Deshaun Watson has largest cap hit in NFL history looming. The Browns are preparing for it (2024)

CLEVELAND — During his lone season in Philadelphia’s front office in 2019, Cleveland Browns general manager Andrew Berry was part of an Eagles regime that cleared a league-leading $33 million in cap space by restructuring veteran contracts.

It was good experience for Berry, given his current role. Ever since signing quarterback Deshaun Watson to a record-breaking $230 million deal last year, the Browns have been busy spinning enough plates to ensure their cap sheet doesn’t crash and shatter all over the kitchen tile.

Watson’s cap hit for next year is scheduled to be $64 million, easily the largest in NFL history for one player. The Browns knew when they made the deal that the cap would spike this season with the league’s new media rights deal and will continue to increase. Nevertheless, they’ve already restructured Watson’s deal once and likely will have to multiple times again since his cap hit is $64 million in each of the next three seasons. It’s why the team negotiated the right to redo the deal into the contract. But simply reworking Watson’s money and tacking voidable years onto the end won’t be enough to create the space necessary to field a competitive team around him. Even with the expected generous growth in the salary cap year over year, Watson’s contract as constructed could still cover about one-quarter of the 2024 cap.

All of the other deals the Browns were forced to rework this summer, including with All-Pros like Joel Bitonio and Myles Garrett, have left them as the latest fascinating case study in a league filled with teams playing the dangerous financial shell game of salary-cap roulette.

Look at the teams that lead the league in contract restructures annually. Inevitably, the scrambling is typically tied to a mammoth quarterback salary.

The New Orleans Saints created $165 million in cap space over two years, according to Over the Cap, to cover Drew Brees’ money at the end of his career. The Philadelphia Eagles are routinely among the league leaders in contract restructures over the past five years, also according to Over the Cap, and it all started with Carson Wentz’s disastrous $128 million deal in 2019. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lead the league with more than $77 million in dead money this year, thanks largely to Tom Brady’s $35 million cap charge. Consider it the interest payment on that Super Bowl.

Restructuring deals doesn’t have to be catastrophic to teams, provided they choose the right contracts to touch. Teams can add voidable years at the end of a contract, as the Browns did with Watson this summer, to prorate money into the future. It’s kicking the can down the road, but the fear is the can will be in the middle of a four-lane highway by the time teams are forced to finally bend over and pick it up. The hope is they have a Super Bowl trophy, or at least the memories of a sustained run of success, to cushion the oncoming collision.

Rework the contract of a useful player who has several productive years in front of him and it’s a creative accounting weapon. Pick someone whose productivity falls off, or someone you want to move on from in the future, and the pain to get out of a newly restructured deal is rather punitive because of the dead cap hit.

Take Bitonio, for instance, who is still playing at an incredibly high level but turns 32 in a couple of weeks. The Browns are gambling on Bitonio to stay on this side of the cliff for at least a few more seasons; otherwise, he’ll count $5 million in dead cap money if he’s not here in 2025 when he turns 34.

Tight end David Njoku, who has 92 receiving yards through three games, was another player who restructured over the summer. He’s only 27, but the Browns are likely tied to him for at least two more seasons. His contract runs through 2025, but he carries cap hits against the Browns through 2027.

The Eagles have been relatively wise with their restructures and came out of the Wentz debacle mostly unscathed (thanks, Jalen Hurts!), winning their division in each of the past two years after bottoming out with a last-place finish in 2020.

The Atlanta Falcons weren’t as fortunate, reworking Matt Ryan’s contract one too many times. Ryan originally signed for $100 million in 2018 but still carried a dead cap charge of $40 million last year once the Falcons traded him to the Indianapolis Colts. As a result, Atlanta carried $63 million in dead cap space in 2022 for players no longer on the team and, not surprisingly, finished last in its division.

Where does all of this leave the Browns?

First, Watson must play well or, given the contract, the franchise might burst into flames and crater into Lake Erie and none of the rest of this will matter. His performance in Sunday’s 27-3 win over the Tennessee Titans — 27-of-33 passing, 289 yards and two touchdowns — was the first glimmer of hope through eight games in a Browns jersey that he can return to the player he was in Houston.

By reworking the deals of offensive linemen like Bitonio, Wyatt Teller and Jed Wills and a ferocious pass rusher in Garrett, the Browns have $34 million in cap space this season, second most in the league behind the San Francisco 49ers, according to Over the Cap. Those are valuable dollars they can roll into next year’s cap to help mitigate the Watson hit. Rolling over cap space is no longer a luxury in Cleveland but a necessity.

It’s worth noting that of all the big-money deals the Browns reworked this summer, one they did not touch belonged to running back Nick Chubb. It was perhaps foreshadowing what was to come even before Chubb’s gruesome, season-ending knee injury two weeks ago in Pittsburgh.

Though the value of running backs continues to be a trigger point among clubs, Chubb is earning $15 million this year, which is manageable since Watson’s cap number for this season is less than $20 million.

But when Watson balloons to $64 million next year, Chubb will carry an accompanying cap number north of $16 million, the third highest in the league behind New Orleans’ Alvin Kamara and the Green Bay Packers’ Aaron Jones.

It would only cost the Browns $4 million in dead money to release Chubb before next season. Such a thought is unfathomable to Browns fans, particularly in the wake of the knee injury, since he is arguably their most popular player. Chubb could elect to rework his deal and come back at a smaller number as well. What seems clear at this point is he most likely will not be earning the terms of his current deal in 2024.

The Browns brought back Kareem Hunt last week to help fill the void at running back, but they might need to further dip into their cap space reserves for someone a bit more productive if second-year back Jerome Ford isn’t ready to replace Chubb.

That’s something the Browns aren’t usually inclined to do. They rode with career backup Jacoby Brissett last year, even after Watson’s suspension increased to 11 games for violating the league’s personal conduct policy, rather than spending available dollars on an upgrade at quarterback. Rolling over the money into this year’s cap and beyond was considered more prudent. They’ll likely try to do the same with Ford.

Other important decisions are looming. Key defensive starters such as safety Grant Delpit, defensive end Za’Darius Smith and linebacker Anthony Walker are all eligible for free agency next year, while younger guys like cornerback Greg Newsome and linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koromoah are extension-eligible. Every dollar counts right now in Cleveland.

The Browns have spent two summers stuffing their piggy banks with $50 and $100 bills in anticipation of the $64 million swinging crane that’s about to bulldoze their cap sheet next year. The Eagles previously and Kansas City Chiefs presently with Patrick Mahomes are proving it’s doable, depending on the can teams choose to kick and how far it rolls. Choose wisely.

(Top photo: Nick Cammett / Getty Images)

Jason Lloyd is a senior columnist for The Athletic, focusing on the Browns, Cavs and Guardians. Follow Jason on Twitter @ByJasonLloyd