The Cleveland Browns admitted their blunder in giving Deshaun Watson a fully guaranteed $230 million contract. But perhaps they weren’t so stupid as to leave themselves entirely unprotected. With perhaps a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, it seems they can recover millions from insurance. Because of his injury last season, they can stand to claim up to roughly $58 million.
This is according to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, who obtained a copy of Watson’s contract with the Browns. He writes that the deal includes an insurance addendum that provides coverage in the event of injury (or death). In his reckoning, this allows the team to claim in the ballpark of $60 million—if it can get it from the insurance company, of course.
“Watson suffered a torn Achilles in Week 7 of the 2024 season”, Florio wrote of the Browns quarterback. “If the insurance is based on the portion of the season Watson played, they’d presumably get all of the $12.691 million from the 2024 signing bonus (which was more than $40 million), less than half of his $1.21 million 2024 base salary, and (if as expected he doesn’t play in 2025) $44.274 million for 2025”.
Florio claims this “will reduce the salary-cap pain”, though doesn’t make it directly clear that this affects the salary cap. Based on the wording, I would read that he is saying the Browns could recoup this money from Deshaun Watson. Otherwise, why would it be in Watson’s contract, after all?
He also points out that the Browns still have to account for $135 million of Watson’s $230 million deal. That is because they have repeatedly restructured his contract, turning salaries into signing bonuses. They will have to pay the piper down the road, but at perhaps a fortuitous discount due to injury.
Watson not only injured his Achilles but subsequently aggravated it, putting his 2025 season in question. Even if he insists he will return better than ever, nobody is obligated to believe him. I doubt that the Browns do. They have traded for Kenny Pickett and re-signed Joe Flacco, and also hold the second-overall draft pick. Pickett plans to win the starting job, though, so does everybody else, don’t they?
As for Deshaun Watson, it is not at all clear he will ever start for the Browns, or anybody, again. Especially if he sits out the entire 2025 season, the NFL may prefer to lose him in the shuffle. Anybody who would sign him would have more than football questions to answer for it. And the football questions that need answering are bad enough to avoid doing so. He has kind of sucked for a while.
