The Browns restructured Watson's contract before the season, creating $44.79 million in cap space that the team is expected to carry over to become cap compliant in the 2025 offseason. Cleveland is projected to be $52 million over the cap for the 2025 season. Restructuring Watson's contract, though, created $172 million and $99 million dead cap hits in 2025 and 2026 if Cleveland were to part ways with him with a pre-June 1 cut.
The Browns bought an insurance policy for Watson's contract and received cap relief for 2024 after he missed 11 games due to injury in 2023. If his injury forces him to miss games in 2025, Cleveland could get additional relief.
According to a copy of Watson's contract obtained by ESPN, the Browns have up to $13.9 million of Watson's 2024 salary insured and up to $44.2 million of his 2025 salary insured.
