The Browns aren't ready to change, but the Deshaun Watson contract is anchoring them to it

Quick: Name the most important driver behind Myles Garrett requesting a trade.

It’s not about the contract, as every sourced person within a hearing radius of Garrett or his agents is happy to explain. It’s not that Garrett getting dealt could change the balance of power in the NFL, though that’s pretty fun to think about too.

What stands out to me is that Garrett doesn’t think the Browns can be competitive this year and doesn’t like their plan:

And why would he think that? Well, it’s not exactly that Deshaun Watson is bad — there are many star defensive players that are playing with bad quarterbacks. It’s that the Browns don’t really have an easy way out of dealing with Watson’s contract. The only team in a deeper cap space hole entering the offseason is the Saints, who are well-known for pushing the boundaries of pretending the cap doesn’t exist until it’s too late.

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I don’t know that I’ve really written extensively about how dead the Deshaun Watson era is in Cleveland. Let’s rectify that. If you subscribe to this newsletter, you probably know that he ruptured his Achilles at midseason and missed the rest of the year. When he did play, he was hands down the worst starting quarterback in the NFL. He had a -51.1% DVOA, and as Bryan went into here, led a historically bad offense and would have chased the NFL’s sack record had he played the whole season. Then, after the season, he re-ruptured his Achilles. That means his 2025 season is entirely in doubt. Athletic Browns beat writer Zac Jackson believes Watson is “almost certain to never play a meaningful down for the Browns again.”

So let’s read the writing on the wall from that: The Browns have been kicking the can down the road on Watson for some time now, restructuring his contract as needed to pay everyone else. However, they restructured him earlier this offseason, which would lend you to think they’re not going to do a second restructure before free agency. The Browns are currently in year four of a five-year fully guaranteed deal, though they’ve already added some void years to it while restructuring it. Because so much of it is guaranteed, Watson cannot be released without putting the Browns in an untenable cap hold. But what stands out to me about the contract is that if the Browns designate him a post-June 1 cut in 2026, the restructure now means they can release him without taking on additional cap space.

Why does this matter? Well, I think the plan communicated to Garrett is: We’re not going to push Watson’s money around this year, we’re going to eat the contract as is. That means the Browns are going to have to come up with $31 million of cap savings without touching the Watson contract. My big supporting evidence on that is Jackson’s assertion that the Browns are looking to trade Greg Newsome.

Potentially separate from that, though, is that the Commanders’ cap space makes them a candidate to trade for Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II and allow Cleveland to open up about $13 million in 2025 cap space. Moving on from Newsome could create more money for the Browns to add pieces, potentially even a starting veteran quarterback for 2025.

I don’t think Newsome is a superstar or anything like that, and he’s off a lost year with his hamstring, but teams don’t usually trade away young corners that have shown his level of promise for no reason. The Browns can’t release Newsome for cap savings because fifth-year options are fully guaranteed, but they can trade him and let another team assume all the guaranteed money. And that is the canary in the coal mine for me. Why would a team that has no established cornerback depth move a reasonably talented former first-round pick? Well, because they have to.

And this is what is behind Garrett’s trade request, because the Browns aren’t going to be able to fill holes this offseason if all they can do is cut things. When Albert Breer brings up the dots connecting Kirk Cousins to the Browns, look at how this is presented:

Atlanta already has $62.5 million spent on Cousins. He’s due $27.5 million this year. There is offset language in the contract. So if he’s cut, the only way his new team pays more than the minimum in 2025 is if someone decides he’s worth more than the $27.5 million he’s already due, which is pretty unlikely.

So, as was the case with Russell Wilson last year, someone is probably getting Cousins for next to nothing, and that’s another reason to connect him to Cleveland,

I don’t know if the Browns really like Cousins or not, I'm sure they believe there’s at least a chance that he can bounce back after his unlisted elbow injury and his first year off a torn Achilles went poorly. But this is a move that is presented first and foremost within the context of austerity: We have to do this because of Watson’s contract.

Now I think it’s a reasonable position for the Browns to take that Garrett is out over his skis and Cleveland could use the No. 2 overall pick on Cam Ward and create a Houston (2023) or Washington (2024) bounce. But I also can’t blame Garrett, who has watched DeShone Kizer live and in person, for thinking that this is a plan stuck on a lot of hope.

It’s hard to argue that the Browns are doing the wrong thing here — Watson’s contract is going to corrupt another season whether it is now or later. But in choosing to not restructure it for further cap space, I can definitely understand Garrett’s assertion that there’s little reason to believe this team can contend in 2025. They might have to do things like post-June 1 release Jack Conklin to get compliant with the cap. They might need to restructure contracts for several other players to lower their 2025 cap hits.

This is a mess. And it’s hard to blame Garrett for not wanting to spend a year of his prime in austerity.

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