if Deshaun Watson were to come back to what he was at Clemson or with Houston, he started out like he was going to have a spectacular career and then because of offseason issues and injuries, the wheels came off. And so, while he’s been designated the starter now, it’s unclear whether or not he’ll hold that till the end of the year,” Steinberg said.
Watson is only 30 years old, and Steinberg mentioned quarterbacks who have been effective despite being much older than Watson.
“He’s not too old. As we’ve seen with Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady, players can play deep into their 40s and still be effective at that position, but he’s got to be a little rusty,” Steinberg said.
While the Browns hope Watson can be effective this season, it would come four excruciating seasons later than they would have hoped after giving him the most guaranteed money any player had received in NFL history.
Steinberg, who was inducted into the California Sports Hall of Fame in 2017, has had many high-profile clients throughout his illustrious career. Across football and baseball, Steinberg’s clients include Steve Bartkowski, Steve Young, Troy Aikman, Warren Moon, Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas, Kordell Stewart, Jeff George, Ben Roethlisberger, Myron Rolle, Matt Leinart, Mark Brunell, Ricky Williams, Howie Long, Eric Karros and Dusty Baker, among others.