Despite scoring home wins over the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, the 3-8 Cleveland Browns have obviously had a disappointing season. They’re headed for an uncertain future, too, with no long-term answer at quarterback and heavy financial commitments to older players and the guy they thought would be their long-term QB, Deshaun Watson.
The Browns hoped to follow their 11-6 season in 2023 with more success, but they never reached 20 points or 300 total yards in Watson’s seven starts. Now, with Watson again on season-ending injured reserve and Jameis Winston on a one-year deal, they’re headed to December hoping to continue playing spoiler.
How can they get back to pursuing their own playoff dreams? Just as importantly, how do you talk to your friends and family about the Browns with the holiday season upon us? Should you prepare for a full-on rebuild and wholesale changes, or might the Browns just shed some salary and bring back most of the folks in charge?
We’re here to help you be fully informed and win these important holiday arguments. Maybe Winston can ride his current hot streak to another chance to be an NFL starter next season. But if he does, he’ll demand a lot more than the $4 million base salary Cleveland is paying him this year.
Can the Browns bring back Watson for 2025? Will he be healthy after rupturing his Achilles tendon in October? Watson’s fully guaranteed contract says the Browns are tied to him in any case, though the team will need options at the game’s most important position even if Watson gets healthy.
There’s just little chance that Cleveland could turn back to Watson given his 2024 struggles and the disappointment the season became. With Winston, suddenly the Browns are throwing the ball downfield and Jerry Jeudy is playing like the $40 million player the Browns acquired in March.
That tight-lipped general manager Andrew Berry said “that’s always possible” when asked if Watson might be in the 2025 plans, that was a non-answer doubling as a pretty strong statement. The Browns gave up three first-round picks in their 2022 trade for Watson, and the lack of top-end young talent has shown up on this year’s roster. The Watson trade was a huge miss on many levels — bad enough that it’s fair to wonder if Berry will keep his job — and Cleveland will continue paying for it.
The Browns are still committed to $172 million for Watson, with the current structure calling for that to be spread over the next four seasons. Watson is slated to carry cap hits of $72.9 million in both 2025 and 2026, the final two years of his contract.
The team has the right to restructure Watson’s deal at any time, as it’s done in each of the last two years. But short of restructuring to cut Watson in the spring or summer and raising the 2025-26 cap numbers, it would just prolong the team’s financial commitment to the quarterback.
At some point soon, the Browns will begin to make decisions on their current state, future direction and salary-cap options. What they choose for their front office, quarterback, coaching staff and glaring weaknesses remains to be seen, but it’s clear this is a multi-step process that could turn into a multiyear rebuilding project.
Contract details
Here’s a brief rundown of where the Browns stand with non-Watson contracts. All salary cap and contract numbers are from Over the Cap, unless otherwise noted.
Browns starters or regular contributors eligible for unrestricted free agency in March 2025: Nick Chubb, Winston, Jedrick Wills Jr., Elijah Moore, Maurice Hurst II, Jordan Akins, Devin Bush, James Hudson III and Michael Dunn. Rodney McLeod Jr. previously announced his plans to retire. Over the Cap has the Browns with 43 players under contract for next season.
Contracts that jump off the page: Jack Conklin ($19.5 million 2025 cap number, signed through 2026), Greg Newsome II ($13.3 million on his fifth-year option), Dalvin Tomlinson ($11.5 million, signed through 2026 but guarantees paid) and Juan Thornhill ($5.7 million).
Other contracts that could be redone or moved: Joel Bitonio ($14.4 million cap number), Wyatt Teller ($14.4 million), David Njoku ($11.8 million), Ethan Pocic ($7.8 million), Jordan Hicks ($4.1 million) and Shelby Harris ($2.8 million). Besides Watson’s, the two biggest 2025 cap numbers on the team are Denzel Ward’s $24.5 million and Myles Garrett’s $19.7 million.
Extension-eligible in early 2025: Martin Emerson Jr.
