Conversations about Deshaun Watson are very rarely just about the Browns’ quarterback’s performance. Last week, Mina Kimes said on Pablo Torre Finds Out that it would be hard to talk about him if he were playing better because of the sexual misconduct allegations against him. On 92.3 The Fan on Monday morning, Ken Carman added a subject that Watson makes it easier to avoid when he plays well.
“I don’t like saying $230 million quarterback and I’m doing my damndest not to,” the morning show host said.
The Cleveland Browns traded five draft picks to the Houston Texans for Deshaun Watson, including three first-rounders. Then, the team signed its new quarterback to a fully-guaranteed contract worth over $230 million.
Carman says any coverage of Watson that mentions his contract tends to happen only when he and the team play poorly. It feels unfair, because the Browns’ problems are about more than just a quarterback.
“If this contract and the salary is such a storyline, why can’t we know what the coaches make?” he said. “Could you imagine the criticism of Kevin Stefanski last year if we knew he made X amount of millions of dollars? Like if we turn it on and they go, ‘Whoa! Kevin Stefanski is making $10 million a year. Wait a minute. You’re getting paid $10 million a year to go seven and ten? So you got paid $1,000,000 a loss?’ Like, that’s the type of thing that we would say.”
The hit that the Browns are taking to their salary cap is often cited as why Watson’s contract is worth scrutiny. Carman disagrees. Whether or not the contract limits the team’s ability to compete, it isn’t the biggest cost.
“You got the boots put to you anyway because you don’t have the draft picks,” he said. “It’s the three first-round picks that the investment is. That’s what’s real in my world. The money does not matter.”
