Any disappointed Cleveland Browns fan who believed general manager Andrew Berry would discuss the real temperature inside the team’s facility Wednesday or assure that things aren’t as bad as the 2-7 record indicates, probably heads to the bye week feeling like they just watched the team’s offense this season.
Few real answers. Not much to get excited about.
As for the future, Berry didn’t want to go there either. He always holds a news conference on the bye week, which is why he spoke publicly Wednesday for the first time since late July.
Berry started by saying though he understood questions might touch on how Cleveland will handle positions in 2025 that it’s mishandled previously, his current focus remains on the team performing better over its final eight games. And though he was correct in his assumption that most questions would be about Deshaun Watson, he wasn’t going to provide any kind of real evaluation of the quarterback, Watson’s future with the team or how the Browns got themselves into what appears to be an epic mess.
Berry was asked if Cleveland’s 2022 trade for Watson, which included the Browns giving up three first-round picks for the right to give him a fully guaranteed $230 million contract, was a good one.
“I’m not really in reflection mode,” Berry said.
He wasn’t in look-ahead mode, either. Watson is on injured reserve after suffering a ruptured Achilles tendon that required surgery late last month. He’s under contract through 2026, and his $72.9 million salary-cap number for both 2025 and 2026 is part of the more than $170 million in cap money to which the Browns are committed. Considering that Watson is on IR for the second straight season and was ranked near the bottom of most quarterback metrics over the seven games he played, it would make sense if Cleveland has to at least begin the process of finding its next quarterback. So, Berry was asked if he could see Watson playing for the Browns again.
“I think that’s always possible,” he said.
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Berry said the team’s focus right now is on Watson getting healthy and fixing the multiple offensive issues that have plagued the 2024 Browns. And now, in early November, it’s impossible to know how the team will handle Watson’s injury, his contract or any available options at quarterback in the future. But the team’s inability to score or create explosive plays with Watson in September and October sunk the season.
The Browns followed an 11-win 2023 campaign by bringing back almost all of their key players and shaking up the offensive staff while spending an NFL-record $325.7 million in cash on their roster, per Spotrac, with hopes of making a real run. The Watson trade and all the spending and maneuvering that have followed were supposed to put the Browns in win-now mode.
After Berry was asked if he made the Watson trade or was directed to do so by ownership, he was so quiet in his answer that it was hard to hear him.
“All of us were on board,” Berry said.
Not that there’s any answer about Watson right now that would inspire much external confidence, but his hushed non-answer said it all about the state of things. In two and a half years, they went from on board to the brink of being overboard.
How do the Browns get out of this with a real path toward contention? That’s the only answer that matters. Berry having a real plan and answer on that for ownership over the next couple of months could determine whether Wednesday’s news conference was his last as the team’s general manager. Berry and coach Kevin Stefanski both signed long-term extensions in the spring, but an organization that’s been spending like the Browns would have no issues paying significant buyouts. They spent because they thought they were building something.
To paraphrase Berry, the move to go all-in on Watson becoming a complete disaster was always possible. And here it is.
The Browns gave up picks, pushed money forward, tried to outspend their problems and, more than anything from the perspective of the GM, forced themselves in a position to continue to double down on their commitment to Watson. Instead, they’ve been shedding veteran talent by trading away Amari Cooper and Za’Darius Smith, adding third-day draft picks, taking on even more dead money on the cap — not the kind the Berry administration had viewed as a roster-building asset — and putting out a product that exposes holes in multiple levels of an aging roster.
The Browns will spend when necessary. So it’s impossible to label the team’s cap situation going forward, but the number of key offensive positions that lack clarity and proven top-of-the-depth chart players under contract is alarming.
Berry was asked if the Browns are facing a teardown situation with the roster in early 2025, and he said, “That’s a better postseason discussion.” Because that’s not the postseason anyone intended to have as the focus this year, there’s no certainty about much of anything outside the team’s best player, Myles Garrett.
Berry said the Browns did not take any trade calls on Garrett ahead of the trade deadline, insinuating that the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year was not available.
What’s next outside eight games and the opportunity to evaluate a lot of the Browns’ younger players? No one’s job should be safe given the results, but a lot can happen over the final two months that could provide more clarity on how the team will eventually move forward.
“At 2-7, we haven’t played well,” Berry said. “And in the NFL with the margins being so thin, it’s not always just about talent. It’s also about team-building and how we marry everything on Sundays. But again, those are all things that we’re looking into during the bye week and, obviously we’ll do more analysis after the season.”
In December and potentially early January, team owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam will have to hear Berry’s thoughts on everything. At that point, the GM won’t be able to avoid questions or point to the future. Either he’ll sell himself as the right person and part of the group that can fix the roster and change the direction, or the postseason analysis will show that the Browns had too many misses. When Berry was asked about his job status, he of course deflected and launched into a defense of Stefanski based on the coach’s work over their first four seasons together.
Before Watson came along and held everything hostage with his bloated contract and mediocre completion percentage, the Berry and Stefanski Browns used to say their decisions were driven by the desire to be “smart, tough and accountable” as an organization as a whole. The Browns have fallen away from that not only with the Watson trade, but with other decisions and their continued struggle with clear public messaging. These current Browns are a lot of things, but accountable isn’t one of them.
(Photo: Jeff Lange / USA Today via Imagn Images)