The cap situation
After the salary cap made a record leap in February of almost $30 million per team to $255 million, it’s expected to go up again in 2025. And though the Browns have long planned for annual jumps, having Watson count more than $70 million in each of the next two seasons is complicated, to say the least. Spotrac is projecting the 2025 cap at $273.3 million, and with Cleveland in line to roll over about $44 million from 2024, that would put the team right around the cap number early in 2025.
The Browns will almost certainly either restructure Conklin’s contract or release him with a post-June 1 designation, which would free up around $16 million in cap space for 2025. Thornhill also could be a post-June 1 cut to stretch out his remaining money.
The Browns will need to be under the cap by the start of the new league year in March and will need $14 million to $16 million in free space to sign their 2025 draft picks. The exact number for each team’s rookie pool is dependent upon the number of picks made, and Cleveland is in line to add a couple of late-round compensatory picks to the group that already includes an extra third-rounder for Amari Cooper and extra fifth- and sixth-round picks.
An optimistic view would be that the Browns have been planning for the cap to go up and have been using void years and restructures as part of their strategy. With more restructures and just a handful of strategic deletions, they could create the necessary room to make additions and upgrade some position groups while adding young (and inexpensive) players via the draft.
A more pessimistic view would be that they don’t currently have a starting quarterback, starting running back, true No. 1 wide receiver or starting left tackle under contract for 2025, and they don’t have a lot of money to spend on those areas or at defensive tackle. If Wills doesn’t sign a new contract with the Browns, he’ll carry a dead-cap number of $11.8 million next year. Offensive line and defensive line both stand out as question marks going forward.
About this week
When the Browns were quarterback-shopping in 2022, so were the Broncos. Denver landed on Russell Wilson and made a trade with Seattle just a few days before the Browns made their deal for Watson. The Seahawks traded Wilson and a fourth-round pick to Denver for two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick and three players: Noah Fant, Harris (yes, the one now with the Browns) and Drew Lock.
The Browns and Broncos are opponents this week, but Denver is a 7-5 team that already moved on from its failed quarterback trade. Wilson was released in March as the key piece of a roster retooling. The Broncos started this season with 22 new players who weren’t on their 2023 roster and first-round rookie Bo Nix as their quarterback.
Could Denver be a blueprint for Cleveland going forward? Potentially, yes. The Broncos were still committed to $85 million for Wilson, so in releasing him they took a dead-cap hit of $53 million in 2024 and pushed $32 million to 2025. Yes, you’re reading that correctly. The Broncos swallowed an NFL-record $85 million in dead money to cut Wilson, and the Browns are on the hook for more than double that with Watson. Even with the cap likely to grow again and the Browns having the opportunity to restructure contracts in early 2025, Watson is due to count for more than a quarter of the cap next year.
The Broncos are carrying more than $84 million in dead money this season after also moving on from veterans Randy Gregory, Tim Patrick, Justin Simmons and Frank Clark. But Wilson’s remaining $32 million is their only current dead-money charge for 2025.
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The Browns are already at almost $40 million in dead money for next year. That doesn’t account for what eventually happens with Wills, Conklin or any other player to whom Cleveland has future commitments, and that also assumes Watson is on the roster. It’s nearly impossible to see Watson being in the team’s plans, so the term “dead money” fits even if it doesn’t technically apply.
Ultimately, the Browns will have to decide how much dead money they’re willing to take on in 2025 as part of looking to the future. In trading Cooper, they took on more than $22 million in dead money for next year. In trading Za’Darius Smith, they took on around $14 million. Smith’s guarantees were only for this season, and his void years actually extended through 2028, so the trade accelerated them to next season.
In the coming weeks and months, the Browns will have to decide how they want to proceed. Maybe a full teardown isn’t necessary, but it will be discussed. Nobody wants to talk about trading Garrett, but it could at least be considered for the right offer. In the unlikely event Garrett is moved, he’d account for $36 million in 2025 dead money.
With six games left, it remains to be seen if the Browns will play themselves into a top-five draft pick or win themselves further down the board. In either case, they have to decide how to proceed at quarterback, left tackle and other key positions.
The all-in moves on Watson and this season have created a big mess — some of which seems fixable, and some of which looms as a long-term project.
(Top photo: Eric Hartline / Imagn Images)
