The Cleveland Browns are done with Deshaun Watson.
As if the comments made by owner Jimmy Haslam at the NFL owners meeting were not a strong enough indication, their 2025 NFL draft top-30 visits should be. After re-tearing his achilles this offseason, there is no chance that Watson will ever take another snap in the brown and orange.
Haslam stated the Browns “swung and missed” on the massive blockbuster to acquire, then extend Watson ahead of the 2022 NFL draft. That might be an understatement given the play of Watson when he was on the field. It also does not take into consideration the amount of time the $230 million quarterback has spent off the field due to an 11-game suspension and two season-ending injuries.
Now, with two weeks to go until the 2025 NFL draft, the Browns are meeting with just about every Day 2 option at the quarterback position. All of Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Ole Miss’s Jaxson Dart, and Louisville’s Tyler Shough were in Berea on Tuesday, meeting with the Browns.
Milroe has been heavily linked to the Browns by multiple NFL media members and insiders. The Browns are leaving Friday’s portion of the draft with a quarterback as it looks likely they will pass on one with the No. 2 overall pick in favor of Colorado’s Travis Hunter.
The Browns continue to restructure his contract, simply to have cap space to operate, but he, being a member of the team, is the only connection he will have to Cleveland moving forward. With all but $2 million of Watson’s $46 million cap hit insured this season, the likelihood that he is stranded on the Physically Unable to Perform list is extremely high, as the Browns will recoup all of that money on their 2026 salary cap numbers.
Watson’s roster spot, which technically won’t even count against the 53-man roster on PUP, is entirely fiscal. At this point, he is a ghost to the organization.
