Browns trade Joshua Dobbs

    As teams near the final weekend of the pre-season and the final roster cuts on Tuesday, the Cleveland Browns traded veteran backup quarterback Joshua Dobbs to the desperate Arizona Cardinals in a trade that the Browns nor Dobbs saw coming when the veteran returned to Cleveland as a free agent signing in the off-season.

Cleveland, a team that is always searching for draft capital after two drafts and one more to go as the Browns are still paying the Houston Texans for DeShaun Watson, acquired the Cardinal's fifth-rounder in the 2024 draft in return for Dobbs and the Browns' seventh-rounder in 2024.

Dobbs signed with the Browns last season as a backup to Jacoby Brissett and was released after the return of DeShaun Watson from his suspension before signing with Tennessee, where Dobbs started the final two games of the Titans season.

Dobbs was pursued by the Browns as a free agent after Brissett signed with Washington in the off-season as Cleveland was looking to backup DeShaun Watson with a veteran with a similar playing style and with Dobbs and Watson knowing each other last season, it seemed to be a good fit.

And I think it could have been but the Cardinals are in critical need of a quarterback with Kyler Murray expected to miss much and possibly all of the upcoming season and with only aging former Brown Colt McCoy and fifth-round draftee Clayton Tune available, Arizona felt that a fifth-rounder for Dobbs was a fair price to pay for a player that could be their starter for much of the 2023 season.

The Browns also didn't expect to see the strong performance of their own fifth-round quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson in pre-season, throwing for over three hundred yards, two touchdowns, completed over sixty-five percent of his passes, and didn't throw an interception, so Thompson- Robinson's play allowed the Browns to feel comfortable enough to trade Dobbs.

Cleveland had waived Kellen Mond earlier in the week and recalled him to the team after trading Dobbs, so the trade with Arizona must have come together very quickly or the Browns wouldn't have waived Mond.

Mond's status is far from secure, however, as the Browns will likely look closely at the quarterbacks that are released next week.

The Browns now have the following 2024 draft picks: second, third, two picks in both round five and round six, and a pick in round seven.