Lions agree to trade terms with Cleveland Browns for WR Donovan Peoples-Jones

Allen Park, Mich. – The Detroit Lions announced today that they have agreed to trade terms with the Cleveland Browns to acquire WR Donovan Peoples-Jones in exchange for a 2025 sixth-round draft selection. Additional trade terms were not disclosed.

In his fourth NFL season, Peoples-Jones has recorded 117 receptions for 1,837 yards (15.7 avg.) and eight touchdowns. He has also returned 61 punts for 479 yards (7.9 avg.) and one touchdown alongside 18 kickoff returns for 379 yards (21.1 avg.).

Peoples-Jones originally entered the NFL as a sixth-round draft selection (187th) by the Browns in the 2020 NFL Draft out of Michigan.

RAED MORE

The Cleveland Browns continue to work the phones before the NFL trade deadline, moving a starting wide receiver across conferences for a sixth-round pick. Cleveland has traded starting wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones to the Detroit Lions for a sixth-round pick, per the NFL’s official Twitter account.

Peoples-Jones has seen his role vastly decrease in 2023, resulting in posting a career-low in receiving yards per game at 13.9. He has eight catches for 97 yards and no touchdowns in seven games. Meanwhile, the Lions sent a 2024 sixth-round pick back to the Cleveland Browns.

Donovan Peoples-Jones, a sixth-round draft pick in the 2020 NFL draft, has spent his entire four-year NFL career with the Cleveland Browns. His best season came in 2022, with the wideout snagging 61 passes for 839 yards and three touchdowns. However, his stellar campaign did not result in increased production this year. Peoples-Jones has played 83% of the offensive snaps this season but is fifth on the team in targets. The Michigan product has taken a backseat to the receiving duo of Amari Cooper and Elijah Moore.

The Lions will add former Cleveland Browns wideout Donovan Peoples-Jones to a crowded and talented receiving core. Star wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown leads the Lions pass-catchers, with speedster Kalif Raymond and the dependent Josh Reynolds in the mix. The Lions also have Jameson Williams on the roster. Williams, a first-round pick by the Lions in 2022, has struggled but is still just 22 years of age. Adding Peoples-Jones should be viewed as a depth piece, with him receiving limited action while St. Brown, Reynolds, and Raymond are healthy. Meanwhile, The Cleveland Browns could turn to David Bell, Cedric Tillman, or Marquise Goodwin for more reps.

For a team that has led the NFL in many defensive categories this season, it is odd to see the Cleveland Browns near the bottom of the league in turnover differential. But there they are at minus-7. Among all NFL teams, only the Las Vegas Raiders, at minus-10, have a worse turnover differential than Cleveland

The Browns lost the turnover battle Sunday in Seattle 3-2, and it probably cost them the game, a game that Cleveland dominated for most of the day, but still somehow found a way to lose, 24-20.

All three of Cleveland’s turnovers were committed by backup quarterback P.J. Walker, who threw two interceptions and fumbled once.

Maybe this loss falls under the category of “learning how to win.” The Browns had six more first downs than the Seahawks, ran 20 more plays, gained 23 more total yards, rushed for almost 50 more yards, and held a significant time of possession advantage of 36:40 to 23:20 – but still lost.

“All those turnovers are costly, and that’s frustrating,” said Browns coach Kevin Stefanski in his day-after autopsy of a game his team should have won. “We lead the league in giveaways right now with 17, and it’s hard to win in the NFL, period. It’s hard to win on the road. It’s hard to win when you turn the ball over.”

In their seven games the Browns have fumbled six times and their quarterbacks, all three of them, have combined to throw 11 interceptions. A big part of the problem, of course, is that the quarterback who was supposed to be the quarterback has been mostly a spectator.

Deshaun Watson, who sat out the Seattle game with a strained rotator cuff in his right arm, has not played a complete game in over a month. Since throwing two touchdown passes (and no interceptions) in a 27-3 win over Tennessee on September 24, Watson has taken just 12 snaps in Cleveland’s last four games, none at all in three of those four games.

Backups Walker (three starts) and Dorian Thompson-Robinson (one start) have been the emergency quarterbacks over the last month during Watson’s extended absence. Not surprisingly, Walker and Thompson-Robinson have played like the backup quarterbacks they are.

NFL defenses, of course, can be ruthless exposers and exploiters of inexperienced quarterbacks, and that’s largely what Stefanski and his staff have had to deal with the last month.

Walker, in particular, has begun to show some wear and tear in his decision making and throwing of late as he tries to help keep the boat afloat until Watson returns. In his last three games Walker has had seven turnovers, including five interceptions and two fumbles.

With the Browns’ shaky quarterback play, coupled with not knowing when Watson will be able to return to the lineup, and with the trade deadline looming, it would not be a surprise if Cleveland general manager Andrew Berry was working the phones, looking for a quarterback upgrade until Watson returns.

An obvious candidate would be Washington Commanders backup Jacoby Brissett, who was the Browns’ starter for the first 11 games of last season, while Watson was serving his suspension for violating the NFL’s player conduct policy.

The Browns chose not to keep Brissett in 2023, and Brissett, understandably buoyed by his success in his 11-game stint as a starting NFL quarterback in Cleveland a year ago, pursued free agency, and wound up in Washington.

Asked Monday about the possibility of the Browns being active at the trade deadline, Stefanski did not sound like a coach expecting, or even hoping for a backup quarterback upgrade through a trade.

“Andrew and the personnel department, they work through all those types of things,” Stefanski said. “But I like our football team.”

For now, the Browns’ coach seems to feel more urgency in getting his team to win the turnover battle from week-to-week than he does in acquiring a quarterback that can be more productive than his current backup quarterback.

“We have to really commit ourselves as an offense not to give (the ball) away,” Stefanski said. “Obviously, it’s a team stat in terms of takeaways. That can happen on defense and special teams. But first things first, we have to take care of that football.”