$118 Million QB Now Option for Browns With Deshaun Watson Out for Season

Heavy on Browns. Free agent QB Ryan Tannehill could be the answer for the Cleveland Browns after Deshaun Watson's injury.
The Cleveland Browns no longer have quarterback Deshaun Watson, which means a signing is likely coming at some point this week.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson played poorly in relief of Watson, whose season ended on Sunday, October 20, against the Cincinnati Bengals due to an Achilles injury. The second-year signal caller threw 2 INTs before suffering an injury of his own and leaving the game.

Jameis Winston, who the Browns coaching staff demoted from the backup job to the emergency QB spot ahead of this weekend’s game, stepped in and led the team to a TD. However, Cleveland (1-6) fell at home by a score of 21-14, losing its fifth consecutive contest and failing to score 20 points for the seventh time in seven games this season.

Cleveland could go a number of ways when it comes to adding a quarterback, the most likely of which probably involves adding depth behind Winston and Thompson-Robinson rather than making a play for a proven starter.

However, the Browns reeled off four wins down the stretch last season after adding veteran Joe Flacco and inserting him into the starting lineup. And they probably would have won their last five games if they’d had any incentive to play Flacco in Week 18.

If Cleveland wants any hope of playing its way back into competitive status this year the team likely needs a similar run, and the best free agent option to help bring it to them is QB Ryan Tannehill, most recently of the Tennessee Titans.

GettyQuarterback Ryan Tannehill, formerly of the Tennessee Titans.
Tannehill finished out a four-year, $118 million contract with the Titans last season after a stint with the team that included three trips to the playoffs (2019-21) and an appearance in the AFC Championship Game.

Now 36 years old, Tannehill has amassed nearly 35,000 passing yards in his career along with 216 TDs and 115 INTs. He made a Pro Bowl in 2019 and was named the league’s Comeback Player of the Year that same season.

Tannehill has made it clear that he isn’t interested in an NFL opportunity this season that doesn’t allow him to step into the role of starter from Day 1. That chance has yet to present itself anywhere across the league, though it could soon with a team like the Carolina Panthers or Las Vegas Raiders given their respective situations under center.

GettyCleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb.
The Browns may have no interest in making a move for a player like Tannehill, though one could also interpret that as a lack of interest in trying to turn this season around rather than as merely a financial decision.

Spotrac projects Tannehill’s market value at $7.7 million this year, though pro-rating across the 10 remaining weeks of the campaign would pull that figure down to around $4.2 million. That isn’t an unreasonable investment to make for one year of Tannehill, who has proven himself a better player than Winston over their respective careers — not to mention far better than the much younger Thompson-Robinson.

Running back Nick Chubb returned to the field for Cleveland for the first time in more than 13 months on Sunday following a devastating knee injury in Week 2 of last season. He carried the football just 11 times for 22 yards and 1 TD.

However, if Chubb is able to regain his Pro-Bowl form and the offensive line gets healthy, the Browns could feasibly still build themselves into a respectable team in 2024 — assuming they can get decent quarterback play.

Tannehill can offer them that chance, if Cleveland is willing to spend the money to make it happen.
Max Dible covers the NFL, NBA and MLB for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns. He covered local and statewide news as a reporter for West Hawaii Today and served as news director for BigIslandNow.com and Pacific Media Group's family of Big Island radio stations before joining Heavy. More about Max Dible