CLEVELAND, Ohio – David Njoku’s agent Drew Rosenhaus has asked the Browns to change their new client before the start of training camp, but the Browns are not looking to move him, a league source told cleveland.com.
Rosenhaus first told ESPN’s Adam Schefter about the trade request, and said: “It is in David’s best interest to find a new team at this time.”
But the Browns, who picked up their $ 6.4 million fifth-year option in April for the 2021 season, want to keep him and probably want a first-round pick to trade him, a source told cleveland.com. The Cowboys are a team that may have some interest, another source said.
Chosen as the 29th in 2017, Njoku apparently feels he should take a backseat to signed free agent Austin Hooper, whom the Browns made the NFL’s highest-paid tight end with $ 10.5 million a year. They also selected Florida Atlantic tight end Harrison Bryant in the fourth round and still have Stephen Carlson and Pharoah Brown in position.
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One of the Browns ‘three first-round picks in 2017 alongside Myles Garrett and Jabrill Peppers (traded in 2019 to the Giants), Njoku spent all of 2019 in Freddie Kitchens’ doghouse and was unhappy last season. However, it looked like there was water under the bridge when the Browns hired Kevin Stefanski as head coach and Andrew Berry as general manager.
Then two days ago, Njoku parted ways with his agent Malki Kawa and hired Rosenhaus, who helped Duke Johnson fulfill his request to be traded by the Browns last November, when he was handed over to the Texans by a fourth-team pick. round that became a third. Kawa waived the required delay time between agents and Rosenhaus wasted no time asking Browns general manager Andrew Berry for the trade.
Berry, who participated in the exchange to recruit Njoku in 2017, has emphasized throughout the offseason that the former Miami product was an integral part of Stefanski’s two-finals scheme. Heading to the camp, Hooper and Njoku would have been the top candidates for the top two spots, in that order. Stefanski used two tight ends 57% of the time in 2019 in Minnesota, more than any other NFL team.
“I’ve been pretty consistent this offseason in terms that we still believe David a lot,” Berry said as he finished the draft in April. “He is very talented.
“Obviously, he wasn’t on the field much last year, but he’s a guy with great physical tools, he’s shown NFL production and we still believe the future is very bright with him here.” David has always been and continues to be in our plans, and we will continue to add competition to the entire list. “
Njoku, who missed 10 games last season with a fractured wrist that required surgery, returned at the end of the year only to be a healthy scratch for two of the last four games after the kitchens lost faith in him. In four games, he caught five passes for 41 yards and a touchdown.
After the season, Njoku, one of the three players in Kitchens’ doghouse along with Rashard Higgins and Damarius Randall, told cleveland.com that he doubted he would return if Kitchens were around.
“Obviously it’s been a roller coaster and at this point in my life that I’m in, I’m doing everything for the guys I play with,” he said.
Njoku, who broke his wrist in Week 2 against the Jets and underwent surgery in October to allow a return before the end of the season, never imagined being sidelined as a healthy scratch two of the past three weeks of the season.
“I didn’t come back from a wrist injury that quickly to sit on the bench,” he said. “That hurts my heart. I have to say that this is not what I saw coming, but at the end of the day, it is what it is. I have to keep moving from there.
However, he had not lost faith in himself.
“Trust comes from within,” he said. “You cannot let someone’s choices in your life change your confidence in any way, shape or form. So whatever happens, I know who I am, I know what I did, I know what I produce and that’s all that matters in my head. “
As a rookie, Njoku caught 32 passes for 386 yards and four touchdowns, and in 2018 he caught 56 passes for 639 yards and four touchdowns. It was a promising second season, and I hoped to develop it before the broken wrist.
The Browns went from No. 33 to 29 with the Packers to recruit Njoku in the first round of the 2017 draft, thus securing the fifth-year option. Team No. 108 also surrendered that year in the fourth round.
According to all reports, Njoku was working hard and preparing to have a great season, including participating in Baker Mayfield’s small-group launch session in Austin, Texas, in May. The Browns were so optimistic about a Njoku rebound that they likely would have talked to him about a multi-year extension by the end of 2020 if the season went as expected.
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