Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson has had a setback in his recovery from a ruptured Achilles suffered in Week 7 against the Cincinnati Bengals, general Andrew Berry said Monday.
“Yesterday, as we went through our normal player medical process, we did learn that he did have a setback in his Achilles recovery,” Berry told reporters. “We don’t have all the details and everything yet, but it will obviously extend the recovery process for him. It is new information, [I] just learned about it in the past couple of hours.”
According to Berry, Watson, 29, told doctors during his exit physical something did not feel right. Watson is still early in his recovery from the injury and the team did not have a definitive timeline yet for him to resume football activities.
Berry said he’s still collecting information about Watson’s setback, including how it happened.
As for the implications for how this could affect Watson’s status for training camp or even the start of the 2025 regular season, Berry said, “It’s too early to tell.”
Watson planted his right leg in the first half of the Browns’ 21-14 loss as he started to scramble and immediately crumpled to the turf in pain. Athletic trainers tended to him on the field as backup quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson warmed up. Watson eventually left the field on a cart.
In December, Watson and the Browns agreed to a contract restructure that will not affect the $92 million in fully guaranteed money Watson is owed for the 2025 and 2026 NFL seasons, nor the $72.9 million salary-cap hit he’ll have for each season, but it will allow Cleveland to spread his dead money over multiple seasons if he stays with the team through 2026.
The alternative was a sizable cap hit in 2027, when Watson will no longer be under contract with the team.
Watson has yet to play more than seven games in a season since joining the Browns — having played 19 in total after signing a five-year, $230 million contract in 2022 — and finished his second straight season on the injured list.
