If I’m completely wrong about this, I’ll own it but if anyone still had a glimmer of hope that Deshaun Watson would make another appearance as quarterback of the Cleveland Browns, those chances ended on Monday morning.

When Andrew Berry stepped to the podium for his end of season press conference, no one expected to hear the news that Berry dropped in his opening statement.

“The last thing I’ll do before I open up with questions, I did want to give an update on Deshaun (Watson). Yesterday, as we went through our normal player medical process, we did learn that he did have a setback in his Achilles recovery. We don’t have all the details and everything yet, but it’ll obviously extend the recovery process for him. It is new information just learned in the past couple hours, so I don’t have everything yet. But did want to make you all aware of it before opening it up for questions. With that, I’ll leave it to you all.”

The Browns general manager proceeded to say that they were still gathering information on the setback and that Watson told the team doctors that something didn’t feel right. Berry also didn’t rule out that another surgery but that nothing was definitive in terms of how long it would set the recovery process back.

This news may or may not have shifted the team’s plans towards the quarterback position for both 2025 and beyond but it’s pretty apparent that any chance the team had in factoring Watson into their plans for next season are over.

Some may wonder why I’m saying this already on January 6th when a regular season football game is eight months away but let’s put things into context here.

Watson suffered the Achilles injury on October 20, 2024. Recovery time after surgery is typically up to six months for walking normally so you were looking at around late April in Watson’s case and then around nine months for “higher-impact activities” like football so that would be roughly late July, about the time training camp would be sent to begin.

Now with the setback, which we don’t know the severity of it at this time, it’s at least safe to say that Deshaun Watson will start the season on the PUP (Physically Unable to Perform) list. If he’s not activated after Week 6, he’ll be out for the entire 2025 season.

Luckily the Browns have insured the majority of Watson’s 2025 salary of $46 million which was reported by OverTheCap during Berry’s press conference.

Regardless of long how the setback sidelines him further, the Browns have to approach this offseason as if Watson never sees the field again and they need to be in the quarterback market, adding multiple options to the room via the draft, free agency, and/or trades.

Yes, the trade will likely go down as the worst in NFL history with giving up three first-round picks, some additional picks and a record $230 million, fully guaranteed contract. Watson flopped appearing in only 19 of a possible 51 games due to two season ending injuries and the 11 game suspension for his alleged off the field transgressions.

Yes, the team tried to get the best out of him, so much so that they completely went away from their offensive identity and tried to create an offensive scheme to best suit the quarterback and it didn’t work for anyone and they’ve since fired former offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey.

Yes, the Browns still have to pay him the remaining $92 million left on his contract and will have salary cap charges on the books once he officially leaves after the 2026 season but it’s time to officially start looking towards the future and moving on from what has been a dark cloud hanging over the franchise since that fateful day in March of 2022.

Jimmy Haslam, Andrew Berry, and Kevin Stefanski may or may not have all had their hands in the transaction that could’ve crippled the franchise but the time is now to wash their hands of it and begin their next journey to find the hopeful next franchise quarterback of the Cleveland Browns.