Browns restructure QB Deshaun Watson's contract, opening up $35 million in cap space

BEREA — The Browns have again restructured quarterback Deshaun Watson's contract.

The team has converted $44.79 million of Watson's base salary into a signing bonus, a league source confirmed for the Beacon Journal. ESPN's Field Yates was the first to report.

The move — the third time the Browns have restructured Watson's deal since acquiring him from the Houston Texans in March 2022 — creates $35.832 million in cap space. That gives Cleveland more than $62 million in cap space, which is a league high.

"I'm not going to go into any details when it comes to player's contract," assistant general manager/Vice President of Football Operations Catherine Hickman said Thursday. "The only thing I'll say is as an organization, our philosophy is to be aggressive when we think about resource allocation and management. So we always look at all options."

The restructuring means Watson's cap number for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, the final two of his current five-year, $230 million contract, is $72.935 million. The dead cap number, per Spotrac, is $172 million in 2025, $99 million in 2026 and $26.9 million in void dead cap.

For this season, Watson's base salary with now be $1.21 million. He'll carry a cap number of $27,942,678, while the dead-cap hit would be $200,712,678, per Spotrac.

This restructuring is along the same lines as what the Browns have done previously with Watson's deal. They did almost the same move just before the start of free agency in March 2023 when they converted $44.835 million of Watson's salary into a signing bonus, while adding a void year in 2027, in order to clear $35.868 million cap space.

"I think it's not just Deshaun specifically here,' Hickman said. "I think it's just from a philosophy how we think about our contract structure and philosophy and management of our resource. So I'm not going to go into anything specific here outside of just being creative and aggressive on how we want to create that flexibility."

The Browns gave Watson the fully guaranteed contract when he was acquired in a trade from the Texans. The deal was structured similarly to most long-term deals Browns general manager Andrew Berry has negotiated, with an extremely team-friendly first year — a $1.035 million base salary and a $9,395,500 cap hit — before going up in the second year.

Watson has played 12 games over the first two seasons with the Browns. He lost 11 games in 2022 to a personal conduct suspension in connection with more than two dozen allegations by women of sexual assault and sexual misconduct in massage appointments.

Shoulder injuries, including season-ending shoulder surgery on Nov. 21, cost Watson 11 games last season. He suffered a broken glenoid in a Nov. 12 game at the Baltimore Ravens, a game in which he went 14-of-14 passing in the second half to lead Cleveland to a 33-31 come-from-behind win.

The rehab from that surgery led to a prolonged ramp-up process for Watson's throwing program, which started March 18. He spent most of the OTAs only throwing every other day in individual drills before adding in 7 on 7 drills during June minicamp.

Watson was a full participant in training camp, only missing one full day on Aug. 2. He did stop throwing during practice on Aug. 21 due to what was termed "general arm soreness," but resumed throwing the next day.

Despite the full camp participation, Watson did not play in any of the Browns' three preseason games. Coach Kevin Stefanski's plan had been to start him in the finale at the Seattle Seahawks, but announced the morning of the game he had changed his mind due to a variety of factors.

Chris Easterling can be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Read more about the Browns at www.beaconjournal.com/sports/browns. Follow him on X at @ceasterlingABJ

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Browns restructure QB Deshaun Watson's contract, opening up $35 million in cap space