Why the Cleveland Browns Shouldn’t Trade for Quarterback Anthony Richardson

The Cleveland Browns will be holding an open competition for the starting quarterback job in 2026, according to what general manager Andrew Berry and head coach Todd Monken said at the NFL Scouting Combine.

While most of the comments regarding this competition involved Shedeur Sanders and Deshaun Watson, two passers already on the Browns’ roster for 2026, a door just opened for a potential challenger from the outside, after ESPN reported that the Indianapolis Colts had given Anthony Richardson permission to seek a trade.

With Richardson already being talked up as a potential trade target for Cleveland in the last week, it makes sense to revisit why the Browns shouldn’t get involved in a deal for the former first round pick.

Why Anthony Richardson just doens't make sense for the Browns

First off, let’s look at Richardson. He’s started 15 of the 17 NFL games he’s played in, with an 8-7 record. He missed most of last season after losing the starting gig to Daniel Jones, and then landing on Injured Reserve after suffering a freak accident during warmups, where he fractured an orbital bone. However, injuries have limited him through his three years as a pro, forcing him to miss 17 combined games in his first two campaigns.

His stats aren’t great, either. He’s thrown for 11 touchdowns versus 13 interceptions as a pro, and although he has scored 10 times on the ground, he’s completed just 50.6 percent of his passes in the NFL. That’s an enormous red flag. To make things worse, he’s only passing for an average of 141.2 yards per game, and he recorded QBRs of 45.0 and 47.4 during his first two seasons; he didn’t qualify for a QBR mark last year. His 6.7 yards per pass attempted isn’t a solid number, either.

Now, let’s look at what the Browns already have. Dillon Gabriel and Sanders combined for 13 starts last year as rookies. Their biggest struggles in the passing game were completion percentage (59.5 for Gabriel and 56.6 for Sanders) and yards per pass attempt (5.1 for Gabriel and 6.6 for Sanders). Gabriel won just one of his six starts, while Sanders won three out of the seven contests he started. While Gabriel took better care of the ball, with seven touchdowns against two interceptions, Sanders managed only seven touchdown passes to 10 interceptions.

One big issue for Cleveland’s rookies last year was offensive line breakdowns, and a group of wide receivers that could never prove itself trustworthy. Richardson has had better units blocking and catching for him in Indy, but still came up with those poor numbers.

If you haven’t even started to properly develop Gabriel or Sanders, why add Richardson, a quarterback that represents no measurable upgrade over what you already have.

Forget for a moment that Richardson was drafted so high, after starting just 13 games in college (with a 6-7 record). Would you trade for any other passer not named Richardson after seeing those numbers? And let’s not forget Richardson’s baggage, as reports of immature conduct and poor work ethics have surrounded him since Day 1 in Indy.

Now, consider Watson, who will get a shot at the starting job, once again. Since arriving to Cleveland via trade in 2022, he owns a 9-10 record as a starter, with a 66.2 percentage completion and 29 touchdowns to 11 interceptions, with an average of 6.0 yards per attempt. Even as awful as those numbers are for a $230 million guaranteed quarterback, there’s no way Richardson would be able to top that, even as Watson is coming back from two consecutive Achilles tears.

As it stands now, it seems unlikely Richardson’s lightbulb just magically turns on now, and he does better than just third-stringer in Cleveland, behind Sanders and Watson. And finding a passer in the late rounds of this year’s draft capable of overtaking Gabriel as third-stringer doesn’t seem like much of a challenge, especially with five first round picks in Cleveland’s pocket.

Richardson seems like a reclamation project for another franchise, one that’s already set at quarterback with a top-level talent that can truly help guide him through being a pro. That’s not going to happen in the middle of an all-out quarterback competition in Cleveland.