In an ideal world, the Cleveland Browns should sever their ties with Deshaun Watson once and for all. The reality is, it makes little-to-no financial sense to do so from the Browns’ perspective. Watson was booed when he made his way onto the field for the first time since 2024Getty“Cut Deshaun Watson immediately and move on. An exhausting journey for clowns. Drop it and hit the pedal,” wrote NFL writer Marc Sessler on X. His comments came after the quarterback’s meltdown in his press conference on Saturday following the Browns’ 31-7 defeat to the Buffalo Bills where he fired jabs at the fanbase for booing him when he stepped onto the field. It was Browns fans’ first glimpse of Watson at home at Huntingdon Bank Field since tearing his right Achilles tendon back in the 2024 NFL season. After the game, in which he completed just five of his 12 pass attempts for 36 yards and an interception, Watson had some choice words for the fans of the franchise that paid him $230 million in guaranteed money. “I think the whole world knows it has nothing to do about the performance,” Watson said. “It’s a little bit [more] personal than that.“So, I think it’s a disrespectful thing. So yeah, I mean, I’m going to keep whatever I feel with me and my family internally on how I feel about that. And yeah, just move on.“Last time I played on this field, I tore my Achilles. And that same fanbase, they cheered when I got hurt,” Watson said. “So, what does that have to do with anything about performance?“When a person gets hurt, especially for your own city and they cheer?”Asked if he regretted choosing Cleveland, Watson doubled down and said: “I don’t regret anything in my life,” a comment which received particular backlash due to the off-field issues he has faced. “The lack of awareness by Deshaun Watson is fascinating,” Bussin’ With The Boys’ Will Compton posted to X in response to Watson’s press conference.Watson may have blown his chance at being named QB1GettyWatson’s outburst in his press conference may be the signal of the end of his time in ClevelandGetty“I went into yesterday pretty certain that Deshaun Watson was going to be the Browns starter. Now I’m not sure he’s going to be on the team. That press conference is going to be difficult to come back from. We’ll see how the decision-makers reckon with it,” NFL insider Albert Breer wrote. Why don’t the Browns just cut Watson? For the 2026 season, the Browns are paying Watson $46 million, where he looked to be in pole position to be named the starting quarterback, ahead of Shedeur Sanders. If Cleveland were to cut Watson today, then they would have a cap hit of $40.9 million for the 2026 season, per OverTheCap. This would rise up to a whopping $86.2 million in 2027. However, should he remain on the team throughout the upcoming season, then the Browns could, in theory, give him a post-June 1st release on the four void years of his contract. This would spread out the cap cost over more years, to $36 million in 2027 and $51.5 million in 2028. Should the former option be selected, the Browns would hold the record for the most expensive release in NFL history, which currently belongs to the Miami Dolphins whose release of Tua Tagovailoa at the start of the off-season cost the Fins $55.4 million for the 2026 season alone. Therefore, it may make more sense for the Browns to pay Watson – albeit perhaps not to play – in order to use the money in 2027 to build the best possible team around either Sanders, or another quarterback entirely.