Cleveland Browns trade for Deshaun Watson, will pay him $230 million

[True Dough]

Gonna be interesting to see whether the league slaps him with a suspension, and for how long, relating to those 22 women accusing him of inappropriate sexual behavior and filing civil suits.

The Cleveland Browns have agreed to trade for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported Friday.

Rapoport reported the Texans will receive three first-round draft picks in the trade in addition to a 2023 third-rounder and a 2024 fourth-rounder as Watson has made the decision to waive his no-trade clause to go to Cleveland after also meeting with the Atlanta Falcons, New Orleans Saints and Carolina Panthers this week. The Browns will receive a 2024 fifth-rounder as part of a late-round pick swap.

Watson will receive a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract from the Browns, per Rapoport. As part of the deal, the QB will receive a $45 million signing bonus and his base salary for the 2022 season will be $1 million, Pelissero added.

https://www.nfl.com/news/texans-qb-deshaun-watson-expected-to-be-traded-to-browns

[AZProgressive]

1. 3 first round picks and the most guaranteed money in history

Watson is not worth that much even if he doesn’t get suspended.

First Christian Kirk and now this. Wild off-season.

[bahboo]

2. would hate to be a Browns fan....

and I'm a Bears fan for chrissakes....

[Ziggysmom]

3. Pro sports salaries have gotten ridiculous! Nobody playing a stupid game has that much value

to add to mankind.

[NoRethugFriends]

4. Lovely to see rapists and murderers richly rewarded in the NFL

[Auggie]

6. This is supposed to make it "okay" ...

From cleveland.com, subsidiary of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

But with Browns co-owner Dee Haslam a member of NFL Conduct Committee, the Browns thoroughly investigated Watson and determined that he wouldn’t be accused of sexual misconduct in the future, and that he’d do whatever necessary to make restitution for his mistakes.

https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2022/03/deshaun-watson-reverses-field-and-picks-the-cleveland-browns-in-a-stunning-turn-of-events-will-receive-a-blockbuster-new-deal.html

Haslam is married to the owner.

[TwilightZone]

7. "Haslam is married to the owner."

She is a co-owner.

[Auggie]

8. That too

[True Dough]

9. Are you going to share your thoughts with us, Auggie?

As a Browns fan, are you conflicted about having Watson as your starter? If Cleveland manages to win a Super Bowl next year, will it have an asterisk next to it in your mind?

[Auggie]

11. Sure ...

If Cleveland wins a Super Bowl I'd be doggoned happy. Surprised, but doggoned happy.

(Las Vegas, by the way, increased the odds of the Browns winning the SB in 2022 from 40-1 to 20-1 with Watson's signing).

It's obvious the front office is going for broke with the running game pretty much in tact and pass rusher Myles Garrett still under contract.

But sheee-it, for one guy they gave up A LOT and they're paying A LOT.

IMO Mayfield is a serviceable QB. Give him a healthy running game and pass protection, field a decent defense with a deep bench, and he can win a Super Bowl. Those picks they gave away could have helped build that deeper, stronger team, just like the two picks they gave up for Beckham a few years ago, two of which could be solid, veteran line players the Browns so desperately need right now.

I predict this, like the Beckham deal, will bite them in the ass. Could be through injury, a weak roster, a suspension, internal squabbling, felony ... who knows (the Browns are masters at finding new ways to screw up).

What do you think True Dough?

[True Dough]

12. It's funny you should ask, Auggie

because Andrew Berry gave me a call yesterday and asked whether the organization should pull the trigger on this deal. I gave him the green light.




Seriously, I feel like the 20-1 odds that you cited would be reasonable for this season. I suspect that the league is going to hand Watson a stiff suspension for all of his transgressions -- something in the 8 to 10 game range. So we could be looking at up to 10 games with Case Keenum as the starter (because, let's face it, Mayfield is now going to be traded and hopefully the Browns get something decent in return).

So Watson returns for the latter half of the season and Cleveland may be sitting at 5-5 by that point. It's going to take a while for him to get some chemistry, so we can expect some missed passes, fumbles and broken plays for a while. But they should make the playoffs and maybe even make a deep run if they jell. And, don't forget, they were a top 5 defense last season and that shouldn't fall off. They're very good on that side of the ball already.

Now, I haven't looked up the contract status of their running backs (Chubb, Hunt and D'Ernest Johnson, who was a pleasant surprise in his few starts last season). If they retain two of those three next season and Watson and Amari Cooper light things up and the D remains rock solid, you're looking at a real Super Bowl contender.

They are not that far off! I'm way more optimistic than you are -- but it's easier for me because I haven't been cheering for them through decades of futility and frustration.

[Auggie]

14. You might have something there (when you look at the 2022 schedule)

Home
Cincinnati Bengals
Baltimore Ravens
Pittsburgh Steelers
New England Patriots
New York Jets
New Orleans Saints
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Los Angeles Chargers

Away
Cincinnati Bengals
Baltimore Ravens
Pittsburgh Steelers
Buffalo Bills
Miami Dolphins
Atlanta Falcons
Carolina Panthers
Houston Texans
Washington Commanders

Eight winnable games: Falcons, Panthers, Texans, Commanders, SteelersX2, Jets, and Saints.

----------------

Players under contract until:
Garrett/2027
Cooper/2025
Bitonio/2026
Chubb/2025
More at https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cleveland-browns/contracts/

----------------

Pass the

[True Dough]

15. It's really a one to three year window, IMO

The Browns have committed soooo much money to Watson that they have to climb the mountain over the next few seasons. After that, they're going to have all kinds of salary cap constraints. Plus, all those first round picks. The longer-term future won't be as bright, so they need to get the job done soonish.

[True Dough]

16. Yay or nay, Auggie?

Link to tweet

[Auggie]

17. I've stopped caring now that details of Watson's contract have been made public

It's sick.

Just the 49ers from now on.

[Raven123]

5. Sounds like DeShaun and Baker conspired for this moment

Watson gets a ton of money, and Baker gets out of Cleveland. The Browns organization imaginatively, manages to look even worse than it has the past many years. The fans, as usual get nuthin’.

[Dan]

10. Well, that's a good contract for Deshaun.

I really haven’t watched Deshaun play much - but I have watched Baker Mayfield the past two years.

While Baker may have had some issues this year, my thoughts were Baker has the potential to be a damn good quarterback. IF he is traded (and agrees to the trade) I hope that he ends up in New Orleans. I think the Saints have the staff to really groom him plus I think that the offensive line is more suited to his playing style.

I always felt that the problems with the Browns this past year wasn’t the players, it was the coaching and offensive coordinator. That’s my thought, plus they really didn’t trade up in getting Deshaun - they just wanted to get rid of Baker (scapegoat him for the last season’s failures).

[True Dough]

13. Just saw a headline

that Mayfield's preferred landing spot is with the Colts. Wonder if Frank Reich is warm to the idea?

[Angleae]

18. The Colts just acquired Matt Ryan from the Falcons in a trade, so probably not.

[True Dough]

19. True, Baker is highly unlikely to land in Indy now

Where he goes is really unclear. Some are speculating that Seattle is a real possibility. Others think Pittsburgh.

We shall see.

[Angleae]

20. I think the Browns are going to hold on to him just in case Watson can't play.

[True Dough]

21. Who knows if Baker will even agree to play for Cleveland

The word going around is that he was pretty to hold out this season until he got the contract terms he was demanding. He's not a team-first kind of player. God knows he'll be sulky as hell now and he has demanded a trade since the handwriting is on the wall with Watson as the #1 QB for the long-term.