Cleveland Browns Future At Quarterback Doesn't Come Without Risk

As the Browns look to navigate Deshaun Watson's albatross of a contract, they'll have to take on similar risk in attempting to move on from him as they did to acquire him

Browns general manager Andrew Berry, left, and head coach Kevin Stefanski watch practice during minicamp, Thursday, June 13, 2024, in Berea. / Jeff Lange / USA TODAY NETWORK

The Cleveland Browns will take the field three more times before their 2024 season mercilessly comes to an end. After that, the real work begins.

Vice president of football operations Andrew Berry has a full on crisis to sort out this offseason. The roster he assembled to be a "Super Bowl contender" this year, turned out to have some serious flaws. Chief among them, no surprise, is the quarterback situation.

There is simply no way to skirt around the fact that the Deshaun Watson experiment has failed. The offense looked lost with him under center for the first seven weeks of the season. It looked competent under veteran Jameis Winston's command. Throw in another season-ending injury for Watson and there's no way to know if he'll ever be the same player again, physically or mentally.

Where things get complicated though, are with the finances of Watson's contract. The nature of the deal, which now includes a bunch of fully-guaranteed deferred money, makes it nearly impossible for the Browns to rip off the band aid and get out of the Deshaun Watson business. Cleveland would take on over $170 million in dead money if they move on from the embattled QB this offseason. That can be spread out over the next couple seasons, but that's an unheard of number for a team to eat. And blows the record $85 million dead money charge that the Broncos took on by releasing Russell Wilson, out of the water.

What that means for 2025 is that the Browns are stuck with Watson for 2025. What it looks like – whether they actually let him compete for the starting job or pay him to not be around – remains to be seen. But he will be on the roster next season.

What the quarterback room looks like around him, however, is unclear. What's undeniable though is that how Berry and company go about reshaping the room is going to come with some risk.

After benching Jameis Winston this week in favor of 2023 fifth-round pick, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, it feels very unlikely the team brings the veteran back next season. He – and his continued interceptions – have run their course. When the games start mattering again next September, they just can't count on Winston to be the guy leading that team back into contention.

Just this week, Thompson-Robinson lit up at the suggestion that these final three games are an audition for him to seize the job. Perhaps he really shows promise, starting with Sunday's matchup with the Bengals, and can make a case. What's more likely though, is that these next three games confirm what the Browns brass already knows about DTR and what his ceiling is in this league.

So where does Cleveland go from there to find a quarterback? The NFL Draft is always in play, especially when the Browns inch closer and closer to a top five pick with every loss. The problem there is that this class of quarterbacks is drawing comparisons to the 2022 class that was highlighted by Kenny Pickett and Malik Willis.

Pretty uneventful day in Berea ended with a bang as Myles Garrett sent a message to the #Browns, expecting a detailed plan for what the future looks like and emphasizing he doesn't want to be part of a rebuild. https://t.co/Ac1RzJegZr

— 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝙶𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 (@Spencito_) December 20, 2024

If the Browns end up in position to draft Colorado's Shaduer Sanders or Miami's Cam Ward, they probably do it. Nothing sells hope for the future quite like a potential franchise QB. But in reality, they may not end up high enough to have a shot at either of those guys, and they have other major holes to fill.

Make no mistake about it, Cleveland is going to draft a quarterback in this upcoming draft, It's just a matter of where and when. No matter who they take though, risk is involved. There's no guarantee a rookie QB starts next year, or that they'll be elite enough to impact winning immediately. That's a longer term plan more than anything.

That leads us to free agency or a trade, where the options are pretty grim overall. Some intriguing names exist though, like Kirk Cousins. A divorce between the 36-year-old and his new team the Atlanta Falcons seems inevitable after he was benched this week. That could set the stage for a Wilson-esque situation where he can choose his own team in free agency and play next season on the veteran-minimum.

No, Cousins at 37 isn't some magic pill that fixes the Browns problems. He was playing good football earlier in the season, but has fallen off a cliff of late – hence his benching. His history with Kevin Stefanski in Minnesota is notable though. Perhaps he could stabilize things enough to make Cleveland a playoff contender again.

Minnesota's current QB, Sam Darnold has been thrown out there as well, having produced a renaissance season to revive his career. Stefanski's system may help Darnold thrive the same way Kevin O'Connell's has. Then again, what if this season is just lightening in a bottle for the former Jet?

Someone like Rams QB Matthew Stafford could be in play too, but Los Angeles would probably have to eat some of his base salary money to make it work, because the Browns likely aren't taking on too many massive cap figures this offseason. Especially not for a quarterback approaching 40.

Aaron Rodgers is likely too be out there too, granted a year older, and with more PR headaches for the Browns to deal with. That would feel more like a move driven more by name recognition than anything. (I don't think this is happening for what it's worth)

Again, the options aren't great. And aside from landing the "next great hope" of a rookie QB, there's no easy fix here for the Browns. No perfect answer. Every option presents it's own set of risks. Cleveland got into this situation by taking a risk on Watson, and on the heels of Myles Garrett sending the team a message about his future, it's going to take some risk to try and come out on the other side of it, while remaining a competitive football team.