How much the Browns can collect in insurance money if Deshaun Watson misses all of 2025

The Browns have Watson’s contract insured. What does it mean now that he’s re-ruptured his achilles?

The Cleveland Browns are casting serious doubt on the timetable of quarterback Deshaun Watson after he re-ruptured his Achilles while rehabbing at his home in Miami.

This means their massive $230 million investment likely never takes another snap again in the brown and orange and potentially ever in the NFL. The good news for the Browns, however, is that they had Watson’s contract insured in case the quarterback had to miss significant time due to injury or suspension.

They received some relief this past season for his time missed in 2023, they’ll receive some relief in 2025 for the time he missed this year, and they will see almost his entire salary covered by insurance if Watson cannot take the field at all in 2025.

The Browns have $44.3 million of Watson’s $46 million base salary covered by insurance.

Yes, this means that the Browns will see $44.3 million put back into their cap space. However, this policy would not be cashed out until after the 2025 season, so the Browns would see that total recouped in their 2026 cap space.

After his latest contract restructure, the Browns are on a timeline to cut Watson with a post-June 1 designation after the 2026 season, so expect that money to be rolled over when they do collect it to completely wash out the dead cap burden of $35 million in 2027 and still have some cash left over to spend from the insurance payment.

Saints’ projected salary cap space after Ryan Ramczyk news

Ryan Ramczyk agreed to cut his 2025 salary this week, which sets him up for retirement. But how does it set up the Saints and the salary cap?

Ryan Ramczyk agreed to cut his 2025 salary this week, which sets him up for retirement. But how does it set up the New Orleans Saints and the salary cap? Let’s break it down.

To start, Ramczyk agreed to waive his $18 million base salary for the 2025 season in exchange for the veteran’s minimum at $1,255,000. Because he’s being forced into a medical retirement, he isn’t getting that money either way, but doing it like this gives the Saints immediate savings of about $16.7 million.

That left Ramczyk with a $12.3 million cap hit, and it puts the Saints at roughly $326 million in cap commitments for 2025. The NFL hasn’t yet announced where the cap will be this offseason but most experts agree it will fall at about $270 million. That means the Saints are probably in the hole by $56 million, or somewhere close to it.

This was just the first of several expected moves they’ll make this offseason. Restructures are coming for young, productive players — guys like Erik McCoy (saving up to $6.7 million), Cesar Ruiz ($5.2 million), and Carl Granderson ($5.2 million). Tougher decisions are ahead for older veterans like Cameron Jordan, Taysom Hill, Demario Davis and Tyrann Mathieu, all of whom have salary cap hits between $20 million and $10 million.

And the elephant in the room is Derek Carr. He has the biggest cap hit on the team at $51.4 million, and he’s made it clear he won’t accept a pay cut. The Saints could restructure his deal and save $30 million but that effectively locks him in as their starting quarterback for 2025 and 2026. Don’t bet on him waiving his no-trade clause to join a new team, either. It’ll cost as much to cut him as to keep him, at least until June 2, but that would mean finding a way to get under the cap and work through free agency and the NFL draft with a $51.4 million albatross around the neck. That just isn’t realistic.

The decisions Mickey Loomis has made have put the Saints in a bind. Overpaying Carr like this and restructuring aging players so many times has taken a toll, and now the Saints have to pay it.

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Browns eligible for massive insurance relief if Deshaun Watson cannot play in 2025

If Deshaun Watson cannot play in 2025, the Browns have almost the entirety of his 2025 salary insured to give themselves some relief

Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who is still owed $92 million from the team, may not step on the field in 2025.

He told the team yesterday that he had suffered a setback in his recovery from the ruptured Achilles he suffered earlier this season.

The Browns, however, have Watson’s contract insured. This means they will see some financial relief for time missed by Watson over the past two seasons. Just how much (and keep in mind the insured money does not hit the team’s cap space until the following year)?

The Browns had about $14 million of his contract in 2024. With him missing about half of the season, the Browns will see an additional toll of around $7 million added to their cap space total in 2025.

