Football is officially back as the Cleveland Browns have wrapped up their first week of training camp at Greenbrier in West Virginia. The team has the day off today to relax and partake in some team-building opportunities after three days of work. The roster currently sits at 90 players, but the Browns will eventually have to cut that number down to 53.
And every year, teams end up shopping some of their fringe players around the league to see if they can at least get an asset out of them before opting to outright release them. The Browns are no different. And while every player that could get traded would not be released instead, here are three players that could entice other teams to make a move.
WR Donovan Peoples-Jones
General manager Andrew Berry has proven he will not undersell a player. This happened with running back Kareem Hunt (twice) a season ago when the Browns opted to hang onto him despite his trade request. This means it will take a healthy offer for the Browns to move off of Peoples-Jones as he comes off a year where he nearly clipped 1,000 yards receiving.
However, after selecting Cedric Tillman in the third round of the 2023 NFL draft, a wide receiver with a similar skillset to Peoples-Jones, the Browns could look to get something in return for an expiring asset. There have been no talks of a contract extension yet between the Browns and Peoples-Jones, so the possibility exists.
In a year where the Browns have pushed their chips into the center of the table, however, it is hard to imagine they will remove a potential offensive contributor from the equation without an overpay from another team.
QB Joshua Dobbs
It is not likely that quarterback Joshua Dobbs gets traded. After drafting Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the fifth round this past Spring, the Browns will likely give him a full year before taking over as the backup quarterback.
However, there is not much hope in Cleveland if Deshaun Watson goes down with a serious injury anyway, and Dobbs has proven to be a popular option across the league. From the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Jacksonville Jaguars to the Browns to the Detroit Lions and then to the Tennessee Titans, Dobbs has always found himself in an NFL building.
If Thompson-Robinson, who will see a heavy dose of action in the preseason, can prove that he is capable of handling the offense and absorbing the playbook this summer, the Browns could look to flip Dobbs for an asset.
This is what they did with David Blough back in 2018 after their third-stringer had a strong camp in Cleveland.
Backup quarterbacks are not a dime-a-dozen either, so if some team wants to kick a late draft pick to the Browns, Thompson-Robinson could find himself backing up Watson sooner rather than later.
C Nick Harris
Fourth-year center Nick Harris has had the worst misfortune over the last calendar year than an NFL player could have seen.
Slated to start at center last year, Harris suffered a season-ending injury on the first drive of the preseason. Then backup Ethan Pocic played so well in his relief that the Browns gave him a three-year contract extension. And then with their sixth round pick, the Browns drafted another young center in the form of Ohio State’s Luke Wypler.
As Harris enters his contract year in Cleveland, it simply does not make logical sense for him to have a firm spot on the roster. The Browns have four years of control with Wypler vs. one year with Harris, both are center-only players (we saw Harris at guard in 2020 and it was ugly), and only one is coming off of a serious lower-body injury.
With that being said, however, Harris has proven success in spot-playing opportunities at center. He started against the Green Bay Packers in 2021 and played quite well in relief of JC Tretter.
For a team that wants to take a flyer on a potential contributor or firm depth piece, kicking a Day 3 pick to the Browns makes a ton of sense for them.
