Donovan Peoples-Jones has developed even faster than the Browns front office could have hoped for when they drafted the University of Michigan receiver in 2020. Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Donovan Peoples-Jones sat alone in his room.

It was day three of the 2020 NFL Draft. Five rounds had gone by, and as each pick passed, his phone remained silent.

There was a small party going on around him at his family home in Detroit. But considering Peoples-Jones thought he had a chance to be drafted in the fourth round, the anxiety was getting to be too much. He had to get away from the uneaten cake and the unused confetti.

Sure, Peoples-Jones didn’t have a perfect ending to his college career at the University of Michigan. There were nagging injuries. There was no national title, no 100-yard receiving game on his resume.

But he was a former five-star prospect, the top wide receiver in the nation in his high school class. He was the talk of the 2020 NFL combine after putting up some top metrics. Considering everything, this kind of slide was a surprise.

Finally, after 186 other names had been called, Peoples-Jones received a phone call -- the phone call. The Browns wanted him in the sixth round, and suddenly the agonizing wait was over.

Peoples-Jones didn’t plan for this kind of draft day. But he did have a plan, one that served him before and would serve him again in Cleveland.

It began when he was toddler obsessed with an old Super Bowl tape and a Charlie Batch jersey, spending his days lining up his action figures into football formations. It became more obvious when he excelled on the field at a perennial high school football powerhouse, Detroit Cass Tech. Even more so when he became the kind of recruit Urban Meyer was willing to drive through a blizzard for, and when he chose, on his own, to attend Michigan.

There are not many sixth-round receivers who have produced like him this early in their careers. He’s become one of the most-reliable targets for quarterback Baker Mayfield, as five of his 32 career regular-season catches have been touchdowns. Coach Kevin Stefanski gave him the nickname “Mr. Dependable.”

“I’m just prepared for my moment,” Peoples-Jones told cleveland.com. “Prepared for what’s going to come to me. I’m not really worried about anything other than that.”

Right now, the Browns arguably need Peoples-Jones as much as he needed them when he sat alone in his room on draft day. The offense has failed to score more than 17 points in six of its last seven games. And with Odell Beckham Jr. no longer in Cleveland, they could use some star power at receiver.

If this is Peoples-Jones’ moment, he’s ready for it. He always has been.

Donovan Peoples-Jones grew up in Detroit and became obsessed with football at a young age. His favorite clothing item was a Charlie Batch jersey, and he can be seen carrying a football in most of his childhood photos.Roslyn Peoples/Submitted photo

Action figures, a jersey and a football

Growing up, Peoples-Jones played basketball, soccer, baseball, and he was such a good runner he became an all-state sprinter in high school. But more than anything, he loved football.

Most toddlers watch Sesame Street. His must-see TV was a tape of Super Bowl XXXVI. His mom, Roslyn Peoples, was gifted the video by a family friend who worked for the NFL office in New York.

Peoples-Jones watched that tape so much, he memorized what the players said on the broadcast. He paid extra attention to Rams running back Marshall Faulk. He imitated the moves all around the house, carrying around the football that can be seen in most of his childhood photos. When Peoples-Jones wasn’t watching that tape, he was lining up his toy action figures into football formations, turning his Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, dinosaurs, Batman and Superman into linemen and wide receivers running routes.

As a Detroit kid, his favorite piece of clothing was a Charlie Batch Lions jersey. He wore it so often that the graphics wore off the front. He eventually started wearing it backward so that Batch’s name and No. 10 were still visible.

“I saw Charlie Batch, liked Charlie Batch,” Peoples-Jones said. “I would always watch football and carry around my football, because the guys on TV, I liked to imitate what they were doing.”

He begged his mom to play football when he was 5 years old. He was always taller growing up, so he convinced Peoples to let him play in a Pop Warner league with 6- and 7-year-olds. She didn’t have much of a choice in saying yes.

His love for the game was already evident and persuasive.