If Watson does not play a down of football in all of 2025, the Browns would receive $44.3 million in insured relief. This is all but $1.7 million of Watson’s guaranteed salary in 2025.

This would be recouped in cap space the following year, meaning the Browns would see that 44.3 million hit their account in 2026 if Watson is indeed out all of 2025 as he recovers from his Achilles injury.

Biggest dead money cap hits illustrate Cowboys’ decision-making mistakes

The Cowboys have repeatedly gambled and lost when signing sub-superstar talent on speculative deals

Contrary to popular belief, signing superstar players to big deals rarely gets an NFL team in trouble. No matter what the Cowboys front office tries to say, there’s always room for talent under the salary cap.

Good players who meet or exceed the expectations of their contract are value-added, pure and simple. They take on a bigger proportion of the cap, but they also often take heavier snap counts and make bigger contributions. Teams can save money in rotations and at other positions if highly paid players simply live up to their billing.

Best of all, superstars are usually no brainers. Dak Prescott was an obvious re-signing this past summer. CeeDee Lamb was also an obvious re-signing this past summer. Micah Parsons and Tyler Smith will be obvious re-signings in the near future, while DaRon Bland and DeMarvion Overshown are trending to be obvious re-signings soon after. Health permitting, they will all be well worth the price of doing business.

Where teams get themselves into trouble is by signing players who underachieve and don’t live up to the expectations of their contracts. That’s what really kills the salary cap. Many of these bad contracts are speculative in nature. They involve middleclass players who have shown enough to indicate they could be great but just haven’t done so consistently enough to make it a sure thing. They are calculated gambles by the front office. It’s here where the Cowboys have struggled.

In recent seasons the Cowboys gambled on players like Michael Gallup and Terence Steele. Both offered inconsistent performances throughout their careers, and both were coming off major injury. They represented significant speculation from the Cowboys front office when they were re-signed and now stand as cautionary tales moving forward.

Looking at things today, the biggest dead money cap hit the Cowboys face is from Gallup. Signed to a five-year, $57,500,000 contract in 2022, Gallup fell well short of the expectations implied in the deal. After contributing just 73 receptions for 842 yards, Gallup was released two years into the deal. The contract was a gamble from the start since Gallup had only once posted a thousand-yard season and he was now coming off a significant knee injury. He represents $4,350,000 in dead money this season and a team-leading $8,700,000 in 2025.

Steele is another player the Cowboys seemingly gambled on and lost. After suffering a major knee injury late in 2022, the Cowboys signed him to a five-year, $87,500,000 extension to be their cornerstone at right tackle. Like Gallup, Steele was gamble from the start. His last ten games of 2022 he showed he was a dominant force in the running game but his game play in the years leading up to that were far more pedestrian. In fact, his pass protection was some of the worst in the NFL.

Steele now potentially faces the axe in 2025. At a cap charge of over $18 million next season, Steele is one of the highest paid players on the Cowboys roster. He has an out in his contract in 2025, but it would come with an immediate cap charge of $13,500,000 in dead money. The Cowboys could designate him a post June 1 cut but that would only push more dead money into future years.

The lesson to be learned is sub-superstar contracts that involve speculation are far riskier than max-level contracts that simply demand health and a continued level of play. The Cowboys have a poor track record when it comes to speculating the future of their own midlevel performers and it’s come back to bite them over and over again.

Does this mean the death of midlevel contracts going forward?

Possibly. With so many star players set to make star money, the Cowboys may just round out their roster with rookie contracts and bargain bin pickups. It could mean non-superstar players like Osa Odighizuwa, Chauncey Golston and Rico Dowdle (all pending free agents in 2025) are too expensive and/or risky to bring back.

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Micah Parsons noise likely to dominate Cowboys offseason coverage

The idea of the Cowboys trading Micah Parsons is as absurd as the media’s infatuation for long-shot scenarios

Raise your hand if you loved the constant media coverage last offseason about Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb’s unresolved contract extensions. Anyone? Anyone? Not even a little?

