5 Things Browns Fans Need to Know About Dorian Thompson-Robinson

Cleveland Browns fans tuning in to Sunday's game against the Baltimore Ravens might find themselves asking "Who is Dorian Thompson-Robinson? And where is Deshaun Watson?"

Watson has been dealing with a shoulder injury that he suffered last week against the Tennessee Titans, and he was a late addition to the Browns' injury report on Friday.

Fans who followed the preseason closely know all about Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Watson's backup, but those who don't may have some questions.

So here are five things you need to know about DTR.

Dorian Thompson Robinson: Five Things to Know About Deshaun Watson's Backup

1. Thompson-Robinson stole the backup job from Joshua Dobbs with an incredible preseason

Thompson-Robinson entered training camp as the fourth QB on the Browns depth chart. Watson was obviously the starter, and Cleveland had signed Joshua Dobbs in free agency to be Watson's backup. Dobbs was a coveted QB2, and the job appeared to be clearly his.

Kellen Mond was also brought in, and he was the third quarterback on the depth chart. A former third-round pick, the veteran got priority over the rookie Thompson-Robinson.

Well that order didn't last long.

Thompson-Robinson looked very good in the preseason opener, going 8-of-11 for 82 yards with 1 touchdown in the Hall of Fame game. He would’ve been 10-of-11 too, but his receivers recorded two drops.

That already had him threatening Mond for the QB3 role, then he clearly jumped past Mond with a 0-of-10, 202-yard performance in the second preseason game. It was clear that the first showing was no fluke, and all of a sudden Dobbs was in the crosshairs too.

DTR cooled off a little over his last two preseason showings, but still finished with an impressive 440 yards with 2 touchdowns and 0 interceptions on 58 pass attempts across his four games.

Just like that, the Browns were willing to trade Dobbs away to the Arizona Cardinals (where he's starting in place of the injured Kyler Murray). They had full confidence rolling into the season with Thompson-Robinson as Deshaun Watson's backup.

2. Thompson-Robinson crushed his own draft stock by playing five years at UCLA

Things were looking very good for DTR after his 2021 senior season. The 2020 campaign was a COVID-shortened one, but he had been named second-team All-PAC 12 in both 2020 and 2021. 

That 2021 season saw him match his previous career high for passing touchdowns (21) with half as many interceptions (6) as the last time he threw that many. His 8.5 yards per pass attempt were a career-high, as were his 609 rushing yards.

But he decided to take advantage of the extra year of eligibility that the COVID season afforded him and play a fifth year as the Bruins’ starter.

His rushing stats remained steady, but his passing efficiency fell off slightly (8.3 yards per attempt) and while he set a new career-high in touchdowns (27) he also threw 10 interceptions.

He received no postseason honors for the first time since 2019, and his 74.8 grade from Pro Football Focus (PFF) showcased a big step back from 2021 (85.2).

He bet on himself though, feeling like he was going to really lead his squad and make an impact and boost his draft stock. You have to love that confidence in a quarterback. For Browns fans, you also have to love that potentially hurting his draft stock did let him fall to Cleveland in the draft.

3. Thompson-Robinson was not a highly-regarded prospect, or a popular draft pick

Quarterback wasn't exactly a need for the Browns in this draft, especially with Dobbs as the QB2, and taking DTR felt like a bit of a luxury pick.

It was late enough in the draft not to be too worrying though, since Thompson-Robinson had fallen to the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft and the Browns made him the 140th player taken. Nine quarterbacks went off the board before he did.

Thompson-Robinson had been the fastest quarterback at the combine, so some fans were high on his potential, but even with such a late pick many were not happy and didn't have high hopes for the selection:

Of course, there's never a time when fans are happier to eat their own words than being wrong about a draft pick being bad. Everyone gets predictions wrong sometimes, and being wrong but finding out your team landed a gem in the draft?

Well you've gotta be pretty happy about that.

4. Thompson-Robinson was high school teammates with fellow Browns rookie Cedric Tillman

When the Browns pulled the trigger on DTR it was one day after they had spent a third-round pick on Tennessee's Cedric Tillman.

I don't know if the team was thinking about the connection at all, but they reunited the two when they added Thompson-Robinson on Day 3.

Thompson-Robinson played at Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas for the 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. Tillman was there with him in those final two years.

It wasn’t until that final year that Thompson-Robinson got the start, but he established himself as a four-star recruit by throwing for 3,275 yards with 38 touchdowns and just 3 interceptions while also running for 426 yards and 7 touchdowns.

Tillman also didn’t see the field much until their senior season, but he averaged over 50 yards per game catching passes from DTR, tallying 774 yards and 7 touchdowns on 37 receptions (for a whopping 20.9 yards per catch). Tillman established himself as a three-star recruit.

Neither has had a chance to make an on-field impact for the Browns yet, but depending on how Watson works out long-term in this offense, maybe a Bishop Gorman reunion will be at the center of this offense.

5. This would be a brutal matchup for Thompson-Robinson's debut

Whether it's just the way their defense plays or a benefit of practicing against Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens' defense is incredibly good at keeping mobile quarterbacks in check.

For a dual-threat rookie like Thompson-Robinson, removing one of his biggest weapons from his game would make everything else that much more difficult.

The Ravens haven’t really been tested by a rushing quarterback this year, but in 2022 they held opposing passers to just 13.7 rushing yards per game — the eighth-fewest in the NFL. Stats like that can often just come down to who you played against (a team that faces Lamar twice a year will naturally give up more QB rushing yards than one who doesn’t, for example), but even good rushers struggled against Baltimore. Daniel Jones, for example, had just 6 yards on 6 carries, but he was the NFL's fifth-leading rusher at the position.

The Browns' offensive line is elite, which can really help a young quarterback. But the line doesn't offer much assistance when you're out of the pocket scrambling, so it would just be DTR against the Ravens' D in those situations. Not a friendly matchup for a rookie.

He showed in the preseason that he can totally get the job done with his arm, so this isn't to say that he's doomed if he doesn't get running room, but it definitely makes things more difficult.

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