“His pictures in elementary school -- kindergarten, first grade, second grade -- every picture he drew of himself, he drew of himself with a little afro and with a football outfit,” Peoples said.

In this 2016 photo, current Browns receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones (R) accepts the MLive Media Group's Michigan High Football Player of the Year at Cass Tech High School in Detroit, alongside former Cass Tech head coach Thomas Wilcher.

‘He was going to be the one’

When it came time for Peoples-Jones to pick a high school, the magnet school Detroit Cass Tech was the obvious choice. There were competitive academics, and the football program had just won back-to-back football state titles in 2011 and 2012.

Former head coach Thomas Wilcher had also developed a reputation for sending players to the NFL. Including Peoples-Jones, eight of his former players have been drafted.

“He said, ‘I want to come here because I want to go to the pros,’” Wilcher said. “And that was it. That’s how he felt. That’s what he wanted, and he did whatever it took.”

As a freshman, Peoples-Jones was already over 6-feet tall, and Wilcher says he was running a 4.6-second 40-yard dash. But the surprise came when Peoples-Jones did the standing broad jump as a part of his first-year conditioning. Wilcher can’t remember his exact distance, but he says it broke the NFL record at the time of 11 feet, 5 inches.

“He just had those skill sets, so you just knew right then and there that he was going to be the one,” Wilcher said.

Peoples-Jones became a five-star recruit. He was ranked as the No. 1 receiver in the nation in the 2017 class. In 2015, he made headlines winning the Nike Football Rating competition in Beaverton, Ore., as the only junior competing. Gatorade named him the 2016 Michigan High School Player of the Year.

For Peoples-Jones, being able to contribute early at Cass Tech allowed him to elevate his own expectations.

“I felt like I could match up with anybody in the country,” he said. “That was kind of my first glimpse of, ‘Maybe I can do this on a higher scale.’ ”

For his family, those expectations rose when Meyer came calling his freshman year of high school.

While offers from Michigan and other Power Five conference schools came later, Peoples realized her son had legitimate NFL aspirations once Ohio State showed interest.

“Ohio State gets the big names,” Peoples said. “That was the first pique of interest for me, like maybe this kid can do big things. Because Ohio State is huge.

“What (Meyer) shared with me is how he would develop Donovan, how he would utilize him, the skills that he would get. It wasn’t just about football, it was after football, and the different programs that they offered. Urban called me every day, texted me every day. He had won me over, and a lot of the coaches were doing that during that recruiting process -- but Urban was relentless.”

The Peoples-Jones recruiting stories sound like folklore now: Meetings with the university presidents at both Ohio State and Michigan. Tours of the medical schools since Peoples-Jones had dreams of becoming a surgeon like his father, Dr. Eddie Jones, once his playing career was over. Meyer and Kerry Coombs flying to Toledo and driving more than an hour north just before the 2016 recruiting deadline to make one last-ditch effort at signing him, the crystal Coaches’ Trophy from Ohio State’s 2014 national championship in tow.

Ohio State offering him first meant a lot to Peoples-Jones at the time. But ultimately, he wanted to stay close to home and joined the Wolverines. He announced his choice live on ESPN without telling his family his final decision beforehand.

During his announcement, Peoples-Jones said staying close to home provided a “comfortable environment,” and added that academics were a huge factor. Football-wise, the allure of playing for a former NFL coach was also too much to pass up.

“I believe Jim Harbaugh is one of best coaches in college football,” Peoples-Jones said during his announcement. “I really think he can develop me into the receiver that I want to be.”

In this Nov. 16, 2019 file photo, Michigan wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones mimics the Paul Bunyan trophy after catching a touchdown against Michigan State. While this was a highlight-reel play, his college years didn't go according to plan.Tony Ding, AP

In a perfect world, Peoples-Jones would have left Michigan as a first-round NFL pick.

That’s how the receiver planned it, and what he thought should have happened. He wasn’t alone. Meyer thought the same, considering he said Peoples-Jones “should be a top-10 draft pick” before the 2020 draft.

