Who could the Browns find as a suitor for a faded three-time Pro Bowler in Deshaun Watson who hasn't been a full-time NFL starter in literally half a decade?
We can giggle at the idea of quarterback Deshaun Watson being traded by the Cleveland Browns because Josh Cribbs said it ... as we work on the (maybe unfair) assumption that the former NFL player Cribbs hasn't bothered to consider all the complications and ramifications of a deal so unlikely.
But what if a member of the idea offers the same idea? We need to keep giggling, right?
The Browns would obviously like to find a way to move on from Watson, infamously labeled a "swing and a miss'' by team owner Jimmy Haslam, referring to the blockbuster transaction that brought Watson here from the Houston Texans.
But that ill-fated trade is an albatross not easily shed.
The quarterback signed a five-year, $230 million contract, which included a $44,965,000 signing bonus, and the entirety of that $230 million guaranteed. He cost Cleveland a treasure chest of picks and brought to town the baggage from all of Watson’s sexual assault allegations.
And now Watson can also be labeled "oft-injured,'' as he is rehabbing from another Achilles injury.
The Browns are turning the page in the QB room, with Kenny Pickett and Joe Flacco brought on as vets and with the NFL Draft delivering to them former Oregon Ducks quarterback Dillon Gabriel and former Colorado signal caller Shedeur Sanders in the 2025 NFL Draft.
But along comes Former Browns receiver Cribbs to float the idea that a trade is all but in the works.
“I think his preparation is more for a trade opportunity, and the Browns will get some good stuff for him. Not the best, but they will get something for him," Cribbs said on his podcast. "And, they will pay a portion of his salary, and the Browns will eat the rest."
Silly? We'd say so. Who could the Browns find as a suitor for a faded three-time Pro Bowler who hasn't been a full-time NFL starter in literally half a decade?
Which team wants to give up "some good stuff'' for that?
And yet Tony Rizzo, a sports radio show host with ESPN Cleveland, harbors the same idea.
“I think it would be in everyone’s best interest for him to move on, to get him out of the locker room in Cleveland, I think his career his career is over in Cleveland, but I don't think his career as a whole is done," said Rizzo.
The massive salary. The rust. The injuries. The off-the-field baggage.
Again, who wants it?
Rizzo has one thing almost right: A Cleveland trade would "be in everyone's best interest'' ... except the team that gives up anything to get him.
