Heading into the 2024 season, the Cleveland Browns and quarterback Deshaun Watson struck a deal to renegotiate his contract and spread the salary cap hit into 2025 and 2026.
The move was seen as a way for the team to have salary cap flexibility in 2024 should the team need to add a piece for their potential playoff run.
That playoff goal nor Watson panned out as planned for the Browns.
Now, Watson and the organization have renegotiated the terms of that deal again, spreading the cap hits for Watson to later years.
According to analyst Michael Ginnitti, the Browns have created “dummy” years in 2027 and 2028 to spread out the remainder of Watson’s contract, seasons he will potentially not be with the team.
“The Browns are preparing to keep him rostered through 2026, but will need to convert salary into signing bonus to temper his $73M hits. In doing this, the dead cap that hits the 2027 cap will soar once the contract voids,” Ginnitti said.
Here's what's going on with Deshaun Watson's contract. Right now, he holds cap hits of $72,935,000 in each of 2025 & 2026.
He also holds $172.7M of dead cap in 2025, rendering him "unreleasable".
The Browns are preparing to keep him rostered through 2026, but will need to… pic.twitter.com/g5Hj0f0vwA
— Spotrac (@spotrac) December 27, 2024
The move makes no changes to Watson salary; instead, it will only increase the length of time that the Browns will absorb the remainder of his salary cap hit.
Pushing the salary cap into later years would allow the Browns to take those hits in years when the cap is projected to increase even more.
Next year, the projected salary cap increase has been estimated between $10-15 million, meaning a $73 million hit that he would have cost the Browns prior to this restructure would be more evenly spread out.
Extending his contract does not mean the Browns are likely to have him in as a starter in 2025.
Multiple analysts have suggested that Cleveland will bring another quarterback this off-season to provide competition for Watson.
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