So what led to his slide?

As a freshman, Peoples-Jones contributed early as a punt returner and receiver. By his sophomore year, he was the team’s top receiver in terms of receptions (47) and touchdowns (eight).

“Once he got going, it was nothing but trajectory going up,” said Roy Roundtree, a former Michigan receiver who worked as a graduate assistant wide receivers coach during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. “He always aims to be great, and that’s what I noticed and why I enjoyed coaching him, because he was like a sponge.”

Peoples-Jones seemed poised for a big junior year, but a lingering groin injury kept him out for a chunk of winter workouts and all of spring. Then there was a fluke foot injury that caused him to miss the first two games of the 2019 season.

This was the first time he went through a major injury setback during his football career, and he felt the pressure to return to the field as quickly as possible.

“He had never not been available,” Peoples said. “He had never not played. He had never not been participating. The thing that I did learn about that whole process was psychologically what it does to the player.”

It also didn’t help that there wasn’t much offensive consistency during Peoples-Jones’ time at Michigan. He caught passes from four different quarterbacks and saw turnover at offensive coordinator. Tim Drevno left after the 2017 season. The position was vacant in 2018, but passing game coordinator Pep Hamilton called most of the plays that year. Josh Gattis took over as coordinator in 2019, and as wide receivers coach.

Gattis dubbed his offensive style “speed in space,” a system designed to divide touches among Michigan’s individual playmakers. Considering the double coverages Peoples-Jones drew, that made it harder for him to get the ball.

Tarik Black, who came to Michigan as a four-star recruit and is now with the Indianapolis Colts, was Peoples-Jones’ roommate and best friend on the team. As a fellow receiver, Black faced a lot of the same issues.

“We never really got a chance to grow into a system,” Black said. “But when things would go wrong, we could lean on each other to keep each other up.”

Peoples-Jones still had some big moments and plays in college, including striking the Paul Bunyan Trophy pose after catching touchdowns against rival Michigan State in 2018 and 2019. But in his final year, he was the third-leading receiver on the team with 34 catches for 438 yards.

It wasn’t a picture-perfect college experience, but Peoples-Jones has never publicly said a negative word about the program. He isn’t about to start now, even though some time away has caused him to see his college years in a different light.

“It’s always different when you’re in something, and after it, looking at it in hindsight,” he said. “I do think it prepared me. Going to a school like Michigan, playing for a coach like Jim Harbaugh whose collegiate system is basically an NFL system, it definitely prepared me. I would honestly say that’s the biggest thing taken away.

“Obviously on the field was what it was. But I was prepared for right now.”

By late 2019, it was clear he wasn’t going to return to Ann Arbor for his senior year.

Roundtree said he and Peoples-Jones had conversations about the draft process around the time of Michigan’s Citrus Bowl game against Alabama. Peoples thinks her son always hoped to test the NFL waters after three years, and that’s why he was so frustrated with those lingering injuries that final season.

In a receiver-heavy draft class, Peoples-Jones’ best chance was making some noise at the NFL combine, and he did so by posting a combine-best 44 ½-inch vertical jump. He also had the best standing broad jump at 11 feet, 7 inches.

As draft day neared, Peoples-Jones and his close friends and family were expecting him to go sometime during day two. At worst, they thought he might fall to round four on day three. But as the first two days came and went, Peoples found herself scrambling to hire a caterer last minute for the third day with her son still on the board.

On both the second and third days, frustrated with the waiting, Peoples-Jones went to his room to be alone.

“The work that we put in, we felt like we were good enough to be first-round picks,” said Black, who spent draft weekend with Peoples-Jones. “When you’ve been working towards something all your life and then it doesn’t really turn out the way you want it to, it hurts.”

That hurt finally dissipated when Peoples-Jones received a phone call from the 216 area code.

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Donovan Peoples-Jones (11) celebrates his game-winning touchdown catch against the Cincinnati Bengals on October 25, 2020.John Kuntz, cleveland.com

There’s no place like Cleveland

It took longer than he would have liked to find an NFL home, but Peoples-Jones now believes it was meant to be.

