Fact: Jimmy Haslam made a GOB Bluth huge mistake when he forced his Cleveland Browns to trade for Deshaun Watson. The former Houston Texans and Clemson Tigers star has been a shell of himself since the COVID-19 pandemic. He has not been healthy, he has played poorly and he has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons again. In time, this will go down as one of the absolute worst trades in NFL history.
In the weeks leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft, Haslam admitted he was in the wrong in pushing the little red button to ignite the Watson trade with Houston three offseasons ago. Cleveland has Watson under contract for this upcoming season and the one that follows. We are looking at a dead-cap hit of $173 million if Watson were released this year. Watson also carries a cap hit of $81 million for 2026...
Haslam's comments from the NFL's league meetings about the Watson contract are rather revealing.
"We took a big swing-and-miss with Deshaun. We thought we had the quarterback; we didn't. And we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him, so we've got to dig ourselves out of that hole. ... [The trade] was an entire organization decision, and it ends with Dee and I, so hold us accountable."
This is the first time anyone from the Browns organization has gone on record to say the Watson trade was a huge, embarrassing failure. The other big takeaway from Haslam's comments is that the Browns are not going to make a decision on Watson until after this season. They need to know where he is at physically after such a devastating injury before making a serious assessment. It feels wise.
With the amount of money the Browns have tied up in Watson, I doubt they will draft a quarterback.
Browns doomed if they do, doomed if they don't with Deshaun Watson
I totally agree with Haslam in the sense that Cleveland simply cannot afford to even remotely consider moving on from Watson until after this upcoming season. It would be financial suicide for the Browns to even think about going in that direction. Again, we have to know what the new baseline is for Watson as he enters his 30s physically before potentially moving on from the wasted contract.
This leads me to believe that Cleveland will either sign or trade for a stop-gap quarterback to get them through the Watson contract. It would serve the Browns to take either Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter with the No. 2 pick and then trade for Kirk Cousins in a deal with the Atlanta Falcons rather than drafting Shedeur Sanders. I love the Sanders fit, but the dollars and cents have to make sense.
Look. I want the Browns to make the best decision for their team possible. However, everything they do must be run through the lens of the financial ramifications from the Watson deal. Outside of the Watson deal, one could argue the Browns have been a largely well-run team under the guidance of general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski. Most NFL teams would hire both.
What this all boils down to is your NFL franchise's ceiling is only has high as what ownership allows.