Duke Johnson may want out of Cleveland, but the Browns seem intent on keeping him around.
Days after new coach Freddie Kitchens said the running back's trade request “doesn't matter to me” and that Johnson's demands to play elsewhere don't affect him “one bit,” Browns general manager John Dorsey has chimed in with his own thoughts. Joining 92.3 The Fan on Tuesday, he echoed Kitchens' remarks about Johnson's place being in Cleveland.
“I keep telling you guys and you all don't listen to me,” Dorsey said, per Keith Britton. “Duke Johnson is a viable member of this organization. He's very talented. This organization has plans to use him.”
Although the statement by Dorsey was not a denial that the team would listen to offers for Johnson, it did mirror what his head coach had already said.
“Duke's under contract,” Kitchens said, per ESPN. “I've said this for a month now, I don't know where all this trade talk started happening. People just assumed we would trade him because we signed another good football player. … At this point in time, him asking for a trade doesn't matter to me. He's a Cleveland Brown. Duke's the type of the guy who's going to show up and he's going to do his job and he's going do his job well.”
Buried in all of that was an admission that Johnson does, in fact, desire to be moved. Reports out of Cleveland earlier in the offseason said the former third-round draft pick was drawing trade interest and that the Browns were at one point listening to offers following their free-agent acquisition of former Kansas City Chiefs star Kareem Hunt.
Follow Us
Subscribe