Browns tight end David Njoku has 'no comment' on whether he believes he's with right team

David Njoku considers the fellow tight ends the Browns acquired last year close friends, but the arrival of Austin Hooper and Harrison Bryant also foreshadowed fewer opportunities for him.

Njoku and agent Drew Rosenhaus asked the Browns for a trade in early July but rescinded the request a month later. Browns General Manager Andrew Berry had been determined to keep Njoku anyway.

Now Njoku still isn't convinced the Browns are the right team for him, even though he loved experiencing the playoffs with them last month for the first time in his career.

“That’s a good question,” Njoku said Friday on the Jim Rome Show when asked if he's in the right spot. “I’m not going to answer that right now. I have no comment towards that at this moment. I’m just going to enjoy my family, my friends, my loved ones. I have a couple of projects happening in the near future, so I’m just focused on the right now and let everything handle itself in the near future.”

Njoku revealed one of his projects. He's planning to travel to Nigeria in the offseason to donate $15,000-$20,000 worth of food, water and essentials. His family is from the West African country, and a couple of his siblings were born there. He took trips there while growing up.

“I'm very excited to go there and try to help out my people,” Njoku said.

Njoku spoke as if he feels a need to free his mind of work for a while.

“Last year was definitely a roller coaster for me,” he said. “It was an interesting year, another year of growth. I learned a lot about myself. I pushed through adversity, physical and mental.

“I just found myself in a position where I’m upset with the playing time, but this team that I’m on is winning, and I don’t want to ruin it for anybody else around me. I don’t want to ruin it for myself.”

Njoku, 24, obviously believes he's good enough to be a No. 1 tight end and wants opportunities to prove he should be paid like one, too.

Njoku started five of his 13 regular-season games and finished with 361 snaps on offense (33.9%). A free-agent acquisition who signed a four-year, $42 million blockbuster contract in March, Hooper started all 13 of his games and logged 633 snaps (59.5%). A fourth-round draft pick in April, Bryant started nine of his 15 games and played 591 snaps (55.6%).

In the playoffs, Njoku, Hooper and Bryant started the 48-37 wild-card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers, but of the three, only Hooper started the 22-17 divisional-round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. In the two postseason games combined, Hooper played 100 of 131 snaps (76.3%), Njoku 51 of 131 (38.9%) and Bryant 35 of 131 (26.7%).

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Hooper had 46 catches (ranked second among Browns players) on 70 targets for 435 yards and four touchdowns in the regular season and nine catches on 14 targets for 62 yards and a TD in the playoffs.

Bryant had 24 catches (fifth among Browns players) on 38 targets for 238 yards and three TDs, but he didn't have a reception on his lone target in the postseason.

Njoku had 19 catches (seventh among Browns players) on 29 targets for 213 yards and two TDs in the regular season and five catches on six targets for 66 yards in the playoffs.

“Earlier in the season, we weren’t really on the same page, the Browns and I,’' Njoku said. “We were trying to figure things out, trying to make sure both parties were happy and it was just very complicated. This game is very political. Obviously, if it was just Xs and Os and straight football, it would be a lot clearer. But there are complications and there are gray areas and things happen and it’s tough. And it’s also tough to pick yourself up when things aren’t really going your way.”

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Njoku said he found himself in “an interesting position” when the Browns acquired Hooper and Bryant.

“I was confused because the Browns [exercised] my fifth-year option and they got all of these other tight ends,” Njoku said. “At the same time, I’d been hearing [coach] Kevin Stefanski’s offense is very tight end-oriented. So I was optimistic about everything. I was excited to get back to work. With a couple of complications obviously here and there throughout the season, it put me in a predicament where I had nothing to do but just put my head down and work.”

Njoku is scheduled to make $6.013 million in 2021 as a result of the Browns picking up the fifth-year option in his rookie contract last offseason. A first-round draft pick (No. 29 overall) in 2017, Njoku has yet to earn that much in a single season. He's scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after the 2021 season.

But given Njoku's most recent comments, another trade request appears to be a possibility.

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com.