The Browns officially became salary cap compliant for 2026 by converting $44.7 million of QB Deshaun Watson’s salary into a bonus to open up $35.76 million in cap room. The team now sits at about $18 million in cap space, a number that includes their trade for, but not extension of, OT Tytus Howard.

This will mark the fourth and final time that the Browns will need to restructure Watson’s contract which runs out after the 2026 season. This will go down as the worst contract in NFL history and arguably the worst trade in NFL history. At the end of the day the Browns had to prorate 97.44% of the entire contract due to the salary cap impact of the contract. Normally a player like Watson, who has only started 19 games since being traded to the Browns, would have been released long ago, but the guaranteed nature of his contract prevented that.

The Browns have structured his contract such that he will be a post June 1 release in 2027. This was placed into his contract during the winter of 2024. This will allow the Browns to better manage his $86.2 million in dead money (less any insurance credits) that is left behind from all of the restructures done with this contract. The team will carry Watson on their 2027 salary cap at $36 million, minus any insurance credits, until June 2nd. It will then reduce to $34.67 million. His dead money in 2028 will be $51.54 million, again less any insurance credits they may receive.

When people ask me about the use of void years this is the cautionary tale. For a player you are going to extend the void year proration is basically meaningless since you will just roll that into another contract. Here it just becomes a big mess for the team. They didn’t have a choice because of the guaranteed nature of the contract but they still will need to deal with a pretty big hole relative to the other teams in the NFL with nothing to show for it.