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The Cleveland Browns might regret their decision to trade for Deshaun Watson.
Or at least, they might not be thrilled that they gave him a fully guaranteed deal worth $230 million.
Watson hadn’t played a single snap for them when he got that contract, and he was expected to miss extended time with a suspension.
Now, GM Andrew Berry is looking to make an adjustment to that deal to help the team in the long term.
As reported on X by ESPN’s Field Yates, the Browns have restructured Watson’s contract to convert $44.79 million of his base salary for the upcoming season into a signing bonus, thus creating $35.832M in cap space.
The Browns have restructured the contract of QB Deshaun Watson, converting $44.79M of his 2024 base salary into a signing bonus and creating $35.832M in cap space, per source.
Cleveland now has over $62M in cap space, the most in the entire NFL. pic.twitter.com/KC9hLWQDT8
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) August 29, 2024
More importantly, the Browns now have the most available cap space in the entire league, boasting north of $62 million.
Needless to say, that could have huge implications for this team.
They could now trade for Brandon Aiyuk without it being a huge financial burden, or they could brace themselves not only to acquire more talent midseason but also to make a run at big-name free agents in the offseason.
The reality is that the Deshaun Watson experiment hasn’t worked out in Cleveland, and if things don’t go his way in 2024, they might look to move on from him once and for all.
Even when healthy and eligible to play, he has left plenty to be desired.
Now, with Ken Dorsey scheming the offense and mentoring him, this might be his final chance to get things right in Cleveland, and the Browns are in a privileged position to make some moves to help him out.
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