Deshaun Watson might wind up as the Browns' starting quarterback in 2026. But the roster hole created by the trade for him is far from being filled.
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.
The Deshaun Watson trade is now routinely hailed as the worst trade in NFL history, if not in all of professional sports.
The badness of the deal goes beyond giving up six draft picks, including three No. 1s, for a quarterback who has played only 19 of a possible 68 games for the Browns.
You might not realize how much it set back the Browns until you fill in the names of players squandered by the trade.
What would the Browns be today if on their roster were center Tyler Linderbaum, receiver Romeo Doubs, running back Jahmyr Gibbs, defensive tackle Kobie Turner, receiver Brian Thomas Jr., and tight end Cade Stover?
Yes, those are players who were available with the original picks swapped to the Houston Texans in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 drafts for Watson.
Looking back
Of course, there’s no guarantee the Browns would have nailed each of the six picks they originally owned before swapping them to Houston. No GM bats .400, let alone 1.000, year after year.
Further, more than likely, GM Andrew Berry would have traded some of the picks in deals far less consequential than the Watson trade.
Houston GM Nick Caserio actually parlayed the six picks he acquired into nine additional trades resulting in 12 total players.
But what if Berry had held on to them and used each one to build a Browns playoff contender?
Let’s re-draft
The original picks Berry traded to Houston for Watson were:
No. 13 (first round) and No. 107 (fourth round) in 2022.
No. 12 (first round) and No. 73 (third round) in 2023.
No. 23 (first round) and No. 123 (fourth round) in 2024.
In the 2022 draft, the Texans traded the Browns’ 13th overall pick to Philadelphia, which chose Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis. Houston dropped to 15th overall and chose Texas A&M guard Kenyon Green.
But if the Browns had kept the pick, they could have used it on Linderbaum. The center from Iowa was taken 25th by the Ravens.
As for the 107th pick, the Texans used it on running back Dameon Pierce.
Had the Browns kept it, they could have selected Doubs, the receiver from Nevada, who was taken at No. 132 by the Packers.
In the 2023 draft, the Texans packaged the 12th overall pick with other picks to move up to No. 3 and select Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson.
Had the Browns kept the 12th overall pick, they could have selected Gibbs, the running back from Alabama. Detroit picked Gibbs at No. 12 after acquiring the selection from Arizona.
Caserio traded the 73rd pick to the Rams and moved up to select receiver Tank Dell. The Rams moved the 73rd pick to the Giants. The Rams wound up taking Turner at No. 89. He proved the best player in this range of picks.
In the 2024 draft, the Texans traded the 23rd pick to the Vikings and took Georgia cornerback Kamari Lassiter. The Vikings then swapped the 23rd pick to Jacksonville, which took Thomas, the receiver from LSU.
With the 123rd pick, the Texans chose Stover, the tight end from Ohio State.
So had the Browns used their own picks and not traded them for Watson, the best players turned out to be Linderbaum, Doubs, Gibbs, Turner, Thomas and Stover.
Offensive hole
The point of this exercise is not merely to second-guess the Watson trade. It is to illustrate how far the Browns fell behind in roster-building by delivering six draft picks for one player.
Those players squandered would be in the prime of their careers.
Linderbaum made the Pro Bowl in three of four seasons with Baltimore and then signed a three-year contract for $81 million with the Las Vegas Raiders in free agency, making him the highest-paid center in NFL history.
Doubs had four decent seasons with Green Bay and signed a four-year deal for $68 million with the New England Patriots in free agency.
Gibbs is a three-time Pro Bowl running back with the Lions and led the NFL in rushing one season.
Turner, an interior lineman, has 24 sacks for the Rams in his first three seasons.
Thomas made the Pro Bowl as a rookie with Jacksonville after 87 receptions and 10 touchdowns.
Stover has been a solid TE2 in two seasons with the Texans.
Digging out
At the NFL owners meetings in 2025, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam conceded, “We took a big swing and miss with Deshaun. We thought we had the quarterback. We didn't, and we gave up a lot of draft picks to get him. So we've got to dig ourselves out of that hole.”
“That hole” is the void left by those six squandered draft picks, mostly on offense. It also includes the quarterback position.
Now that the Browns have paid the tariff on the Watson trade, merely using their own draft picks wisely is not going to be enough to make up the ground they have lost. They have to do a Watson trade in reverse.
The only player they have to pull that off is Myles Garrett.
Perhaps that was the reasoning behind the modification of Garrett’s contract, which, according to several salary cap analysts, made a trade of Garrett easier to consummate.
We won’t find out until June 2 at the earliest.