Is it time for the Cleveland Browns to finally bid adieu to Deshaun Watson? Forget his off-field struggles with multiple lawsuits. The Browns quarterback isn’t doing enough to live up to the hype of his mammoth $230 million fully guaranteed contract. If anything, it’s costing Cleveland Browns time and resources. But most importantly, their season is in jeopardy.

The Cleveland football team is arguably in the worst position in the NFL right now. A 1-4 record might not be something to boast about. All this bruhaha about Watson’s on and off-field issues have implored Nick Wright to come up with an idea that the Browns might want to explore. It involves scratching Watson’s name off the roster. But is it viable?

Is Cleveland desperate to get rid of Deshaun Watson?

The Cleveland Browns rank dead last in the offense, even worse than the New England Patriots. Part of that reason might be Deshaun Watson, who has been sacked 26 times in the last 5 games. There hasn’t been a game where the Cleveland QB has more than 200 yards and has a current passer rating of 74.8, which is even worse the Daniel Jones.

A quick look at his contract suggest that the Cleveland quarterback made $1.2 million in base salary this year. There’s also a signing bonus of $8.7 million and a restructure bonus of $17.9 million in place. But Watson will make $46 million in base salary next year. Right now, he’s not playing like a quarterback that’s supposed to earn nearly fifty million dollars for a season.

So, there might come a time when the Browns decide to trade him or release him from the roster, solely based on his performance. But there are huge dead cap implications if the Browns decide to relieve Watson of his services. Check out what Nick Wright had say to say about Cleveland Browns‘ conundrum.

“It is on the board that after this year, Cleveland, their escape hatch is finding a team with a lot of cap space and trading Deshaun along with their own first round pick to a team just so that team can then cut it,” the host said in an episode of What’s Wright? With Nick Wright.

Cutting Deshaun Watson this year is not a possibility. It comes with $200.7 million in dead cap if they do it. However, next year might be a relief since Watson will count for $172.7 million in cap space, per Spotrac. That’s a $28 million crisis averted right there. The football analyst thinks that the only thing the Browns can do in this case is to find a team that wants a quarterback and hand Watson to them.

“So, what I’m describing there is the Cleveland Browns call up the Carolina Panthers, say ‘Your team’s terrible and you have a ton of cap space, you’re rebuilding again. If you will take Deshaun Watson off our books, so instead of having, if we were to cut him, a $172 million dead money hit, which is unsustainable, it’s only an $80 million dead money hit for us.’”

Per Spotrac, if the Browns decide to trade or release Deshaun Watson after June 1 next year, the dead cap will split across the current year and the following year (2025-2026). The team will sustain a dead cap of about $82 million that way but their cap saving will go down by negative $92.7 million in 2026. Wright is asking the Browns to trade Deshaun Watson for a handful of peanuts. His solution is for the team to give up Deshaun Watson and the fourth draft pick in exchange for a conditional seventh round pick. Are the Browns crazy or desperate enough to do that?

Certainly, the quarterback’s off field escapades might have something to do with it. Another lawsuit against him surfaced just a few weeks ago and caught traction very quickly. At this point, Watson has settled nearly two dozen civil lawsuits against him.

Cleveland QB avoids another lawsuit

The allegations against Watson are hurting Cleveland Browns’ reputation for sure. They are also hurting Deshaun Watson’s game as well. As of late, Watson has settled his most recent lawsuit against a Houston based Jane Doe, who accused him of gruesome and inappropriate behavior and demanded about a million dollar in settlement. Brown has denied all the allegations against him and has maintained a firm stance.

Tony Buzbee, an attorney representing many clients accusing Watson of misconduct, came out and said, “We have now resolved our client’s claim with Deshaun Watson. The settlement is confidential.” Since Watson wasn’t charged with a crime and the lawsuit is dropped, the NFL cannot investigate him on the grounds of Personal Conduct Policy anymore. Also, the woman accusing Watson has denied sharing video evidence with the NFL.

Since Watson has settled 23 of 24 lawsuits against him and is not on the commissioner’s exempt list, he’ll continue playing. Coach Stefanski denied having any knowledge of allegations against Watson before they surfaced. The crazy part is, Browns have traded a total of 6 draft picks, including 3 first round picks to acquire Watson and he’s started only 17 games since then. Now, they might be desperate to trade him for 60 cents to a dollar. Maybe even less.