They also cheated the cap by delaying his larger cap hits to future seasons. I don’t see how they can wiggle out of paying the piper for this sequence:

2022 - $46M of cash, only $9M cap hit
2023 - $46M of cash, only $19M cap hit
2024 - $46M of cash, only $28M cap hit

So $138M of cash and only $56M of combined cap hits across the last 3 years. Looks like they owe $82 million to the salary cap gods.

ROFL

Karma is a bitch!

From rappaport on Twitter

Sources: The #Browns and QB Deshaun Watson have agreed to terms on a contract restructure, easing the salary cap burden for years to come.

The reworked deal also signals that Watson is expected to be on the #Browns next season. This is about the cap after his deal is up.

Good lord. Browns are hosed for next year already.

i just don’t understand wasting ANOTHER year on this rapist loser

He was the worst starter in the league before a torn achilles, how bad is he gonna look after that? will theys till be trotting him out there when he struggles to hit 3k yards and 10 td passes? what is bad enough for the browns to ****ing cut their losses?

Just to be clear... When they say they restructured, what they mean is it will be impossible to cut him even beyond next year. Hes gonna be there for a few years. This is stupid as hell from the browns. Gut the roster, pay out deshaun as much as you can, and start today rebuilding for 2 years from now. Complete joke to try to compete with deshaun or without him but handcuffed to that dumb contract.

They have no choice. They've deferred his contract several times so he's uncuttable. Restructuring to guarantee several years on the other hand? Thats one hell of a choice

yeah thats whats mindboggling. the dude has been getting worse and worse so you commit to him MORE???

browns gonna ****ing browns i guess. they were getting jealous of all the infamy woody johnson bringing the jets so they had to throw their hat back in the ring “wait guys actually we’re just as pathetic and incompetent as them!!!”

Pretty sure they’re hosed until 2027

only was this can work for the browns is if watson is bad enough for them to get arch manning when he declares

watch them pass on him bc they wanna keep watson though

Does anyone actually think Manning is that good?

It’s clearly ownership at this point. It’s the only reason Stefanski didn’t bench Watson before he was injured. They don’t understand the concept of a deadweight loss.

*raises hand* I think he has the potential to be incredibly good. Especially since it's likely the Manning family pulls antics to ensure he's not stuck on a perpetually shit franchise like they've done in the past.

It's just crazy. 3 years is a nice time to rebuild. Trade away Garrett, Chubb, anyone who costs money. Stockpile picks. Tank and draft a great QB. Pay Watson off early so you can get him off the dead cap as soon as humanly possible.

They can still trade away and rebuild with deshaun on the bench. But what's the point of that? Buy they won't. They're gonna try to bandaid this and keep trying to win. They could start 2027 with a clean cap and a roster chock full of young talent. Trying to keep winning means less draft picks, winning your way out of lottery picks, and a less favorable cap number.

How can you not feel really bad for cleveland? The bonkers thing is they could have had baker Mayfield, several extra picks, and probably could have saved themselves hundreds of millions without wasting their Garrett / Chubb window