{"id":130843,"date":"2022-03-08T05:23:18","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T10:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=130843"},"modified":"2022-03-08T10:42:42","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T15:42:42","slug":"david-njoku-franchise-tag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2022\/03\/08\/david-njoku-franchise-tag\/","title":{"rendered":"David Njoku Receives Franchise Tag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tight end <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/N\/NjokDa00.htm?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">David Njoku<\/a> has been franchise tagged by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/category\/nfl-teams\/browns\/\" target=\"_self\">Cleveland Browns<\/a>, keeping him with the team for at least one more season. Njoku spent the first five seasons of his career with the Browns.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Source: The <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Browns?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Browns<\/a> tagged TE David Njoku. The first one.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RapSheet\/status\/1500879480163905543?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 7, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>David Njoku Franchise Tagged by Cleveland Browns<\/h2>\n<p>Njoku was a stalwart on the Browns offense. The tight end produced highly in the last three years of his career and always seems on the verge of a breakout season. His 2021 production was solid &#8211; 53 targets, 36 receptions 475 yards, 4 TDs.<\/p>\n<p>He is an effective blocker, getting better in pass protection. As a receiver, Njoku has done his best work in straight lines where his long speed and leaping ability have come into play. Additionally, he has also been a weapon in the screen game.<\/p>\n<p>In Week 5 against the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonprofootball.com\/nfl-teams\/chargers\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Los Angeles Chargers<\/a>, Njoku caught 7 passes for 149 yards and a touchdown, with the score coming off a 71-yard catch and run. The Browns would go on to lose 47-42 in a thriller. In 2021, Njoku was second in receiving yards. He earned high praise for being a more effective catcher than most of Cleveland\u2019s receivers that year.<\/p>\n<p>On April 27, 2020, the Browns exercised the fifth-year option on Njoku&#8217;s contract. Njoku was placed on injured reserve on September 14, 2020, with a knee injury, a day after he posted 3 catches for 50 yards and a touchdown against the Baltimore Ravens. He was activated on October 10. Njoku was a vital piece to Cleveland&#8217;s offense in the Divisional Round game against the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs, catching 2 passes for 59 yards.<\/p>\n<p>In Week 2 of the 2019 season, Njoku was upended and landed on his head. He left the game against the New York Jets due to a concussion. It was later revealed that Njoku suffered a broken wrist on the same play. He was placed on injured reserve on September 20, 2019, then activated on December 7, 2019<\/p>\n<p>2018 was a rather successful year for the tight end. He played in all 16 games with 14 starts, recording 56 catches for 639 yards and four touchdowns.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"SlZxHFcPQi9knAquZn09Jw\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1362643858\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'SlZxHFcPQi9knAquZn09Jw',sig:'5wQmaYK0d8I5k4eg3nXqpg3d3hNq-HSUGdgyXOCZPys=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1362643858',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tight end David Njoku produced highly in the last three years of his career and seems on the verge of a breakout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2583,"featured_media":130871,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,1],"tags":[8848,1683],"class_list":["post-130843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-uncategorized","tag-2022-nfl-free-agency","tag-david-njoku"],"modified_by":"Will Noltie, Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2583"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}