The Cleveland Browns made one of the worst trades in modern NFL and professional sports history. Back in March of 2022, the Browns swung a trade with the Houston Texans to land Deshaun Watson to be their new starting quarterback.
Watson hadn’t played in 2021, but the Browns still spent a fortune to get him. In the years since the controversial trade, Watson and the Browns have struggled mightily. Since the trade, they’ve gone 9-10 with Watson in the lineup, including going 1-6 in 2024.
Now in 2025, during an interview with Dianna Russini of The Athletic, owner Jimmy Haslam was asked about Kevin Stefanski’s job as head coach. In the process of defending Stefanski, Haslam described how the Browns are still “suffering” from the Watson trade.
How the Browns are still ‘suffering’ from the Deshaun Watson trade
“Kevin’s done a really good job with us, and we’ve had some tough breaks,” Haslam said, “… A big trade we made didn’t work out, and you know, we’re all suffering from that. Kevin, I thought, really did a great job of rallying the troops last week at a really critical time. You find out about leaders when things are bad, now when they’re good, and he did a good job last week.”
Cleveland is still hurting in a major way from the Watson trade. While missing on a franchise quarterback is already a huge loss, the Browns’ case is even worse for three reasons.
Those are the facts that the Browns moved on from Baker Mayfield to land Watson, and while Watson has struggled, Mayfield has thrived in Tampa Bay.
The second reason why Cleveland has suffered in the years since this trade was that the Browns sent a ridiculous package to land Watson. Lastly, once Watson was acquired, they spent a ton of guaranteed money on Watson, restricting their cap space for years to come.
Haslam and the Browns shipped off a 2022 first-round pick and a fourth-round pick, a 2023 first-round pick and a third-round pick, along with a first-round pick and a fourth-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft for Watson and a 2024 sixth-round pick.
The first three round picks are a massive haul for any player, and when adding on two extra fourth round picks and a third, it’s an even more incredible deal for the Texans.
While the Texans didn’t select all of these players, the picks the Browns sent for Watson turned into Jordan Davis, Dameon Pierce, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jalin Hyatt, Cade Stover, and Brian Thomas Jr. That’s a strong supporting cast of players, with Davis, Gibbs, and Thomas as clear stars who could’ve been a big help for the Browns if they didn’t make that trade.
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However, while the draft capital might’ve been too much, the contract the Browns handed out is arguably worse. Right after trading for him, the browns signed Watson to a five-year, fully guaranteed $230 million contract.
Watson is still signed through the 2026 NFL season, but he will have cap hits of $80.7 million in 2026, $27 million in 2027, $18.1 million in 2028, and finally, in 2029, $7.9 million.
There’s no way for the Browns to get out of this contract either, making his massive contract a huge factor in free agent negotiations until his deal runs out. Cleveland is attached to this massive deal for a while longer.
The lost draft capital hurts a ton, but so too has the massive allotment of money spent on Watson. Haslam aptly described the Browns as “suffering” from this mistake, which has set the team back years in the process.
Even now, with a lot of young talent from the 2025 NFL Draft class and two first-rounders in 2026, the Browns are still dealing with the fallout of the draft picks, money, and years of Myles Garrett in his prime being lost to the Watson trade.
Haslam’s admission that the Browns are suffering from the Watson trade comes amid a defense of Stefanski. Not only is Haslam fully admitting the massive mistake of the Watson trade, but he’s also sticking with Stefanski as the head coach, using the Watson trade’s impact as a reason why the Browns haven’t been able to succeed in recent years.
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