The worst trade-and-sign of the salary cap era isn’t getting any better.
The Browns still aren’t getting a return from quarterback Deshaun Watson, whose best days keep fading deeper and deeper into the rearview mirror.
What will they do? If he didn’t have two more years of fully-guaranteed pay (at a total of $92 million) through 2026, he’d be benched by now. Currently, they have no choice but to keep going.
Of course, they do have a choice. Even if they have to pay him, they don’t have to play him. They can bench him and treat the guaranteed pay as a sunk cost.
Functional franchises will refuse to let one mistake become a second mistake. Will the Browns be functional or dysfunctional?
At some point, the Browns will need to make a move. They’ll face a revolt from their fans and/or a mutiny in the locker room if they don’t.
Then again, maybe the players understand. The Browns tied their own hands behind their backs with the Watson contract. And the situation proves that, if all NFL contracts were ever fully-guaranteed, they would NEVER have a five-year term.
Especially not at the quarterback position.