Cleveland has been the perfect fit.

For once, Peoples-Jones wasn’t expected to be the top wide receiver immediately. In his first two years, he’s gotten to play behind and learn from two of his favorite players of all time, Beckham and Jarvis Landry. At Michigan, Peoples-Jones and Black used to emulate drills from the two most famous best friends in the NFL. It was surreal for Peoples-Jones to suddenly be their teammate.

“They inspired me when I didn’t know them,” Peoples-Jones said. “Now I know them and they’re still inspiring me. So just being able to be around those guys, call those guys my friends, it’s really good and it’s a blessing.”

Peoples-Jones eased into the NFL on special teams. He quickly impressed the coaching staff with his knowledge of the playbook.

“He just was so dependable in terms of knowing what to do, which is difficult for a young receiver,” Stefanski said.

The 2020 Week 7 game against the Cincinnati Bengals was his coming-out party. The rookie made three catches, including a 24-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield that sealed the 37-34 victory for Cleveland.

Peoples-Jones proved he was dependable fairly quickly, catching 14 of 20 targets during his first regular season with Cleveland and stepping into a bigger role once Beckham’s year ended in that same Cincinnati game due to a torn ACL.

This season, he’s become maybe the most reliable downfield threat for the Browns. He’s caught four of eight deep passes, defined as 20-or-more yards according to Pro Football Focus, and has only dropped one ball. He’s caught six out of 10 medium targets, defined as 10-19 yards, with zero drops.

“Donovan’s been a guy we can rely on,” Mayfield said. “He’s all about ball. He doesn’t say anything. He just does his job. He just shows up. He’s the same guy every day.”

Peoples-Jones’ production is even more impressive considering other late-round receiver picks by the Browns in recent years. Carlton Mitchell was taken at pick No. 177 in the 2010 draft and caught a total of three passes. In 2018, Cleveland drafted Damion Ratley at pick No. 175. He caught 25 passes over the next two years.

Given those numbers, Peoples-Jones has developed even faster than general manager Andrew Berry and the front office could have hoped for.

“He obviously has and will continue to play a major role in the passing game for us this year,” Berry said. “It is an incredible opportunity for him to continue to make plays and ultimately help us win games.”

With a playoff push awaiting them in the final five games of the season, the Cleveland Browns need Donovan Peoples-Jones.Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

Ready to answer the call

With five games remaining and the AFC race tight, the Browns need Peoples-Jones to seize the opportunity in front of him.

From the outside, there’s some pressure there, especially given Cleveland’s recent offensive struggles. But considering everything Peoples-Jones has been through over the last three years, there’s an argument to be made that the pressure is off. He was a sixth-round pick. Any production he gives the Browns is a bonus for all involved.

This year hasn’t been perfect. Like at Michigan, he’s now faced with bouncing back from a nagging groin injury. His development has had a small wrench thrown into it. But he’s faced similar challenges before. Adversity wasn’t part of his plan, but it gave him a different kind of preparedness.

And this time, his environment offers him something a little better. For the first time since high school, Peoples-Jones has had a chance to grow into an offensive system. He’s relishing the consistency, and it’s allowed him to play freer.

“It allows me to build on my knowledge from last year,” Peoples-Jones said. “I really don’t have to study all of the little details that I have cemented in from last year. It allows you to just kind of open up a little bit.”

Like any competitor, Peoples-Jones has goals of one day winning a Super Bowl and being a Pro Bowler.

But for now, he’s more focused on the immediate. That’s what the Browns need anyway as they try to make a playoff push.

“I want to be a great wide receiver,” Peoples-Jones said. “A guy that can do it all, versatile, makes plays in the big moments, and just always there for my teammates.

He’s come a long way from sitting alone on his bed, waiting for the phone call welcoming him to the NFL.

He answered when the Browns called him then, and he’s ready to answer for Cleveland again now.

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