Aside from the national media, who live off ratings, and Cowboys front office, who lives off attention, it’s safe to say hardly anyone in the general public enjoyed the absurd and unrelenting conversation surrounding Prescott and Lamb’s unresolved contract situations last offseason.

Re-signing Prescott and Lamb basically went without saying. Both players were cornerstone pieces executing at peak levels. The players themselves had interest in staying in Dallas, the Cowboys had sincere desire to bring them back, the team had cap room, and the market had been clearly set. Re-signing was a forgone conclusion, yet the media couldn’t stop speculating about their possible departure because big names pull big attention.

With so many alterative storylines available to discuss, it was maddening for Cowboys fans and non-Cowboys fans alike to be inundated with constant talk about a possible divorce between these players and their team.

This year it seems the greater NFL media is at it again, but this time they have their sights set on Micah Parsons. Parsons, the Cowboys superstar pass rusher, is entering the last year of his rookie deal in 2025. He’s eligible to sign an extension and when he does, he’s likely to reset the market as the top defensive player in the NFL.

At age 25 and playing at the peak of his profession, every team in the NFL would love to have someone like Parsons. And with constant talk of “pie” and free agent penny pinching, Stephen Jones has made the Cowboys an easy target for a national media thirsty for tantalizing Cowboys headlines.

Now after recent comments regarding another frugal offseason in 2025, the media has already spun dozens of Parsons trade stories. While Jones’ statements at the time and subsequent statements thereafter have specifically shot down such a blockbuster transaction, the damage has been done, and the clickbait playbook has been released.

It seems the only thing that will get this genie back in the bottle is a new contract, and based on the Cowboys history of negotiations, that won’t happen until the 11th hour. That means Cowboys fans can expect at least eight months of trade speculation, eight months of public bickering between Parsons’ camp and the Cowboys front office, eight months of coverage that could be going to something interesting.

Not that a Parsons trade wouldn’t be interesting, just that trading arguably the best pass rusher in the NFL isn’t a realistic possibility right now. While he can be re-signed at any point, he’s under contract for another full season. After that the Cowboys have the ability to keep him for one year, if not two years, under the franchise tag. That would take him all the way to 2028.

“We love Micah,” Stephen Jones said to address the developing media storm. “I can’t imagine a scenario where he’s not wearing the star on his helmet.”

As if the team needed a reminder of what Parsons brings to the table, they just got it this season. After missing four weeks earlier in the year, Parsons returned in Week 10 and has been a force ever since. Since his return the Cowboys have been first in sacks, first in pressures, and second in pass rush win rate.

Over the last four weeks with Parsons, the Cowboys have posted the fifth best defense in the NFL and with that an affirming 3-1 record. His impact is profound, and the Cowboys know it. He also brings star power and all the marketability that comes with that. That’s something everyone can agree the Cowboys have a keen eye for and value greatly.

Because they just can’t get enough of the Cowboys, the national media is almost guaranteed to latch onto the Parsons trade conversation and not let go until it’s finally put to bed with a new contract.

Buckle up.

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Of course Stephen Jones is setting the stage for another inactive Cowboys offseason

Don’t expect a very active free agent period in 2025 because the richest franchise in sports history are claiming poverty yet again. | From @ReidDHanson

2024 was “The Season of Stale” in Cowboys Land. Not only did Dallas allow the vast majority of their internal free agents to depart unopposed, but the Cowboys turned up their noses at virtually every noteworthy outside option as well.

Citing fiscal restraints as the reason, the Cowboys chose to fill their ever-growing list of needs with rookies and supposedly-opportunistic post-draft bargain finds. The results were rather predictable, with the Cowboys entering the season with enormous talent deficiencies at both ends of their once-impressive depth chart.

The front office’s offseason inactivity was explained by Stephen Jones as a necessary step in order to afford high-cost re-signings like Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. Publicly available contract numbers begged to differ, showing multiple avenues to free up spending cash without resulting in crippling damage down the road.

