The Cleveland Browns and quarterback Deshaun Watson have restructured his contract once again.
This time, it will make it easier for the Browns to cut him after the 2026 season without eating an insurmountable amount of dead cap. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rappoport, Watson’s deal will now get an added “dummy” year it to spread out the impact of the dead money.
The OBR’s Jack Duffin is the best in the business in Browns and he broke it down as an option back in March. Duffin wrote then that adding a dummy year could spread the money out instead of eating up all of the cap hits over two years:
“This means in 2027 they are only dealing with the prorated money from this one season and then in 2028 they have all the money from future years to deal with.”
So the restructure does add an extra year to the tenure of Watson with the Browns, it just gives them a bit more flexibility when he is off the roster. And that looks to be in the 2027 offseason.
With that being said, the Browns likely find a way to keep him on the PUP list in 2025 while finding another creative solution to keep him away from the building in 2026.
