Legal development comes days before season opener
Deshaun Watson entered a not guilty plea Wednesday in Cleveland Municipal Court to a speeding ticket tied to an Aug. 26 traffic stop, court filings show. Watson was cited by the Ohio State Highway Patrol for allegedly driving 86 mph in a 60 mph zone on I-480, a minor legal matter that arrives just days before his first regular-season start since October 2024 in Jacksonville.
The plea coincides with Watson’s return to the field as he opens the final year of the fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million contract the Cleveland Browns signed in March 2022. He will make his first regular-season start since October 2024 when the Browns face the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.
Performance, availability and contract pressure
Watson has played 19 games under the guaranteed deal but his availability has been repeatedly affected by off-field and medical issues: a suspension that cost most of 2022, a shoulder injury that ended 2023, a torn right Achilles in 2024 and a second tear followed by surgery in January 2025 that sidelined him last season, Yahoo! News reported.
Yahoo! News also noted Watson is 9-10 as a Browns starter with a passer rating of 80.7, 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. The outlet calculated Cleveland has spent roughly $9.6 million per start across the contract. Though the deal expires after this season, the Browns will carry more than $86 million in dead cap into 2027 because of prior restructures, Yahoo! News reported.
Watson said, “Me being on the last year of my deal, being in year 10, I feel like this is my opportunity to go out there and showcase that I can still play in this league, and I want to continue to play in this league. This is my opportunity to do that.”
Coaching choice and public reaction
Todd Monken named Watson the starter on Aug. 24 over Shedeur Sanders, a decision that stirred vocal displeasure among some fans. Letters to the Plain Dealer characterized the move as a “slap in the face,” and Yahoo! News reported fans drove past team headquarters shouting boos and that signs objecting to the decision appeared around Cleveland.
Monken’s response to the backlash has been that “the people making the noise are not in the building.” Monken named Deshaun Watson the starter on Aug. 24 over Shedeur Sanders.
Watson’s legal plea, his long injury history, the optics of the contract and the public reaction all converge as he attempts to reestablish himself on the field while closing out a fully guaranteed, high-profile deal. The Browns enter the season with the financial implications of that contract extending beyond Watson’s expected on-field availability, per Yahoo! News’ reporting on dead-cap figures.
