fault in acquiring him,<\/a> then added four different replacements. <\/p>\nVeteran passers like Kenny Pickett (acquired via trade) and Joe Flacco (signed as free agent) boast stability as coach Kevin Stefanski rebuilds his offense. Rookies like Dillon Gabriel (drafted 94th overall) and Shedeur Sanders (drafted 144th overall) double as dice rolls in the new search for a long-term starter. And Cleveland\u2019s pair of first-round picks in the 2026 draft depict a future planned around Watson\u2019s departure. <\/p>\n
The awkward part: Cleveland can\u2019t cut Watson without crippling its finances until next summer, creating an awkward purgatory in this divorce. While the Browns re-brand around Flacco and Pickett, Watson lingers on the roster. When Sanders and Gabriel learn their offensive ABCs during meetings, Watson takes notes alongside them. <\/p>\n
Call it overexposure therapy. More than owning their old mistake, the Browns confront it every day. Makes it harder to start their new chapter. <\/p>\n
Of course, Cleveland can\u2019t place all its football failures on Watson\u2019s shoulders. Fans can also thank bad injury luck (Watson\u2019s shoulder, Achilles) for Cleveland\u2019s 21-30 record (zero playoff wins) since 2022. Strange staffing decisions, such as firing successful offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt in 2024 to hire Ken Dorsey and fire him one year later, didn\u2019t help, either. And general manager Andrew Berry\u2019s poor draft record, which includes a first-round pick (Jedrick Wills) who just took a football hiatus during his free agency, deserves its own scrutiny.<\/p>\n
But trading three first-round picks for Watson depleted the Browns\u2019 source of young talent. Paying Watson $238 million, then re-structuring his contract each offseason, will hurt roster flexibility until (at least) 2029. And his performance \u2014 namely, the fourth-lowest success rate of any qualified passer since 2022 \u2014 stunted the team\u2019s potential, particularly during the first seven games of last year.<\/p>\n
The quarterback is the face of this failure, and he\u2019s still on the team.<\/p>\n
Gabriel described Watson as a helpful quarterback neighbor during minicamp. \u201cHe\u2019s been a guy I\u2019ve connected with as well, and he\u2019s actually a guy I sit by in our O-line meetings,\u201d Gabriel said. \u201c…I think it\u2019s super cool that we do have five guys in the room that kind of can speak to their own experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stefanski commended Watson offseason involvement despite injury. <\/p>\n
\u201c(Deshaun is) not practicing, but he\u2019s rehabbing, attacking his rehab and being a resource for young players, which I think is a great message about being a great teammate \u2013 being available to all your young players, young and old, being available to your teammates,” Stefanski said. <\/p>\n
Nice words to hear, but good teammate-isms won\u2019t clear Watson\u2019s awful contract off the books. His teachings don\u2019t change Cleveland\u2019s future plans without him. And even the best intentions won\u2019t fix the one of the worst trades in modern league history. <\/p>\n
Nope. Only time can stitch this wound. Even as next year beckons and the Browns begin their search for a new quarterback, the big Swing and Miss looms over the franchise. <\/p>\n
Football Insider newsletter free trial: Take a minute and sign up for a free trial<\/a> of our Football Insider newsletter, featuring exclusive content from cleveland.com’s Browns reporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio \u2014 Last season stunk, but next year beckons. Starting July 22, hope holds training camp in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2054],"tags":[86,85,54,29284,2337,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-159692","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cleveland-browns","8":"tag-browns","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-cleveland-browns","11":"tag-cleveland-browns-veterans-minicamp-2025","12":"tag-clevelandbrowns","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114749087848294608","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}