The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Should Browns go after J.J. Watt?
J.J. Watt is now a free agent. The Browns need another bookend pass rusher to pair with Myles Garrett.
What’s not to like — other than what it would cost to sign Watt, his long injury history, the fact he turns 32 next month and the fact he had only five sacks in 2020 while playing 16 games. He could still help a contender get to another level in the playoffs.
Watt, a star defensive end with the Houston Texans for 10 years, on Feb. 12 asked for release. The Texans granted it before he changed his mind. He was under contract for a non-guaranteed $17.5 million.
“Simply put, there has been no person in the past decade who has made a greater impact on the Texans organization than J.J. Watt,” Texans co-founder Janice McNair said in a statement.
Watt was the NFL Defensive Player of the Year three times between 2012 and 2015. Injuries limited him to three games in 2016, five in 2017 and eight in 2019. He had 16 sacks and went to his fifth Pro Bowl in 2018 when he played in 16 games.
“Every roster has significant turnover,” Browns general manager Andrew Berry said last month in his wrapup press conference. “That’s just the way of the league and that’s the way that it is in a salary cap sport with 53 guys on the roster. I don’t really go into it with the mindset of like, ‘Hey, we’ve reached this point. We’re just one or two players away.’ I don’t think any team is just one or two players away, quite frankly.”
The Browns were 11-5 in the 2020 regular season. They made the playoffs for the first time since 2002. They beat the Steelers, 4837, in a wildcard game — their first postseason victory in 26 years. They were eliminated by the Chiefs in the divisional round.
Las Vegas responded to the news by issuing odds on which team Watt would play for next. The Steelers, despite salary cap woes, top the list at 3/2, so J.J. could play with his brothers, T.J. and Derek Watt. The Buccaneers are next at 2/1 followed by the Raves and Packers at 6/1. The Browns and Dolphins are eighth at
14/1.
Watt said he wants to go to a contender.
The Browns have approximately $21.7 million in salary cap room, according to Overthecap.com.
Ten teams have more money to spend. Since he is now a free agent, a team could sign Watt immediately rather than wait for the start of the league year
on March 17.
Berry would have to be careful about how much he could allocate to Watt or any free agent because he might want to prioritize spending money for the future on his own players — running back Nick Chubb, for example.
Chubb is entering the final year of his rookie contract. Plus, the Browns are
expected to announce they are picking up the fifthyear options of quarterback Baker Mayfield and cornerback Denzel Ward. Those options would kick in in 2022.
“The dollars you spend are not always in terms of external acquisitions,” Berry said. “Really, you do want to get to a point where a lot of your big activity in free agency is more in terms of retaining your core.
“You can look at the opponent that we lost to (the Kansas City Chiefs) and you think about their offseason activity last year. They spent a lot of money, but it was on extending their core. As our team’s life cycle continues to transition to what I would call a little bit more of a mature state, we certainly hope to be in that role, as well, because those are good problems to have.”
Still, the Browns need a defensive end, whether it ends up being Watt or someone else.
Olivier Vernon had nine sacks for the Browns in 2020 while playing in 14 games with 13 starts. He is a free agent coming off a ruptured Achilles tendon suffered Jan. 3 while playing the Steelers in the final regular-season game.