Alas, the front office stood strong and fielded a roster worthy of their efforts. With the Cowboys 5-8 and on track for their first losing season since 2020, there was hope the front office had learned their lesson, that fans have weathered the storm, and better days are ahead in the coming offseason. Based on recent statements from Jones, those hopes appear to be misplaced.

“I think we knew we were going to have a challenge this year and next year,” Jones said of his ability to spend. “It’s going to be really, really tight because we still have some money left over from some guys who aren’t here today. And you’re going to have some other guys that won’t be here in the future that you still have their cap count.”

The dead money Jones alludes to is certainly a concern. According to Over the Cap the Cowboys have $27,323,246 in dead money this season. It’s a noteworthy amount but by no means a number other teams haven’t dealt will. Based on a November report there are 26 teams with more dead money than Dallas. It’s not exactly the albatross Jones is making it out to be.

Even if the Cowboys cut players like Terence Steele in 2025 and take on the dead money ramifications as a result, they’ll be in far better shape than the majority of the NFL. Simple adjustments to veteran contracts and a new contract to Micah Parsons could easily free up north of $100 million over the offseason. It would allow the Cowboys to properly build a roster around Dallas’ most talented players and do so without pushing too much money into the future.

Of course, the front office would have to want to spend that money for this to be a reasonable option for them and based on past behavior and recent statements, there is no indication they want to spend money.

The Cowboys are once again the most valuable franchise in all of professional sports so it’s understandable they

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Cowboys among NFL’s top teams in this valuable roster-building strategy

The Cowboys are top-3 in the NFL in players playing on rookie contracts in 2024, finds @ReidDHanson

Building an NFL roster isn’t simply about finding and retaining talent. It’s also about knowing when to let go, knowing when to roll the dice and knowing where to find the most affordable labor force. For a team like the Cowboys, managing all three of these areas is critical to the wellbeing of the salary cap.

Though the cap is highly malleable, and the Cowboys aren’t remotely close to maximizing their purchasing power under it, it is in fact a real entity that should be responsibly managed. Owners of what will likely be four contracts each averaging $19+ million in 2025, the cost-conscience Cowboys will be interested in cutting costs at all possible corners to keep payroll low and their wallets fat.

One area where the Cowboys front office particularly excels in is populating their roster with players on rookie contracts. Under the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), players entering the NFL are capped on what they can receive in compensation from a team. Players often provide services well above their compensation levels, giving teams extraordinary bang for the buck throughout the length of their rookie deals.

In 2024 the Cowboys are the No. 3 team in the NFL in snaps by players under rookie deals. In other words, the Cowboys are getting more snaps from players who have been in the NFL less than four complete seasons than 28 other teams. This puts measurements like “snap weighted age” into perspective since it lands Dallas on the other side of the spectrum.

The Cowboys are 22nd in the snap weighted age (SWA) this season, meaning they are one of the older teams in the league based on contributions. What having the third most snaps on rookie contracts means is old players are skewing the numbers a bit on SWA and when those outliers fall off (possibly DeMarcus Lawrence, Zack Martin, Eric Kendricks and Brandin Cooks), the Cowboys will swing strongly to other side of the SWA spectrum.

What having the third-most snaps from rookie-deal players doesn’t say is how well those players are performing. Being No. 3 doesn’t mean much when the Cowboys are 5-7 and longshots for a postseason berth. It does, however, show Dallas favors their youth and is giving their developing labor force valuable snaps to build on. It also outlines a plan moving forward.

The Jonathan Mingo trade notwithstanding, the Cowboys value draft picks more than most other NFL teams. It allows them to afford their expensive superstars and it keeps the fan hope-o-meter pointing up as frequently as possible. It’s made middle class employees scarce in Dallas and requires a ready or not attitude with many offseason promotions, but it fills out a roster in the most affordable way possible.

