The Cleveland Browns aren’t backing out of one of the worst trades of the last decade.
Despite missing the 2025 NFL season due to injury, the Browns are not planning to move on from quarterback Deshaun Watson in 2026, per multiple reports. The former first-round pick hasn’t suited up for the Browns since Week 7 of the 2024 season, in a 21-14 loss to divisional foe Cincinnati.
Cleveland opened Watson’s 21-day practice window this week, more than a full year after the quarterback first ruptured his right Achilles tendon against the Bengals.
‘His focus, my focus is obviously getting him back to playing football, practicing football, which he hasn’t done in over a year. Good next step for him,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said during his press conference Wednesday.
The Browns may have opened Watson’s window to get a better idea of where he is in his recovery from multiple ruptures to that Achilles tendon, a person familiar with Watson’s situation told USA TODAY Sports.
Stefanski didn’t say that this move came with the idea that Watson would play in 2025.
“His focus is putting a helmet on again for the first time, shoulder pads, throwing a football,’ Stefanski said. ‘That’s where the focus is.”
That decision makes the move to keep Watson on the roster clearer. Cleveland’s relied on rookies Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders at quarterback this season after trading away veteran Joe Flacco.
Stefanski praised Watson’s impact on the rookies.
“He’s been so supportive in the meeting room, on the game field with the players,” said Stefanski. “I know he’s excited to get back out there practicing with his teammates.”
Gabriel and Sanders will both likely be on the team next year and could compete with at least Watson for the starting job should the team not draft another quarterback, per reports. The team restructured Watson’s contract last December in a move to spread out the cap hits on his current deal. Keeping him on the roster even if he doesn’t start would be more prudent as cutting him before June 1, 2026 would incur a $130 million dead cap hit.
Watson has appeared in 19 games for the Browns and has gone 9-10 as a starter. His career has been marked by more than two dozen lawsuits and an 11-game suspension from the NFL due to behavior at Houston-area massage parlors while playing for the Texans.
