Analyst Urges Browns to Split With Deshaun Watson Over $230 Million Deal

Q: Will the Browns actually pay Deshaun Watson $46 million just to stay away from the team this season?

Yes — if the Browns decide the relationship is beyond repair, they can effectively pay Deshaun Watson and keep him away from the team, and that now looks like a realistic option. The key point is that the $46 million figure is money Watson is already owed under his fully guaranteed contract for 2026. The Browns do not avoid that cash simply by cutting him, and a release would also create major cap complications. Reporting in the background material suggests a post-June 1 style move would not produce meaningful 2026 relief and could dump roughly $36 million in dead cap into 2027 and about $51.5 million into 2028. That is why a “pay him not to play” arrangement makes practical sense. It would let Cleveland separate from Watson without worsening its future cap situation as much as an outright cut, while also removing him from a toxic environment that now appears harmful to both sides. The Texans used a similar approach when Watson sat out in 2021 before being traded. Whether the Browns actually do it will depend on how the quarterback competition finishes and whether they believe Watson can still help them. But the football case for keeping him is weakening, the fan relationship is badly fractured, and even Watson has publicly questioned whether he can move past the hostility. So the most likely answer is this: Cleveland probably will not pay $46 million for him to be on the field if it decides the situation is unsustainable. It may pay him anyway and keep him away.

3 articles · Updated · NBC Sports · Aug 23

$46 million remains on Deshaun Watson's contract for 2026, but an analyst argued Cleveland should end the relationship anyway because the quarterback's situation with Browns fans has become untenable.
Watson said boos at Saturday's game still bother him and that fans cheering his 2024 torn Achilles left him fighting a daily "mental battle," adding he feels more support on the road than at home.
That leaves Cleveland with few workable paths: trade him despite a no-trade clause and limited market, release him and manage cap fallout through 2030, or pay him not to play.
The case for separation now rests less on football value than on a broken player-fan relationship, with the analyst arguing both Watson and the Browns would benefit from moving on.