Pondering what every single move your team makes is what the NFL offseason is all about.
So when Andrew Berry signed a fourth quarterback in Tyler Huntley over the weekend, Browns fans raced to figure out what the move means for the team's QB room in 2024?
The most important thing to remember is that the Browns carried four quarterbacks on the roster throughout last offseason as well. Last year's group featured Deshaun Watson, Joshua Dobbs, Dorain-Thompson Robinson and Kellen Mond from spring practices to the end of training camp. During the final week of the preseason Berry wound up trading Dobbs to Arizona to whittle the room down to three players on top of making some additional tweaks after that.
This year, it's Watson, Jameis Winston, DTR and now Huntley, which raises some questions about the status of Thompson-Robinson going into next season. It's plenty reasonable to the former Ravens' backup could push the UCLA product for a roster spot in the months ahead. However, Berry and company have expressed consistent handwringing for Thompson-Robinson following his rookie season.
The Browns brass has also been very reluctant to move on from their own draft picks, some of whom have shown even less than Thompson-Robinson did in his first year. That makes it extremely unlikely that they'd give up on the fifth-round pick so soon. While there's still a lot of room for DTR to grow he got better as the season went on.
The addition of Huntley feels like it may actually have more to do with Watson than it does Thompson-Robinson. As the 28-year-old continues working his way back from shoulder surgery this offseason, his recoevery process has been on track to this point and he's expected to start throwing any day now.
That should be music to the ears of Browns fans, but in the event anything derails Watson's return to the field before Week 1 next season, Huntley provides a little extra depth at the position. Essentially, it doesn't hurt to have Huntley in case of emergency and that's probably reason enough to grab him if you're the Browns – who have shown a propensity for carrying four QBs this time of year.
It's honestly a bit stunning that Huntley was even still available considering how valuable the backup QB position has become in recent years. Huntley proved plenty capable of taking over as a spot starter when needed in Baltimore. Between 2021-2022 the 26-year-old appeared in 13 games with eight starts and completed 65.7-percent of his passes for 1,739 yards and five touchdowns.
Maybe the Browns will need him, maybe they won't. In mid-March though the move is pretty inconsequential. That could be a different story come August, and perhaps Berry even finds a suitor for Huntley the same way he did with Dobbs last year. For now, it doesn't hurt to have an extra arm in the arsenal just in case.
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