There are many ways for NFL teams to construct winning rosters in the NFL, but options dwindle once superstars start getting paid like superstars. It’s safe to say the strategy of leaning on rookie contracts is here to stay for quite a while in Dallas.

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How much cap space do the Browns have in 2025 after Za’Darius Smith trade?

After trading away Za’Darius Smith, we take a loot at their future cap outlook.

The Cleveland Browns traded Za’Darius Smith, who was due a cap number of $5.7 million in 2025.

However, due to the void year the Browns used to space out his cap hit, they do have to eat all of his bonuses in the contract, taking on $14.2 million in dead money when they dealt him to the Detroit Lions. This is added to the $22.5 million in dead money they are eating for trading wide receiver Amari Cooper to the Buffalo Bills as well.

This must mean the Browns are sitting in a bad spot with their salary cap, right? Not so fast. While on paper they are currently slotted at $8 million in the red, even factoring in the approximately $45 million they will roll over from 2024, there is a great deal of cap flexibility baked into their current contracts to clear plenty of space to play with.

So let’s take a look at their salary cap situation in 2025 after trading Smith.

The Browns only account for 41 of 53 players in 2025, however, so we have to consider that 12 other players and their salaries will be added.

Most of these players will come in the form of rookies on rookie contracts, so filling out the majority of the rest of the roster will be inexpensive. However, we still want to leave room to potentially trade for a veteran or sign a few free agents right?

So some more cap space will have to be cleared.

Whether the fans or national media like it or not, the Browns are going to restructure the contract of Deshaun Watson again in 2025. This does not make him any less cuttable after the season. The full amount is already guaranteed, so if you can push the same amount of money today into a rising cap total, that is what the Browns are going to do.

This will clear about $44 million in cap space for the Browns alone and push them to about $36 million in the positive. Right tackle Jack Conklin is also a cuttable asset, however, if he stays healthy and continues to play well they may want to keep him around another year.

Cornerback Denzel Ward has a deal that would be quite easy to restructure as well that would clear about another $12 million in cap space. If the Browns hang onto Greg Newsome II and do not trade him, they could do the same and clear about another $12 million there. His money is already guaranteed as well, so they wouldn’t be adding any more guaranteed money to make this move either.

Even without cutting Conklin in this case, the Browns would already sit at around $60 million in cap space. Cutting Conklin would push that total closer to $77 million. Again, we have to account for the other 12 players that the Browns will have to add to the roster, so a more realistic number might sit around $55-60 million in cap space next year as a cushion.

Again, the Browns love to roll over around $30 million (more this year), so the number of effective money to use may sit closer to $20-$25 million. Which is still plenty.

So despite eating a ton of dead cap money by trading both Cooper and Smith, the Browns essentially bought a third round pick from the Bills with Cooper’s money and bought a fifth and sixth round pick from the Lions.

Any free agent the Browns will sign as well will have a base minimum salary with the majority of their first year of the deal being paid out in the form of bonuses. This does not count against the cap space. This has been the case with any contract extension or big free agent like Dalvin Tomlinson that has been added.

Despite the dreaded Watson contract, the Browns retain plenty of cap flexibility heading into the future.

Za’Darius Smith contract gives the Lions options with their new EDGE

Za’Darius Smith’s current 2-year contract gives the Lions options with their new EDGE

The Detroit Lions have a new pass rusher on the defense in EDGE Za’Darius Smith. Lions GM Brad Holmes pulled the trigger on a trade that sends two Day 3 picks to the Cleveland Browns for the 32-year-old Smith, plus a 2026 seventh-round pick, in return.

Smith should play extensively as the most accomplished pass rusher on the Lions roster. And he comes affordable for the rest of the 2024 season; Detroit is responsible for just $605,000 for the remainder of this year, with the Browns eating over $4.5 million in dead cap room.

The rest of Smith’s two-year, $23 million contract that runs through 2025 is now Detroit’s responsibility, and it’s a little complex. That’s because there are some options and void years that complicate it, though the Lions have options and control over how to handle them.

