At 3-1 with three straight wins, all featuring late-game heroics from quarterback Deshaun Watson, it’s impossible not to start thinking ahead for the Cleveland Browns. Sure, it is a week-to-week league, as Todd Monken and just about every NFL coach likes to say. But the Browns won’t play for more than a week now, so it is also fair to speculate and project what might be coming down the line.
The Browns could, conceivably, be a playoff team this 2026 season. They could even win the AFC North, even with Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow still in their primes and Aaron Rodgers doing just enough with the Steelers. And, hey, the Patriots made the Super Bowl last season so, who knows?
Browns Might Reconsider Relationship With Deshaun Watson
Those daydreams are fine, of course, even if major longshots. But there will be a very real future question that emerges out of this 2026 season for the Browns if they continue to play with way, if 2026 Deshaun Watson begins to look like 2020 Deshaun Watson more and more each week.
The question: Now what?
The Browns have been so focused on unloading Watson and the albatross of his $230 million guaranteed contract over the past two years that it seemed well impossible that Watson could play well enough to consider bringing him back after this season.
That would have been unthinkable in Cleveland back in August after Watson’s disastrous preseason press conference when he was booed at home, and it would have been unthinkable even a week or two ago. But now?
Browns Could Draft a Rookie, Keep a Veteran QB
Well, don’t bet on it. That’s the view from ESPN Cleveland Browns reporter Tony Grossi, who was asked about the Browns bringing back Watson in 2027. Grossi concedes that if the Browns pick a quarterback in next year’s draft, they will need a veteran on hand as a mentor/initial starter. Could that be Watson?
“There’s an automatic thing in there, it’s not that his contract is ending, they have to release him. I have said all along that they need another veteran quarterback if they draft a rookie, OK?” he said.
But Watson? Grossi was definitive: “I just don’t think they would be willing to do that.”
Deshaun Watson: ‘I Just Want It to Be Special’
Watson, for his part, has done what he can to win over Browns fans, who are no doubt still skeptical on him.
Watson said this week: “I want it to be just special. Something that they’ve never seen a player do before. Just everything that I battled, everything that I went through, that I rose through it. I continue to have grace. I continue to forgive. I continue to show that I have that grit and determination to be the best that I could possibly be for this city, regardless of what went on the last couple of years and what people said about me, that I still appreciate the opportunity that I have to play in front of this fanbase, play for this organization, and do the best I can to bring wins and something positive for it.”
Browns’ Long-Term Future With Deshaun Watson Gets Firm Answer