Deshaun Watson

Career Stats

Year	Team	GP	Yards	TD	INT	RTG
Career		73	17,904	123	48	98.8
2024		7	1,148	5	3	79.0
2023		6	1,115	7	4	84.3

Current Contract

Contract Value Index (CVI)

Above-replacement production at the QB salary tier earns Deshaun Watson a C+ Contract Value Index. At $46M AAV over five years, Watson's deal sits squarely in franchise-QB territory, yet his 2024 season production — seven games — provides almost no on-field justification for that investment, especially paired with a performance grade that reflects minimal statistical contribution to Cleveland's 5-12 record. The quarterback market has reset sharply in recent years, and $46M annually now occupies an awkward middle ground: too expensive to absorb as a stop-gap or evaluative experiment, but insufficient in recent output to command the roster certainty a franchise QB typically receives. At 30 years old with seven seasons of NFL experience, Watson is squarely in his prime window, but repeated injury-shortened campaigns and the emergence of legitimate competition from a rookie signal-caller have eroded the positional security that usually anchors contracts at his salary level. The C+ verdict reflects that tension — the deal itself is not structurally offensive for a starting-caliber quarterback, but the gap between Watson's current production, media skepticism, and his annual compensation has widened dramatically. With Todd Monken publicly declining to anoint him the unquestioned starter heading into training camp, the coming weeks will largely determine whether this contract can be rehabilitated as a reasonable QB investment or becomes a cautionary tale in how quickly a high-profile deal can lose institutional support.

Contracts in the Same Value Band

Other same-position deals the Contract Value Index also places in the C band — a quick read on where Deshaun's contract sits relative to comparable money.

Performance AnalysisProcessing

A Performance grade for Deshaun Watson is not currently available.

Current Sentiment

Deshaun Watson's public perception has collapsed to a D grade, placing him among the most negatively viewed quarterbacks in the league relative to his standing on the depth chart — a stunning fall for a player at his contract level. The driving force behind that collapse is the emergence of rookie Shedeur Sanders as a genuine competitor for the starting job, with Todd Monken publicly declining to name Watson the unquestioned QB1 heading into minicamp — a coaching posture that has opened the floodgates for skeptical media coverage openly advocating for Sanders to leapfrog a veteran starter. That narrative aligns directly with Watson's D performance grade; after appearing in just seven games during the 2024 season, he has provided Cleveland next to nothing on the field to justify the faith his roster status once commanded. The off-field controversies that have shadowed his tenure with the Browns have never fully faded from the public consciousness either, and years of injury-shortened seasons have pushed fan sentiment in Cleveland past frustration and into something closer to outright hostility. Recent team moves — a collection of lower-profile signings at fullback, special teams, and receiver depth — do nothing to reframe the conversation away from the quarterback competition, keeping Watson's job security at the center of every Browns discussion. This training camp battle is less a quarterback controversy and more a referendum on whether Watson still belongs in the starting conversation at all, and right now, the media and fanbase verdict is leaning decisively against him.