BEREA, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Congratulations to the Browns for the Friday of a holiday week news dump of news dumps.
Here’s a few Brownie Bites from Friday.
Another restructure – The Browns restructured Deshaun Watson’s contract once again to add more dummy void years to the back end to ease future salary cap burdens when it finally expires after the 2026 season. The restructure signals what everybody already knew, the team plans to keep Watson in 2025 and 2026. The trade for Watson and the contract continue to be a disaster for the franchise. Watson sat out the entire 2021 season while with Houston, was suspended for 11 games in 2022, his first year in Cleveland, due to sexual misconduct allegations, missed the final 11 games in 2023 to have a broken glenoid bone in his throwing shoulder surgically repaired and a ruptured Achilles ended his season in Week 7 this year. Watson, who was one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL and has failed to throw for at least 300 yards in any of his 19 starts, is owed $92 million over the next two years. The Browns will likely restructure two more times over the next two years to convert all but the league minimum of his salary into signing bonus to open cap space for 2025 and 2026. The team would then release Watson with a post-June 1 designation on the first day of the 2027 new league year to spread the remaining cap charges resulting from all of these restructures over the 2027 and 2028 cap years.
Tough talk – Myles Garrett’s comments last week about wanting to see the organization’s plan to field a winner while opening the door for his departure should he not like what he hears led to “a few” conversations with the powers that run the team, but nothing is resolved. “We still have room for discussion at the end of the year as well,” Garrett said. It appears the team prefers his frustrations be kept quiet. “I wouldn't say initiate an early version of discussion,” Garrett said. “[They] just wanted to see where my head was at and what I was thinking and just trying to keep things in house.” Garrett, the NFL’s reigning defensive player of the year has become frustrated with the team’s losing this season and revolving door of unsuccessful quarterbacks. Garrett also indicated he isn’t alone in his frustrations, which are shared throughout the locker room. “I think they want to know what's coming next as well,” Garrett said. “So I haven't really heard too many people, they'll speak up on whether they liked my comments or not. Everyone was kind of feeling the same way, but I'm not going to assume and I don't have my answer at the end of the year.”
Chasing history – Garrett is two sacks away from becoming the first ever – or at least since 1982 when the league began tracking sacks – to bag a quarterback 14 times in four consecutive seasons. “I think that'd be pretty damn cool to stand alone in that regard,” Garrett said. He is already the first to reach 100 career sacks before his 29th birthday, which he celebrates Sunday. “Y'all keep on telling me I'm not young anymore,” Garrett said. “What do they say? Like your golden birthday. But at the end of the day, it's just another day. I feel it is more of a day to celebrate the people who helped me see this 29th birthday. So I'm glad to have my family around, my friends around and being able to show them how much I appreciate and care for them. That's much more special than celebrating myself.”
Njoku out – Tight end David Njoku was ruled out after missing practice all week due to a knee injury suffered Sunday against the Bengals. Njoku underwent an MRI on Monday.
QB2 – Jameis Winston will back up Dorian Thompson-Robinson Sunday, if his right shoulder is healthy enough Stefanski said Friday. Winston was inactive and the No. 3 emergency quarterback last week at Cincinnati.
Sticking with Hopkins – Dustin Hopkins will kick Sunday despite missing his only try – a PAT last week and the addition of UFL kicker Andre Szmyt to the practice squad on Tuesday. “I think regardless if we have a practice squad kicker on the roster or not really, just he's our kicker,” Stefanski said. “Like I've told you guys, he's going to continue to work through this. He does any player works through technique things. He's working very hard and he kicked it really well today. I expect him to kick it really well on Sunday.”
Injury report – OUT: TE David Njoku (knee), DE Ogbo Okoronkwo (knee), WR Cedric Tillman (concussion); QUESTIONABLE: QB Jameis Winston (shoulder)
