Deshaun Watson has a “great chance” to be the team’s starting quarterback under new coach Todd Monken, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said this week at the NFL’s league meetings.
“Deshaun has a great chance, fresh start, offensive-minded coach, who has in his past been able to work with all kinds of different quarterbacks and make them successful,” ESPN reports Haslam said. “So, Deshaun has a great chance to do that now.
“We talked to him the other day, he said he weighs the [least] he has in several years. He’s in great shape, he’ll be [in Cleveland] on April 7 when we start [the offseason workout program]. Let’s see what Deshaun can do. We’re all excited.”
That statement from Jimmy Haslam comes just a year after he called the Browns’ trade for Deshaun Watson a “big swing and a miss.”
Since trading for Watson and then giving him a fully guaranteed 5-year, $230 million contract (which mercifully ends after this season), he has started a total of 19 games for the Browns. In those games, Watson threw for 3,365 yards with 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
The history of the quarterback position with the Cleveland Browns is abysmal
Last October, we reported that the Cleveland Browns would be paying almost $42 million to eight different quarterbacks during the 2025 season. Only two of them were actually on the team’s active roster. And just $2.37 million of that money went to those active players: Dillon Gabriel, $1.1 million, and Shedeur Sanders, $955,000.
The rest of the money went to Joe Flacco ($999,000), Jameis Winston ($2.2 million), Bailey Zappe ($315,000), Dorian Thompson-Robinson ($171,000), Kenny Pickett ($8,000), and Watson ($35.9 million).
Gabriel and Sanders became the latest quarterbacks to start for the Browns last year. That made them the 41st and 42nd different players to start a game at that position since the Cleveland Browns rejoined the NFL in 1999 after being moved to Baltimore to become the Ravens in 1995.
That list now includes Gabriel, Sanders, Tim Couch, Ty Detmer, Doug Pederson, Spergon Wynn, Kelly Holcomb, Jeff Garcia, Luke McCown, Trent Dilfer, Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, Ken Dorsey, Bruce Gradkowski, Colt McCoy, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace, Brandon Weeden, Thad Lewis, Jason Campbell, Brian Hoyer, Johnny Manziel, Connor Shaw, Josh McCown, Austin Davis, Cody Kessler, Robert Griffin III, DeShone Kizer, Kevin Hogan, Tyrod Taylor, Baker Mayfield, Case Keenum, Nick Mullens, Jacoby Brissett, P.J. Walker, Jeff Driskel, Watson, Flacco, Thompson-Robinson, Winston, and Zappe.