Photo courtesy of Steve DiMatteo

Was this the worst trade in NFL history? By Tyler Duke

What if I told you your team traded three first-round picks, a third, and a 4th round pick for what would be a below-average quarterback? What if I also told you that they would pay that quarterback 230 million dollars before he took a snap? 

We are of course talking about the Deshaun Watson trade. In the 2021 off-season, we saw the Browns give the Texans three first-round picks in 2021, 2022, and 2023, for Deshaun Watson. 

This trade was done after Baker Mayfield had his worst year playing through a shoulder injury. In the 2021 season, the Browns missed the playoffs completely in large part due to bad quarterback play. So the Browns took a gamble and traded for Deshaun Watson in hopes he would drastically improve their offense. 

Now to be honest this move didn’t seem like a bad decision Deshaun Watson was arguably a top 5 quarterback in the NFL two seasons prior and it looked like Deshaun Watson would be the perfect fit for their offense to go with their established running game.

We are now two years removed and Deshaun Watson has played in 12 games and has thrown for just over 2200 yards with 14 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. While Deshaun Watson has played less than 17 games for the Browns these stats are not what you expect if you're paying him as a top 10 player in this league. 

To make matters worse the Cleveland Browns have stayed relevant despite Deshaun Watson's poor play showing that those picks could have gone a long in filling out the roster with young talent. In the 2023 to 2024 season, the Browns made the playoffs after Deshaun Watson was hurt with a season-ending shoulder injury with Joe Flacco as the starting quarterback in Watson's absence. 

While you may ask if these picks that the Browns gave up turned out to be anything good unfortunately for Browns fans the answer is yes. With those picks, the Texans would trade up and take Will Anderson Jr and Tank Dell who both have bright futures ahead not to mention that the Texans still have the Browns' fourth-round pick in this year's draft 

I think that the Brown's window for a championship may close within the next few years as the focal point of the Browns' offense Nick Chubb is coming off injuries and who knows how he will look. Many have to wonder if it would have been a better idea to draft a quarterback rather than trade for Deshaun Watson as they would have had cap space to add established talent.

In the 2022 draft, the Texans selected C.J. Stroud who already looks like he will have a hall-of-fame career. Not to mention the Texans found a great coach in Demeco Ryan' and looks as though the Houston Texans will be a perennial playoff team for the foreseeable future.

So we have to ask ourselves was this the worst trade in NFL history?