Smith has a base salary of a very affordable $1.2 million for the 2025 season and it’s not guaranteed. However, there is a $2 million bonus due on the third day of the 2025 NFL calendar. There is also a per-game bonus of $510,000 baked into the contract, as well as four void years at the end of Smith’s contract.

The Lions can keep the contract as-is, but that seems unlikely given the higher cap hits that assuming the void years and bonus structure creates: $5.4 million in 2025 and $5.6 million in 2026.

Because nothing is guaranteed after the 2024 season, the Lions could walk away from that deal, cut Smith and take on no dead cap room. They could also agree to a new deal with Smith in the offseason, one that would provide some guaranteed money to the defensive end but less long-term cap hit to make a more appealing contractual marriage for 2025. That, of course, depends on how well Smith fits into the Lions culture and defense for the rest of the 2024 campaign.

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It’s time for Cowboys to bench this highly-paid player and try something new

If the Cowboys plan to cut Terence Steele this winter, they should kick the tires on possible replacements. | From @ReidDHanson

Not much is going right in Dallas these days. Fresh of their 30-24 loss to San Francisco, the Cowboys find themselves saddled with a losing record, 2.5 games back in the NFC East, and facing one of the toughest remaining schedules in the NFL. Changes are needed and all options deserve consideration.

One such idea is to make a change at the right tackle position. On one hand the Cowboys have stalwart Terence Steele locked and loaded for the foreseeable future. Steele was re-signed in the offseason of 2023 and is under contract through 2028. On the other hand, Steele isn’t playing well and at a cap charge of $18,125,000, he may be too costly for the Dallas front office to justify next season.

The player working behind Steele at RT has been Matt Waletzko. Waletzko, a fifth-round pick from 2022, has been a project player for the past two seasons. Injuries have slowed his development, and preseason action has looked rough, but Waletzko is an inexpensive player who’s signed through next season. If the Cowboys plan to move on from Steele over the winter, it makes sense to test his replacement in advance.

Although maybe Waletzko isn’t the answer. Maybe that’s just swapping one problem with a bigger problem. With reserve tackle Asim Richards, it’s possible the Cowboys have Steele’s replacement somewhere else on their roster. Richards, a former college left tackle who Dallas took in the fifth round in 2023, is a low-cost alternative the Cowboys have been determined to develop.

The only problem is that’s been on the left side.

Richards is signed through the 2026 season, meaning Dallas would get over two more years of cheap labor from the former Tar Heel if they went his direction instead. That may not matter much to fans but to the front office such a possibility is golden.

Steele has always been a controversial figure in Dallas. The former undrafted free agent was thrown into the fire as a rookie and morphed himself into a success story. Prior to a catastrophic knee injury suffered late in 2022, Steele was regarded as an elite run blocker capable of dominating opponents at the line and on the move.

His pass protection often left something to be desired, so when the Cowboys re-signed Steele coming off the injury, more than a few eyebrows were raised. Now nearly two years removed from the injury, Steele is still dividing fans over his value. Steele has reclaimed much of his glory as a run blocker, ranking in Pro Football Focus’ top 10 amongst run blocking OTs this season. But as a pass protector he’s been nothing short of terrible.

Despite playing in only seven games, Steele’s 23 pressures allowed are tied for third worst amongst OTs in 2024. Of the 76 OTs PFF graded this season, Steele ranks just 53rd. He’s one of the NFL’s highest paid OTs but he consistently grades in the bottom in pass protection, a score validated by film review and total pressures allowed. Waletzko and Richards may not be the answer but five years into the Steele experiment, it’s clear he isn’t either.

According to Over the Cap, cutting Steele becomes financially feasible this coming offseason. The team would save $14 million in 2025 by designating him a post-June 1 cut. If the writing is really on the wall for Steele, it makes more sense to test his replacements now than to wait until March when the real decisions become due.

Something for the Cowboys to think about over the next few weeks.

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