Browns QB Room Could Be Too Deep for Tyler Huntley

The Cleveland Browns are enjoying something not many teams in the NFL can fathom. A quarterback room that might be too deep.

Cleveland kicked off the 2024 preseason on Saturday against the Packers. On the scoreboard, the Browns lost 23-10. On the field, Cleveland won. ... Sort of.

The backup quarterback position is pretty much already locked down by former Tampa Bay Buccaneer and New Orleans Saint Jameis Winston. But these days - as Cleveland experienced last year - you need more than two. And behind Winston are Dorian Thompson-Robinson and former Baltimore Ravens backup quarterback Tyler Huntley.

Winston was signed this offseason to a one-year, $4 million deal to sit on the bench and anticipate another Watson injury. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. But Winston, himself, has a slight injury history. So what happens if they both go down? Sounds impossible, right? Nope. Enter the Browns' 2023 season. It took five quarterbacks to make the playoff run, including Watson and Thompson-Robinson who were both injured.

Huntley was brought in to compete with Thompson-Robinson as the No. 3 quarterback. But with the performance DTR is showing on the field, the competition might already be over.

In Saturday's loss to the Packers, Winston, Huntley and DTR all saw playing time. But the majority of that went to DTR, who looked really good.

DTR completed 14 of 18 passes for 134 yards, posting a 97.7 quarterback rating. Huntley threw just nine passes, completing six for 41 yards with a rating of 76.6.

With DTR receiving the majority of the playing time in the game might be an indication that he's already favored for the job through training camp.

When healthy, Watson has been one of the top quarterbacks in the league since being drafted No. 12 overall by Houston in 2017. But the operative word in that sentence is, "healthy." And the former Clemson Tiger has been anything but since arriving in Cleveland.

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That makes the roles behind him even more important.

For Huntley, it could mean being cut before the final 53-man roster is announced, and maybe a return to Baltimore where both Josh Johnson and Devin Leary struggled in the preseason loss to the Eagles over the weekend.