Legendary agent explains how Deshaun Watson's $230 million contract has crippled the Browns

What kind of impact, exactly, has Watson had on the Browns? A disastrous one.The team gave up five draft picks, including three first-rounders, and then signed Watson to a five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed contract, the largest amount of guaranteed money given to a player in NFL history.Watson was suspended for 11 games in 2022 after facing several sexual assault allegations from his time with the Houston Texans.

Watson has played only 19 games in four seasons with the Browns and has disappointed on the field.Legendary sports agent Leigh Steinberg explained that while Watson has hurt the Browns on the field with his play, his exorbitant contract has crippled the team's salary-cap flexibility.CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGECleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson watches from the sidelines against the Las Vegas Raiders in the second half at Allegiant Stadium in Paradise, Nevada, on Nov.

23, 2025.(Kirby Lee/Imagn Images)"The fact that they've got that contract on Cleveland's roster, which is all guaranteed, makes it very difficult to do what is advanced caponomics, which is to take a high salary, all of which counts against the cap, and supplement it with a new signing bonus and extend the contract out over a series of years," Steinberg told OutKick in a recent interview."That's the modus operandi to fit talented players into a cap.

But when all the money is guaranteed, there's no way to escape the cap hit."The Watson contract is so onerous that the Browns were forced to push his cap hit into the future beyond the term of his five-year contract by using void years.Early in Watson’s contract, they lessened his cap hit in order to build around him and pushed a ton of money into the future.Now they are feeling the constraints of Watson’s deal.Here are Watson’s cap hits from 2022 through 2030: In 2022, it was $9.4 million, followed by $19 million, nearly $28 million, nearly $36 million and a $40.2 million cap hit this season.LEGENDARY SPORT...