Browns in worst-case scenario after Deshaun Watson injury | Inside Coverage
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab discuss the untenable situation the Browns find themselves in after Deshaun Watson's injury. Hear the full conversation on “Inside Coverage” - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
Deshaun Watson has not necessarily been the type of person you can put on a billboard.
Deshaun Watson has not been the type of quarterback you can build around to win Super Bowls.
Deshaun Watson has not been the type of player you can rely on to win your football games.
That's the person that got hurt today.
And if you're the Browns, you got to figure out what to do.
I don't think there's an easy answer.
I there's not there.
You can't cut them.
The, the dead cap hit is nine figures.
The, the salary cap hit next year.
If you post June 1st is 118 million $935,000.
If you go to 2026.
Pre June 1st, it's $99.8 million.
Post June 1st.
It's $73 million.
They have two more seasons of Deshaun on the books, no matter what, it is really, really tough for them to know he's trading for Deshaun Watson, obviously, like, and now he's a quarterback who, ok, you've hurt yourself in mid to late October.
It's, it's usually an injury that's gonna take about a year.
I mean, it's, are you even ready for week one next year?
And what do you do?
You can't go into a season with a, a quarterback making that much money.
Is your, basically your backup.
There's our backup.
So how do you even navigate that?
You go get a starter and you can't pay a starter and Deshaun Watson, like this is crazy to me.
How bad this got.
It's an untenable situation.
This is the worst contract in the NFL and probably the worst contract in NFL history and it's just gonna, it's gonna drag the Browns down for a few more years now.
It's, it's just horrible for them.
The only real solution is to draft a quarterback but if they like, but they're not here to do it either.
The best case scenario for the Browns is that Jameis Winston comes out and is very Sam Arnold like he looks, you know, great and he has great control of this offense and all of a sudden he can come in and win a bunch of games and they convince Jameis that, hey, let's just keep running this back and Jam uh given the kind things he had to say about Deshaun uh supporting him and how he wants to support Deshawn Jamis decides he wants to play another year.
They buy a little time that like that's their only home run scenario.
The people who I feel for so much are Browns fans because they deserve so much better than this.
They dealt with so many bad seasons of football and really, really bad seasons of football when they were clearly tanking.
They're just like, we're stripping it all down.
We're gonna win three games in three years, but we're gonna have all these picks and all this c space and we're gonna build up to this point where we're a championship contender and then they threw it all the way with the Deshaun Watson trade, one of the worst decisions in sports history.