Browns restructure Deshaun Watson’s deal, which they shouldn’t have given him in the first place

The Cleveland Browns have freed up more money by restructuring Deshaun Watson’s contract.

Of course, the Cleveland Browns had to restructure Deshaun Watson’s contract. It was a bad deal.

Ian Rapoport of The NFL Network reported on Monday morning that the Browns have freed up almost $36 million in available cap space by restructuring Watson’s ridiculous deal. It is as if the Browns should have never given it to him in the first place, but then again, this was the only way they could have swept the rug out from underneath the Atlanta Falcons initially to even land him.

And with this $36 million in newly created space, look for the Browns to participate in free agency.

The #Browns have restructured QB Deshaun Watson’s contract, creating nearly $36M in cap space, source said. The cap conversion gives plenty of room for Cleveland to work in free agency.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 13, 2023

This is not going to be the last time the Browns are going to have to restructure Watson’s deal.

Cleveland Browns restructure Deshaun Watson’s deal, well, because they had to

The Browns traded for Watson for three reasons. They were done with Baker Mayfield, they wanted to start winning games more frequently and they wanted to be interesting. It was kind of gross to begin with, but I understand what the franchise wanted to do. However, there should be consequences to artificially inflating a position group’s market because of a team’s incompetence.

It is a foregone conclusion that quarterbacks who are way better than Watson will not get those type of guarantees in a massive contract. Those teams aren’t that desperate. Cleveland is, and that is what it took. What is important to understand is Browns general manager Andrew Berry must work with Watson and his representation to make this thing work pretty much every offseason.

Watson’s agent David Mulugheta may not love this, but that is the price to pay to represent Watson. Besides, he has so many blue-chips clients in his diversified portfolio that he can deal with the Watson contract shenanigans from time to time. For now, this is what it will take for the Browns to be competitive with the star quarterback they traded two arms and a leg for last year.

Here is to the Browns being the AFC version of the New Orleans Saints over creative accounting.