DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Coulda, woulda, should

You're conflating one bad contract on a bad player... with troublesome cap management. The two are not the same and one does not make the other.

Our philosophy means we are in a better position than any other team that would have signed him to a mega-contract and watched him suck and/or not play.

Why? Because we use a 0% platinum Card.


Here's another analogy that pertains:

Two companies have the exact same pay rate and the exact same labor hours per month. One pays people every day at the end of each shift; one pays once per month.

Although they spend the same amount on payroll, one company has an obvious advantage when it comes to financial flexibility.

I'm still not sure how that escapes the fact that if watson gets cut next year the Browns are on the hook to pay 80 million dollars over two years on a QB who is no longer on the roster.

That being not as bad as how bad it would be for other teams in no way means that still isn't a bad thing for the Browns does it?

Nope. Not a soul can possibly think this is a good thing or "not a bad thing".

I simply think the ones in freak out mode about paying so much for someone not even on the roster really aren't seeing the forest through the trees. That's all.

I agree.

The Watson trade happened. Unless someone has that time machine stashed away, there really isn't anything anyone can do about it. I think Haslam is of the same mind, otherwise Berry wouldn't be in Berea anymore. I'm not sure how much they actually believed they could stock a competitive roster with Watson sucking and not having all those draft picks, but they operated in a way that lessened the most severe impact of the Watson contract.

And I'm not trying to present it as some major catastrophe waiting to be unleashed. If that was the impression people got that isn't what I meant. I simply meant that in the end there is a price left to pay and it does have a certain amount of consequences involved.

Basically, what it comes down to is the 5-year mistake now is a 7-year mistake, but it had to be done for us to sign FA's and keep some talent we did have to field a competitive team.

I certainly won't dispute that with one exception. The only thing is, up until this year thus far, that deal in no way did anything to keep this team competitive.

Until this season watson only played in 19 games and looked terrible doing it. The only season the Browns were actually competitive since watson was signed was in 2023 when they signed Flacco off his couch with 11 wins.

The other three seasons were 7 wins in 2022, 3 wins in 2024 and 5 wins in 2025.