Browns at worst after Deshaun Watson injury | Insider reporting

Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab discuss the untenable situation the Browns find themselves in following Deshaun Watson's injury. Listen to the full conversation on Inside Coverage — and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.

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Video transcript

Deshaun Watson wasn't exactly the type of person you could put on a billboard.

Deshaun Watson wasn't the type of quarterback you could build around to win Super Bowls.

Deshaun Watson wasn't the type of player you could rely on to win your football games.

This is the person who was injured today.

And if you're the Browns, you have to figure out what to do.

I don't think there is a simple answer.

I don't exist there.

You can't cut them.

The dead cap hit is in the nine-figure range.

The salary cap will be reached next year.

If you post June 1st it is $118 million 935,000.

If you go to 2026.

Before June 1, it was $99.8 million.

Post June 1st.

It's $73 million.

They have two more seasons of Deshaun planned, no matter what happens, it's really, really hard for them knowing that he's obviously trading for Deshaun Watson and now he's a quarterback that, OK, you got hurt Mid to late October.

Typically it is an injury that will last about a year.

I mean, are you even ready for the first week of next year?

And what are you doing?

You can't go into the season with a quarterback who makes that much money.

Is your, basically your backup.

There's our backup.

How do you even cope with that?

You get a starter and you can't pay for one, and Deshaun Watson, I think that's crazy.

How bad that got.

It is an untenable situation.

This is the worst contract in the NFL and probably the worst contract in NFL history and it will drag the Browns down for a few more years.

It's just terrible for her.

The only real solution is to draft a quarterback, but if he wants to, he's not here to do it either.

The best case scenario for the Browns is that Jameis Winston comes out and looks a lot like Sam Arnold, he looks, you know, great and he has great control of this offense and all of a sudden he can come in and win a bunch of games and convince Jameis that , hey, let's just move on and Jam uh given the nice things he had to say about supporting Deshaun uh and how he wants to support Deshawn Jamis decides he wants to play another year.

They're buying themselves some time since this is their only home run scenario.

The people I care about so much are Browns fans because they deserve so much better.

They've had so many bad football seasons, really, really bad football seasons where they were obviously at the bottom.

They just think we're reducing everything.

We're going to win three games in three years, but we're going to have all these picks and all this C room and we're going to build to that point where we're a championship contender and then they threw everything with the Deshaun Watson trade one of the worst decisions in sports history.

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