Flurry of trades; lingering questions for 49ers

4) Browns take 4-QB approach (for now): When the Browns whittled down their roster to 53 players, they opted to keep four QBs: Deshaun Watson, Jameis Winston, Tyler Huntley and Dorian Thompson-Robinson.

So, what does the Browns keeping four quarterbacks say about their team? My initial reaction is to be cautious and say something like, “not much,” because it feels like this is not the final result.

Asked if the Browns will have four QBs come the season opener on Sept. 8, head coach Kevin Stefanski said, “We’ll see.”

The Browns have been spinning plates with all their recent and ongoing injuries at multiple positions, which made getting to 53 a lot trickier. Then on top of that, there’s the Watson situation, with his lingering health and performance questions.

Cutting D’Onta Foreman probably won’t hurt that much. Releasing Germain Ifedi might have been a bigger surprise, considering he was recently taking first-team reps at tackle with starters Jedrick Wills Jr. and Jack Conklin out, although perhaps that’s a positive sign for the veteran pair (Conklin returned to practice Tuesday). But keeping a fourth QB also meant they had to cut special-teams ace Justin Hardee Jr., one of those subtle moves we tend to forget about down the road.

Perhaps the Browns see the wisdom in a more careful, thorough approach to the QB depth chart than they took a year ago. Trading Joshua Dobbs (after not re-signing Jacoby Brissett) ended up hurting them when Watson went down, until Joe Flacco stepped in and led the team to the playoffs.

Stefanski can say the Browns have “four good quarterbacks,” as he did Tuesday, and maybe he believes it. But if the Browns can trade one of them, I think they will. If they can’t, though, they might end up regretting how they handled those cutdown decisions. It all comes back to Watson and whether he can bounce back, but the last thing they want is their key decisions coming back to bite them while being overcautious protecting the quarterback they’ve gone in all in on.

5) Youth movement in Denver: The Broncos have been hampered in recent draft classes, lacking first-round picks from the failed Russell Wilson trade, setting the franchise back to where it currently sits. Even with the strong late push last season, that’s now seven straight sub-.500 seasons in Denver.

But something tells me Sean Payton might get more — much more — from this year’s draft crop than he did from his 2023 rookie class.

The lacked a second-round pick, but the Broncos appear to have done well maximizing their draft assets from April. The big fish is first-round QB Bo Nix, who has earned the starting job and might be in the perfect place with Payton guiding him. Nix should be in the Offensive Rookie of the Year conversation if he leads Denver into the playoff race.

It appears he’ll receive help from two Day 3 receivers, Troy Franklin and Devaughn Vele. Franklin, who started slowly in camp, might need some time to ramp up before he’s a factor, but Vele has flashed some real ability and might crack the top four receiver spots early.

This development has allowed Denver to move on from Tim Patrick, just as the promise of fifth-round RB Audric Estimé gave the Broncos enough comfort to move on from veteran Samaje Perine.

The Broncos also appeared to receive defensive help in the draft, with Jonah Elliss and Kris Abrams-Draine possibly carving out early roles. Keep an eye on undrafted LB Levelle Bailey, too.

If Nix and two or three rookies can be major contributors, the Broncos might be able to build on what they did in the final 11 games in 2023, going 7-4 with a plus-15 point differential, looking far less like the club that started last season 1-5 and was outscored by 71 points.

6) Lions make a decision on QB2: There were a number of fascinating backup quarterback battles across the NFL this August, few more interesting than in Detroit.

The Lions drafted Hendon Hooker in 2023 knowing they were getting a redshirt type of player who was coming off an ACL tear. He spent last season on the non-football injury list while he prepared to battle for the backup job this season with Nate Sudfeld.

Hooker appeared to be the more talented of the two this preseason, although his performance was far from pristine, and Lions head coach Dan Campbell seemed to tip his hand when he previously said Sudfeld had the “upper hand” in that battle because of experience.

“You have to have conviction that whoever that guy is is going to be able to keep this ship afloat,” Campbell recently said.

But instead the Lions cut Sudfeld, making Hooker the immediate backup. If Jared Goff went down, the Lions’ Super Bowl hopes would rest on the backup’s shoulders.

Goff being something of an iron man, having started 35 straight games (38 if we count playoffs), helps. Sudfeld has taken nine regular-season snaps as a Lion. It also would make sense if he landed on Detroit’s practice squad. But with the revision of the QB roster rules, “emergency” QBs no longer can be called up as they were last year; they need to be on the 53-man roster on game days.

Hooker was a third-rounder for a reason, and there’s even a scenario where he could be the Lions’ starter in a few years when Goff’s cap number jumps to nearly $70 million. But for now, he remains a highly talented backup who’s one snap away from playing on a really good team.