As Deshaun Watson enters the third yr of a five-year, $46 million-per-year, totally assured contract, the Browns are nonetheless ready for a return on their funding. G.M. Andrew Berry believes it will possibly occur.
If Watson stays capable of play.
Requested by reporters on Monday to elucidate what offers him confidence relating to Watson’s skill to play at an elite degree, Berry stated he’s counting on the messages despatched from his eyeballs to his mind.
“I feel it’s simply seeing him on daily basis,” Berry stated. “Seeing how he prepares, seeing how he works in follow. Seeing how he pertains to his coaches. I feel our greatest focus with Deshaun is simply ensuring that he’s accessible. I feel the remainder will maintain itself.”
Ensuring he’s accessible is a large issue. Watson missed 11 video games in 2022 attributable to a suspension that the Browns knew was coming once they traded for him. He missed 11 video games in 2023 attributable to harm. And the Browns are on the hook for $138 million by 2026.
It feels prefer it’s now or by no means for Watson to justify his contract. And if it doesn’t occur this yr, the Browns should determine whether or not to offer it a fourth attempt — or take away a $92 million Band-Help and transfer on.
The cash has all the time been a serious focus of the choice to make Deshaun Watson the group’s quarterback. That obscures the larger funding made. Three first-round picks, a third-round choose, and two fourth-round picks have been surrendered, for Watson and a sixth-round choose. In the event that they hadn’t achieved the deal, the Browns would have had a gaggle of younger gamers with low-cost contracts who might have developed into the nucleus of a group that has turn out to be fairly rattling good with out these picks — and with out a lot from Deshaun.
So can Watson flip the clock again to 2020? He’s performed in 12 complete video games since then. Berry believes that, if Watson can play in 17 regular-season video games, he’ll return to the quick checklist of true franchise quarterbacks.
If he does, the Browns can be on the quick checklist of Tremendous Bowl contenders.