It's easy to forget the staggering deal Deshaun Watson got in 2022.
Reigning NFL MVP and Buffalo Bills hero Josh Allen got most of the headlines this past NFL offseason with his new lucrative extension for six years, $330 million, with $250 million guaranteed.
That $250 million guaranteed finally supplanted Watson's fully guaranteed, five-year, $230 million contract, as owner Jimmy Haslam admitted, a "big swing and miss" franchise-fail quarterback received from the Cleveland Browns in not a only cap-hit catastrophe, but a debilitating one-sided trade with the Houston Texans, mortgaging away three first-round picks, along with another third and fourth rounder, even as the three-time Pro Bowler was facing major off-the-field scrutiny.
Three years later, the 29-year-old former Clemson hero and national champion still gets more guaranteed money than any other NFL quarterback, slightly edging out the Dallas Cowboys' Dak Prescott at $229 million.
Prescott is under enough scrutiny for his last extension, making him the highest annual-salary QB1 at $61.6 million (above the Cincinnati Bengals franchise savior Joe Burrow at $61. 3 million), but at least the polarizing Cowboys signal-caller has had some MVP-caliber regular seasons recently.
Watson, who is not ruling out a return to the field in 2025 as he recovers from an Achilles injury, makes $11 million more than Burrow ($219 million guaranteed) and almost $22 million more than three-time Super Bowl winner and two-time NFL MVP Patrick Mahomes ($208.1 million.)
No. 5 on the list - another fellow ex-Clemson star turned NFL disappointment, Trevon Lawrence at $200 million guaranteed for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Now the Browns have a crowded quarterbacks room, with beloved veteran Joe Flacco returning to guide a group that includes two rookies with their own baggage - the world's most famous fifth-round pick of all time, Shedeur Sanders, and Oregon standout Dillon Gabriel, drafted two rounds ahead of Sanders.
No matter what happens on the field, Watson is still laughing all the way to the bank... three years later.
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