As Deshaun Watson prepares for an open competition at QB for the Cleveland Browns, team owner Jimmy Haslam is excited to see "what he can do."
At the 2025 NFL annual meetings, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam made headlines when he called the infamous 2022 Deshaun Watson trade a "swing and a miss."
One year later, the Browns' top executive is singing a different tune regarding the embattled signal caller, who is expected to compete for the starting job with fellow incumbent QBs Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel.
"Now Deshaun has a great chance, fresh start, an offensive-minded coach who has in the past been able to work with all kinds of different quarterbacks and make them successful," Haslam said. "Deshaun has a great chance to do that now. We talked to him the other day. He said he weighed the least he had in several years, was in great shape. He'll be here on April 7th when we start. And let's see what Deshaun can do. We're all excited."
The comments echo those of General Manager Andrew Berry and new head coach Todd Monken, who have both framed the Browns' QB situation as an open competition.
Circumstances are much different for Watson this time around. Last season he was coming off of a twice-ruptured Achilles, and it was unclear whether or not he'd play at all in 2025. As it turned out, he didn't, despite returning to practice late in the season, Cleveland never activated him off the physically unable to perform list.
Now Watson is fully healthy heading into the 2026 season, and entering the final year of his contract with the Browns looking to revive his career. Haslam is taking a cautiously optimistic approach to Watson's comeback story.
"You know, there's a lot of quarterbacks who, it seems to be kind of the theme in the NFL, who ... did not start well – take the super bowl champ, right? And what a great story that is for Sam Darnold," Haslam explained. "Deshaun started great and, you know, the year before we signed him, I think he was rated the second best quarterback in NFL. And then the suspension and the injuries and all have piled up. Can he come back from that? He certainly had the ability at one point in time. And we're cautiously optimistic, but we'll see."
At the NFL Combine last month, Monken expressed a desire to give Watson, who was once one of the top QBs in football, a clean slate to prove if that ability is still in there somewhere.
As Haslam noted, though, that signal caller was nearly six years, two Achilles tears, shoulder surgery and a year-plus absence from football, ago. The Browns are allocating $44 million in cap space this season for Watson, to find out if Monken can salvage anything from their controversial trade.
If there is some Darnold-esque story looming for Watson, Haslam isn't ready to think about it.
"I think it's really premature to ask those kind of questions," Haslam said regarding Watson potentially playing his way into an extension. "Let's get him back, see how he plays, and then we'll address that."
Browns Roundtable also offers a fan community and message board. We’d love to have you join us to talk all things Browns. Click the “Join” button at the top of the page to join our community for free.