Four Verts: It’s sad that the Browns are quiet quitting and the Steelers might be botching their QB situation

(Yahoo Sports)

The perfect place to start this week’s Four Verts column is with the Cleveland Browns, who have clearly decided to punt the next few seasons after giving out the worst contract in NFL history.

Browns are quiet-quitting and it’s their own fault

Let’s call what’s happening in Cleveland what it is: embarrassing. A flat-out embarrassment.

The Browns have decided to give up entirely on the 2024 season by continuing to start the worst, most expensive quarterback in football and now have to figure out what their roster looks like for the future while they have a titan-sized albatross in the lineup in Deshaun Watson. At 1-5 and with no hope to get anything accomplished this year, the Browns this week started stripping down their roster for draft picks with their first in-season trade of wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Bills for a third-round draft selection. That’s a move that will make one of the worst offenses in league history even worse, a move the Browns were almost forced to make due to the horrendous return on the Watson trade.

The Browns’ future outlook is bleak.

Deshaun Watson leads a punchless Browns offense, one that lost its leading wideout. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)

Based on his contract, they’ll have to sit through Watson playing for at least one more season before the Browns can start to move off of his $230 million deal. According to Spotrac, the Browns can’t even think about getting rid of Watson unless it’s going to be a trade that happens after June 1 — which would still come with a hefty $81 million dead cap charge spread out over two seasons.

That plan comes with one massive problem: Who in their right mind would trade for Watson? It’s a PR disaster and he’s a bad quarterback now. Unless a team is willing to do a Brock Osweiler-type deal and send a first-round pick or two with Watson, he’s going to be on the roster in 2025.

That puts a cap on what’s possible on the field before even getting to how the actual…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-17 04:15:51

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