For years, the Cleveland Browns stood by Deshaun Watson, despite everything he had going on off the field.
On Tuesday, roughly three years after acquiring the quarterback via trade and rewarding him with a record $230 million fully guaranteed contract, the team had seemingly shifted away from him.
Browns ownership declared the move “a big swing and a miss.”
Team owner Jimmy Haslam said that phrase at Tuesday’s NFL owners meetings.
“We took a big swing and miss with Deshaun,” Haslam said.
“We thought we had the quarterback, we didn’t and we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him. So we’ve got to dig ourselves out of that hole. [It] was an entire organization decision, and it ends with Dee and I, so hold us accountable.”
The Browns desperately and infamously traded three first-round draft picks to acquire Deshaun Watson from the Houston Texans in 2022. This move came amid him facing dozens of civil lawsuits alleging serial sexual misconduct.
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Once the trade was made, they instantly locked him up with a new deal that gave him more guaranteed money than any player in the history of the NFL up to that point.
Since that moment, Watson has been terrible.
Deshaun Watson proceeded to play in just 19 total games from 2022-2024, missing 11 games in his debut season due to suspension.
Deshaun Watson Speaks Out
Watson hears the noise coming from Cleveland.
The Browns quarterback took to Instagram on Tuesday, a day after team owner Jimmy Haslam called his acquisition a “swing and miss.”
Roughly 24 hours after Haslam lambasted the team’s quarterback as a “swing and miss” by the front office, the quarterback took to Instagram and posted multiple pictures of himself working out as he recovers from two Achilles injuries.
“Maybe, if I weren’t built for this, I’d let it phase me,” Watson said Tuesday in an Instagram post.
Deshaun Watson appears to respond after Browns Owner called him a "hit and miss." 👀 pic.twitter.com/dE5N55Pls9
— NFL Be Like (@TheNFLBeLike) April 2, 2025
Cleveland acquired Watson from the Texans in a trade package that included three first-round picks. They also gave him a huge deal with $230 million guaranteed.
In the three years since Watson signed that contract, though, he’s done little to earn that money he’s been guaranteed.
