After weeks of mystery regarding quarterback Deshaun Watson’s status in 2025, an answer suddenly emerged on Wednesday. After 13 weeks on the Physically Unable to Perform list, Watson’s 21-day practice window has opened.
It means that he’ll be able to practice for the next three weeks. It also means that, by the Wednesday of Week 17, the Browns will have to either move Watson to the 53-man roster or revert him to season-ending PUP.
With the Browns at 3-9 and teetering on the brink of inevitable elimination, this isn’t about making a last-ditch effort to get to 8-9 and hope for a whole lot of help. It’s about taking advantage of the rule that allows Watson to practice for three weeks.
While the terms are just complicated enough for me to not fully understand them (it’s a low bar), the Browns have an insurance policy that reimburses the Browns for up to $44.274 million of Watson’s $45 million guaranteed salary, based on the twice-torn Achilles tendon he suffered in 2024. The cash — and the cap space — become critical to Cleveland’s long-term planning. There’s no business reason to conclude that Watson is healthy enough to join the 53-man roster in 2025.
And Watson has gone along with that. He hasn’t pushed to get back on the roster, showing up with medical paperwork proving that he’s healthy and setting the stage for a potential grievance over the team’s failure to acknowledge it, choosing between putting him on the roster or releasing him. And the Browns wouldn’t have released him, given the massive cap charge that would spark in 2026.
But Watson may have been tempted to push the issue, given that owner Jimmy Haslam declared in March that the trade-and-sign of Watson was a “big swing and a miss.”
As it stands, Watson most likely will remain on the team through the completion of his contract in 2026. The Browns have kicked the cap can in a way that requires them to keep him around, in the hopes of properly engineering and absorbing the full cap consequences.
The question becomes 2027, which isn’t that far away. Barring a miracle that consists of Watson becoming the starter and playing as well as he did in his last year with the Texans (2020), he’ll become a free agent or the first time in his career. And even though it feels like he’s been around forever, he’s still only 30. He’ll be 31 when he hits the open market.
For now, he’s hitting the practice field for three weeks. Nothing less, and probably nothing more. At least not until next season.