DTR Still Has A Bright Future In Cleveland
Credit: Scott Galvin-USA TODAY Sports
Your typical backup quarterback is the guy who you see in the preseason, and maybe garbage time snaps from Weeks 1-17. Maybe your team locks up a playoff spot early and the second-stringer gets a spot start in Week 18. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Browns’ backup quarterbacks have wound up becoming among the most important members of the organization in the past two years. Heck, Joe Flacco guided them through must-win games and into the postseason last year. Your backups and Cleveland’s are not the same.
Flacco played his way into the fan base’s hearts last year, and now Dorian Thompson-Robinson, despite being the third-string quarterback, just won over the Dawg Pound with another strong August. DTR has been one of the top preseason performers over the past two seasons, turning heads not only in the 216, but all across the league.
Andrew Berry drafted Thompson-Robinson for a reason, after all, and it wasn’t for him to warm the bench. Instead, he’s been able to learn under veterans like Deshaun Watson, Jameis Winston (who is firmly in place as the Browns’ backup for 2024), and Flacco. Thanks to this wealth of knowledge and his talent level, DTR may just be able to transform from a preseason legend to the Browns’ future starter.
It’s no secret that Watson has been the most polarizing Browns player over the past two years. On top of the off-the-field incidents in Houston, Watson’s average play has Browns fans debating whether he can truly return to the elite passing threat he was during his time with the Texans.
The former Clemson Tiger still has three years remaining on his contract, more than enough time to prove he belongs in Orange and Brown. However, when that deal is up at the end of the 2026 season, depending on how the time in between goes, the Browns could choose a different path and hand the reins to DTR.
That is, assuming the former UCLA quarterback is still on the team. In the lead-up to roster cuts, DTR was rumored to potentially be traded, with Cleveland perhaps keeping Winston and Tyler Huntley instead. Surprisingly, all four QBs made the initial 53-man roster, before Huntley was waived Thursday morning.
Thompson-Robinson has shown glimpses of greatness during his time in Cleveland, with his best highlights coming in the preseason. During the ramp-up to 2023, DTR’s stats through four games (as well as several split snaps) came out to 37-of-58 with 440 yards, two touchdowns, and 69 rushing yards. It wasn’t just his amazing passing or rushing plays that got people’s heads turning, it was also the “non-QB” plays that garnered intrigue.
DTR with the block… pic.twitter.com/wzwKeQ0jGK
— ESPN Cleveland (@ESPNCleveland) August 4, 2023
The 2024 preseason has been a similar story for Thompson-Robinson, splitting reps between Cleveland’s new backups, Winston and (for the time) Huntley. Still, DTR produced solid stats with a handful of highlights, despite minimal snaps. He finished the 2024 preseason 38-of-55 for 375 yards, throwing both a touchdown and interception.
DORIAN THOMPSON-ROBINSON! 57-yard TD to Jamari Thrash!#DawgPound pic.twitter.com/NVmmbBXjQD
— Roberto Shenanigans (@Rob_Shenanigans) August 25, 2024
Despite these moments of brilliance in August, Thompson-Robinson had trouble finding his footing as a rookie in the regular season. He won just one of his three starts and particularly struggled in his first-ever game, where he was thrown to the wolves against the Baltimore Ravens defense. He finished the contest with zero touchdowns, three interceptions, and four sacks.
Given the circumstances (which included that game occurring in Week 4 and going in almost cold after Watson was ruled out for the game at the last minute), it’s difficult to blame DTR for a woeful performance. He salvaged things a bit after making two more starts, finishing last season with a completion percentage of 53.6%, a touchdown, and four total interceptions.
It wasn’t pretty, but that’s to be expected from a fifth-round rookie. Give DTR more time to work under Watson and Winston, both of whom share stylistic similarities to the sophomore, and he just might grow into something special. We have already seen examples of this across the league.
The highest-profile recent example is Jordan Love sitting behind Aaron Rodgers for his first two years as a Green Bay Packer. Once he finally got under center, Love had one of the best seasons of any quarterback in the NFL last season, throwing for 4,159 yards with a 32-to-11 TD-to-INT ratio. The Atlanta Falcons are trying to copy that exact formula with Michael Penix Jr, their first-round pick, waiting behind newly-acquired QB Kirk Cousins.
Both of these choices to draft Love and Penix were met with a significant amount of push-back, but as of right now, Packers fans are thankful to have Love at QB. And while DTR doesn’t have the first-round pedigree of those two, the Browns’ low investment in him means they have a no-risk player with solid potential on their hands.
DTR might need patience to reach that next step in his career, but he has the latent talent to do so. He’s got the time as well, as there is not a lot of pressure on him at the moment. Watson and Winston are the ones tasked to handle 2024, and Watson is still here for two years after that. If Thompson-Robinson can stick around in Cleveland, expect him to be competing for the starting job in the not-too-distant future.
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