What was once viewed as one of the NFL’s worst contracts doesn’t look quite as bad now. Apparently, the Cleveland Browns are expected to receive millions in insurance cap credits stemming from Deshaun Watson’s injury-related absence.

After teasing the report before the holiday weekend, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk dug into the insurance policy attached to Deshaun Watson’s fully guaranteed $230 million deal. His findings didn’t take long to go viral on a slow July Monday.

When the Browns acquired Watson in 2022, they signed him to a five-year, $230 million guaranteed contract. But to protect themselves against uncertainties, the franchise purchased an ‘insurance addendum’ during a contract restructuring in 2023. And that became increasingly relevant for the Browns as Watson suffered multiple significant injuries in the past couple of years. 

Florio broke down the NFLPA records and noted that Watson had to pay up $8.79 million in 2024 and $16.773 million in 2025. He’ll return $21.724 million in 2026, $16.773 million in 2027, $16.738 million in 2028, and $7.983 million in 2029. Florio noted that the structured cap credits from 2024 through 2029 add up to nearly $89 million. 

“That’s a total in cap credit for 2024 through 2029 of $88.781 million,” Florio wrote. “Which also reflects, presumably, the insurance benefits received by the Browns on Watson’s five-year, $230 million deal.” 

That’s because legal cases cost Watson 11 games in 2022, and a season-ending shoulder injury put him out of 11 games in 2023. In 2024, he tore his Achilles tendon and missed 10 regular-season games and the entirety of the 2025 season. 

It’s not like the Browns won’t be paying up the $230M guaranteed contract money to Watson. The Big Number’s Brandon Little made the calculations and revealed that the Browns will effectively pay the quarterback about $141.21M. Of course, it’s still a boatload of money. But the insurance returns made the blow significantly softer on the franchise. 

But not everyone looked at the numbers the same way as Florio did. Jason Fitzgerald, the founder of Over The Cap and a leading authority on NFL contracts, replied to PFT’s post on X to debunk the math. 

NFL salary cap expert offered clarification on Deshaun Watson and the Browns’ money matters

“You are not interpreting the numbers correctly,” Fitzgerald wrote. “The numbers are what remains of the cap value from the original bonuses. The $8.79M reflects revaluing the bonus after the refund is received; it’s not the refund itself. Teams also receive credits in their adjustments for prior years.” 

Fitzgerald clarified that the numbers Florio found in the NFLPA records actually represent the adjusted cap hit after the refund was removed. When an insurance policy pays out, the original signing bonus cap charge is reduced. So, the numbers Florio cited are not the actual pile of money that the franchise got back. 

Under the NFL CBA, if a team receives an insurance payout for games a player missed in a previous season, the league applies that money as a ‘Prior Year Adjustment’ for the following season. In short, the actual insurance refund doesn’t really cancel out Deshaun Watson’s future contract line-by-line. Instead, it’s readjusted as credit for the next season. 

Nevertheless, Watson’s contract will continue to impact Cleveland’s salary cap. But the front office’s decision to ensure the deal has at least salvaged some crucial cap flexibility for the team’s future. Now that he’s ready to bounce back from injury and has impressed the big guns at the training camps, all we need to see is whether he can stay in form throughout the season so as not to incur any further installments on the Insurance Addendum.