Many NFL reporters and Cleveland Browns fans believe the team will use what could become the first overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft to select an eventual replacement for quarterback Deshaun Watson.
However, ESPN’s Matt Miller revealed in his latest mock draft on Thursday it’s believed around the league that Cleveland could pass on spending a top-tier choice on a signal-caller.
“NFL decision-makers who I’ve talked to expect Cleveland to bring in a veteran to compete [with Watson] while using the draft to upgrade the roster at other spots,” Miller wrote while mocking that the Browns will take Colorado Buffaloes cornerback and wide receiver Travis Hunter with the second overall pick. “If that is the strategy, drafting the most electric player in the nation is a good start.”
It’s believable the Browns would prefer to move on from Watson sooner rather than later. He’s made just 19 regular-season starts since he signed a fully guaranteed five-year, $230M contract in March 2022 for multiple reasons and was one of the league’s worst QB1s of the ongoing campaign before he suffered a ruptured Achilles last month.
According to Pro Football Reference, Watson began Thursday ranked last in the NFL among qualified players with a 22.4 total QBR, 33rd with a 79.0 passer rating and last with a 33.3% passing success rate for the season.
That said, there’s no sign the Browns will be able to escape the money left on Watson’s deal, an agreement that could prevent the club from winning much of note before 2026 at the earliest. Cleveland could blow things up by making reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett available to other teams during the upcoming offseason as part of a badly needed roster rebuild.
Unless Watson is some sort of locker-room cancer or does something that would allow the Browns to void the remainder of his deal, Cleveland has nothing to gain in releasing him in March 2025.
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam could show head coach Kevin Stefanski and general manager Andrew Berry the door if the franchise is seen as a laughingstock by the end of Week 18. A new regime may feel getting rid of Watson completely is an addition-by-subtraction move regardless of the salary-cap hits associated with such a decision.
Haslam’s decision to pursue such a route could make the Browns more open to spending a first-round draft pick on a quarterback next spring than they are ahead of Thanksgiving.