The Browns didn't have any early draft picks, but they did bring an early-round talent in former Jet wideout Elijah Moore. Moore's time in New York looked finite when he complained about his role and wanted to be traded a year ago, plus the Jets had to clear room for Aaron Rodgers' various golfing buddies. Moore needed to go elsewhere.
If you looked only at his 2022 season, Moore doesn't look particularly desirable. From Week 5 on, he had only two games where he caught more than 2 passes -- he got phased out. Carping out his role didn't help, and the Jets had some pretty shaky quarterbacking going on in a lot of games.
But Moore's rookie season, 2021, was a lot more encouraging. Prior to getting hurt in December, he was tearing it up.
In a stretch of six games from Week 8 through Week 13, Moore caught 34 passes for 459 yards and 5 touchdowns. That's nearly 6 catches for 77 yards and a score each week. I realize it's not reasonable to project six games out over an entire season, but I'll do it anyway: would have been a 1,300-yard, 14-touchdown season. That's not happening, but as a top-3 wide receiver for Deshaun Watson in 2023, strong numbers look very possible.
| ELIJAH MOORE, WK 8-13, 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opp | Tgt | No | Yds | TD |
| Cin. | 6 | 6 | 67 | 0 |
| at Ind. | 8 | 7 | 84 | 2 |
| Buf. | 6 | 3 | 44 | 1 |
| Mia. | 11 | 8 | 141 | 1 |
| at Hou. | 8 | 4 | 46 | 0 |
| Phi. | 12 | 6 | 77 | 1 |
The Browns have Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones, but everyone else (David Bell, Anthony Schwartz, Marquise Goodwin, rookie Cedric Tillman) -- they're just competing for depth chart placement, with no certain No. 3. Even Peoples-Jones caught only 3 TDs in last year's breakout season, so there's room for Moore to push for the No. 2 job.
--Andy Richardson