The Cleveland Browns are getting their backup quarterbacks ready to play for DeShaun Watson, who’s suspended for the first 11 games of the season.
Jacoby Brissett is the projected starter, and Josh Dobbs and Josh Rosen will be his backups.
Commentator Terry Pluto said Brissett brings the most NFL experience.
Brissett, 29, started his college career at the University of Florida and transferred to N.C. State, where he started for two years and earned a degree in communications.
"Before every game, he would write encouraging notes to all the starters and the linemen. The year that he was sitting out because he was a transfer, he used to drive to all the road games. He wasn't allowed to travel with the team, so he would go and just kind of scout from the stands a little bit," Pluto said.
Brissett was a third-round pick by the New England Patriots in 2016. A year later, he was traded to the Indianapolis Colts, where he spent four years backing up Andrew Luck, who was often injured. He was 4-11 in 2017 and 7-8 in 2019.
Brissett was traded to Miami in 2021, where he was 2-3 as a starter. Then he became a free agent and signed a one-year deal with the Browns.
"Cleveland is his fourth team, and he has a career 14-23 record as a starter," Pluto said.
Then there's Josh Dobbs.
Dobbs, 27, played all four years at the University of Tennessee.
"He has a degree in aerospace engineering, a 4.0 GPA, and he interned at NASA. So I have a feeling, Mr. Dobbs, if nothing else, will probably have a good career after football," Pluto said.
He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round in 2017. As the third-string quarterback, he never started.
In 2019, he was traded Jacksonville, and then waived. Pittsburgh claimed him again. He rarely played during his next two years in Pittsburgh.
The Browns signed him this year as a free agent, and he's been impressive during training camp.
"Cleveland is his third team, and he's thrown only 17 passes in NFL regular season games," Pluto said.
So, the Browns brought in another quarterback: Josh Rosen.
Rosen set a number of records playing at UCLA and was considered a top draft pick in 2018, the same year Baker Mayfield went No. 1 to the Browns.
Rosen ended up being drafted 10th by Arizona. "It was a bad team and he got injured. They traded him after a year," Pluto said.
Since then, he had stints Miami, Tampa Bay, San Francisco and Atlanta before the Browns brought him in this year.
"He reminds me of one of those typical shell-shocked Browns quarterbacks. He just doesn't have the confidence right now," Pluto said.
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