Cleveland Browns baffle fanbase by selecting quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson

The Cleveland Browns have taken quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the 2023 NFL Draft.

The Cleveland Browns made a unique call in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft by selecting Dorian Thompson-Robinson. Thompson-Robinson is a quarterback out of UCLA, who started all five years he was at the University of California, Los Angeles. Despite playing five years at UCLA, he was not the most dynamic player, nor was he always healthy.

His grades with PFF aren’t great. Despite being a five-year starter, he went from a score of 66 in 2020, to a remarkable score of 85.2 in 2021, back down to a solid score of 74.8 in 2022. According to PFF, he’s terrible against a strong pass rush (49.5) and is average with the deep ball (66.5).

Thompson-Robinson is fast, however, with a 4.56 40-yard dash, so the young man has the speed and mobility to extend plays. He does fit with the other two Browns quarterbacks Deshaun Watson and Joshua Dobbs as quarterbacks with profound mobility.

Overall, he’s a project player, and one the Cleveland Browns could probably have waited to get later in the draft.

Previous picks so far

"The Browns take Cedric Tillman.The Browns take nose tackle Siaki Ika.The Browns take offensive tackle Dawand Jones.The Browns take defensive end Isaiah McGuire."

Cleveland Browns did not need to waste a draft pick on Dortian Thompson-Robinson

Most quarterbacks taken out of the first round don’t have long careers, and very rarely does a pick in the fifth-round turn into a reliable backup, let alone a starter. The Browns would be better off just searching the pile of former fifth and sixth-round picks already taken by a team over the last two seasons who are already free agents than drafting one so high in the draft.