Asked & Answered, Week 5: Is the Deshaun Watson deal the worst contract in NFL history?

Every week in the NFL season brings a host of new questions … and answers some old ones, too. Let’s run down what we learned in Week 5 … and what we’ll be wondering about in Week 6 and beyond.

ASKED: Is the Deshaun Watson deal the worst contract ever?

Week 5’s Sunday slate was a cascade of unpredictability, a game where losers became winners, defenses scored touchdowns, fields got flipped and expectations subverted. Everywhere, that is, except for Cleveland … where everything is crushingly, depressingly on brand. The Browns were humbled by Washington, 34-13, and the utter inability of Deshaun Watson to do anything against one of the league’s worst defenses was a key reason why.

Watson is playing on a five-year, $230 million, fully guaranteed contract, a deal that’s looking more and more like one of the worst in sports history. (For the Browns, that is. Congrats to Watson and his agent for pulling off one of the greatest deals in sports history.) Here’s why the contract everyone knew would be a catastrophe is, in fact, a catastrophe.

Generally, contracts we think of as “terrible” — Washington’s seven-year, $100 million deal for Albert Haynesworth, the New York Knicks’ six-year, $100 million deal for Allan Houston, pretty much any contract the Los Angeles Angels offer anyone — are “terrible” because of one key factor or another. To wit: the player gets injured and can’t get on the field, the player gets on the field but underperforms, or the player brings off-field trouble into the mix.

The Watson contract hits the ultra-rare trifecta — Watson hasn’t been fully healthy; when he is healthy, he isn’t any good; and off-field allegations continue to swirl around him. That’s a franchise-wrecking combination, and Cleveland is stuck with him for the foreseeable future. Oh, and Baker Mayfield, the guy they kicked to the curb for Watson, is tearing it up in Tampa, too.

So if the Watson deal isn’t the worst contract ever, it’ll do…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-07 14:29:15

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