Watson’s Achilles injury in 2024 seemed to all but guarantee he’d played his final down with the Browns, a team that made a colossal, franchise-altering mistake when they traded three first-round picks for Watson and handed him a fully guaranteed $230 million contract in 2022. The deal is undoubtedly the worst in NFL history — even owner Jimmy Haslan admitted it was a “big swing and miss” over the summer — and Cleveland has spent the last two seasons attempting to recover and rebuild, winning just six of their last 29 games.
In an effort to move on, the Browns drafted two quarterbacks in April, added Kenny Pickett (who was later traded) and welcomed back Joe Flacco (who was also later traded) in the offseason, giving them myriad options and all but closing the book on Watson.
Such a possibility has always lingered, though. Mentions of Watson have seen a small but noteworthy uptick in recent weeks, starting with him joining the team for their trip to Las Vegas in Week 12, a period in which Watson was publicly lauded for how helpful he’s supposedly been to rookies Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel during practice.
It seems that’s where Cleveland values him most at this point. After all, they have to get something out of the $230 million they guaranteed him.
“He’s been so supportive in the meeting room, on the game field with the players,” Stefanski said of Watson. “Now he gets to do that on the practice field, as well.”
Don’t be surprised if that’s as far as this goes with Watson, who will undoubtedly still be on the Browns’ roster again in 2026 because of salary cap penalty reasons.
Then again, crazier things have happened with Browns quarterbacks.