Insiders address if Browns could realistically trade Deshaun Watson

Before the Cleveland Browns seemingly gave up on the season by trading disgruntled wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Buffalo Bills, The Athletic's Mike Sando proposed that the Browns might offer several draft picks to persuade another team to take on struggling quarterback Deshaun Watson and the remainder of his fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract signed in March 2022.

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano addressed Sando's idea for a piece published Wednesday. 

"I've seen the notion floated that Cleveland could send a bevy of draft picks to a team in exchange for absorbing [Watson's] contract outright," Fowler said. "But that prospective team would need, like, two whole drafts to do that." 

Meanwhile, Graziano mentioned that the Browns would "have to fork over a boatload of draft picks" to convince a team to take on the salary-cap hits attached to the remainder of Watson's deal. 

"...It's hard to imagine any scenario in which [Watson] isn't on [the Cleveland] roster through at least 2025 and probably 2026," Graziano added. 

Earlier in the week, one unnamed executive from a different team shared that he felt no club would pick Watson up if Cleveland released him this fall. The numerous allegations of sexual misconduct during massage sessions that resulted in Watson serving an 11-game suspension in 2022 hover over him to this day, and he played like arguably the league's worst starting quarterback over the first six weeks of this season. 

According to Pro Football Reference, Watson began Wednesday ranked last in the NFL among qualified players with a 21.7 adjusted QBR and a 31.3% passing success rate. Those numbers may tell only part of the story, as outsiders have accused the 29-year-old of lacking motivation and having "no interest in playing football well right now" because his contract guarantees his salary no matter how he performs. 

Fowler pointed out that Cleveland "moving on from Cooper could take the pressure off Watson, encouraging him to simply hit the open man in more of an equal opportunity offense." Watson will have a chance to prove such theories right when he starts for the 1-5 Browns in this Sunday's home game against the 2-4 Cincinnati Bengals. 

As of Wednesday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Browns as 6.5-point underdogs for that matchup.