The Opening Drive 8/10: Let's Predict the Browns Future
As we toil in controversy, it could be fun to think about what the Browns depth chart might look like in 2027.
Look, I never want to punt on a season. I am NOT doing that here. But as we toil away in a quarterback controversy many of us are tired of thinking, reading, and discussing, it might be of interest to think about what the future of an already promising depth chart might look like down the line. Projecting a depth chart 14 months before the games are played is a different exercise than projecting one in August of the season itself. Most of it is genuine guesswork — injuries, camp battles, draft class, and free-agent classes that don’t exist yet. But one part of the 2027 Browns roster is more knowable right now than almost anything on the 2026 depth chart, and it’s the position everyone assumes is the least predictable: quarterback.
Deshaun Watson’s contract mechanics are less speculative and now they’re arithmetic. The Browns restructured his deal in March 2026 specifically to set up a post-June 1 release in March 2027, spreading roughly $86 million in dead money across the 2027 and 2028 cap years rather than absorbing it in one shot. That release isn’t a possibility the front office is weighing — it’s the plan they’ve been building toward since the December 2024 restructure first converted his voidable years into real ones. Barring a genuinely transformative 2026 season, Watson will not be on Cleveland’s 2027 roster. That single fact does more to shape next year’s depth chart than any camp battle will.
What replaces him is where the guesswork starts, but it’s informed guesswork. The Browns own two first-round picks in the 2027 draft — their own selection plus the pick they acquired from the Rams in the Myles Garrett trade — giving Andrew Berry the draft capital to take a quarterback early without mortgaging the rest of the roster to do it, or to package one of those firsts to move up for a specific prospect if the 2026 season clarifies who that is. The question is whether Shedeur Sanders carries real weight into 2027 as well; if Sanders plays his way into the starting role this season, and performs very well, the more likely path is Cleveland using that draft capital on the roster around him rather than over him. However, based on the current vibes of the team with regard to Sanders, it is hard to predict 2026 ends up working out for him to keep the Browns out of the race next offseason. The quarterback room a year from now almost certainly includes a meaningful rookie, so we won’t deal in wild hypotheticals.
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Take is easy on 2026 as it is largely predictions, but 2027 is where you can see how the talent influx can be special if players pan out this season. The rookies, outside the quarterback, come in with time to grow and learn, and the Browns add premium picks (11 picks total) to premium positions they naturally need.
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