Deshaun Watson probably remembers when the Cleveland Browns‘ fans cheered after he tore his Achilles tendon in a Week 7 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals in 2024. Since then, Watson hasn’t played an NFL game for the Browns. But now that he’s expected to start for Cleveland in 2026, he’s entering the final year of his five-year, $230 million fully guaranteed deal. Naturally, it raises questions about his future after the 2026 season. But when the reporters asked him, the quarterback admitted that he wasn’t thinking about it.

“I don’t know. I’m trying to play a full season, man. I’m just trying to be healthy, so I can play all 17-plus games. I don’t know what’s going to happen at that time,” Watson said from the Browns’ mandatory minicamp, per the Browns’ reporter, Daniel Oyefusi.

Watson’s future in the NFL would definitely depend on how the 2026 season unfolds for the quarterback. He’s been away from the field for almost a couple of years and is now competing for the starting job with second-year quarterback Shedeur Sanders. While he’s expected to start for Cleveland, Watson would still need to record an impressive performance to secure his future in the NFL.

Because as things stand, it’s unlikely the Browns will retain him once his contract expires after the 2026 season, especially with multiple young quarterbacks already on the roster. In a hypothetical scenario, if Watson wins the QB1 job and puts together a strong season, he would likely draw interest from several teams next offseason.

But if things go the other way, well, that’s probably not something Watson is thinking about right now. For now, Watson is focusing on staying healthy and playing a full season in Cleveland. At the same time, however, that has been a major struggle for the 30-year-old: He hasn’t played a full season for the Browns.

Across four seasons, Watson had started just 19 games for the Browns and had gone 9-10 in those matchups. His first year in Cleveland was limited to just 6 games after an 11-game suspension due to off-field issues.

He started fresh during the 2023 season, but since the Week 3 matchup against the Tennessee Titans, Watson has struggled to maintain his ground. The quarterback suffered a shoulder injury against the Titans in that game. While he successfully managed to return, he suffered a displaced fracture to the glenoid in his right shoulder in Week 10 against the Baltimore Ravens.

A couple of days later, the Browns revealed that Watson would be required to undergo season-ending surgery to repair his shoulder. Then came the 2024 season, and let’s just say the quarterback had the most awful first seven weeks of a season in his career, as the Browns went 1-6. He tore his Achilles tendon against the Bengals, ending his season.

While he was expected to return for the 2025 season, he re-ruptured his right Achilles tendon and underwent another surgery. Watson didn’t play a single game during the 2025 season. After back-to-back season-ending injuries, Watson addressed the ups and downs..

“It was a lot of ups and downs,” Watson said of his rehab, per ESPN. “I learned a lot about myself. Learned that [I] just got to be patient. Just keep working, keep pushing forward. But I’ve always kind of had that mentality since I was a kid growing up. So it wasn’t anything new for me. The situation and environment was probably new, just being with the type of injuries that I had. But outside of that, I just keep pushing forward. That’s how life goes. Life is going to continue to go on. So yeah, it’s been tough, but at the same time, I was able to grow and learn.”

The way things have been shaped up, the Browns don’t seem to hand over the keys to Watson. But at the same time, head coach Todd Monken also wants to have a starting quarterback before the training camp. Whether Watson would earn the job is currently still up in the air. Meanwhile, he also addressed the Browns’ owner’s comments from the last offseason, when Jimmy Haslam took a dig at Watson.

Deshaun Watson downplayed Jimmy Haslam’s criticism

The Browns didn’t get the results from Deshaun Watson they expected after signing him on a five-year, $230 million deal ahead of the 2022 season. That led Jimmy Haslam to take a dig at the quarterback and call that fully guaranteed deal a “big swing-and-miss” in March 2025. Now, Watson has addressed that criticism while also acknowledging his relationship with the Haslams.

“The relationship is great,” Watson said. “Dee, Jimmy, they were at my wedding. We talk all the time. He calls me whenever. It happens and things like that. One of my favorite baseball players that I’ve been watching is Bryce Harper. Sometimes he swings, but he stands back up, and he gets another opportunity, and he hits a home run. So you never know what opportunity might show up, and that’s what I have right now.”

Deshaun Watson is optimistic about reviving his career with the Browns. He just needs an opportunity to start in the 2026 season. Whether he’d get that opportunity and how well he’d use it remains to be seen.