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Why Can’t The Cleveland Browns Land a Franchise Quarterback?

By Zac Wassink

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The Cleveland Browns have not had a great quarterback in 60 years.

That is a staggering factoid when you consider the states of other National Football League franchises. The New England Patriots went from Drew Bledsoe to Tom Brady. Fans of the Indianapolis Colts had to suffer through four months of horrendous football to make the transition from Peyton Manning to Andrew Luck. Kurt Warner served as a mentor for Eli Manning during Manning’s early days in the NFL. Brett Favre was replaced by Aaron Rodgers. Heck, the Philadelphia Eagles had the rights to Nick Foles, Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez in the past year alone.

Not the Browns, though. The Browns have consistently whiffed on quarterbacks since returning to the NFL in 1999, to the point that theories that the club may literally be cursed start to make sense if you think about things long enough. It has not mattered who has been running the front office of the Browns or who has served as coaches and scouts for the Browns. The Browns have gotten the quarterback position wrong with a consistency that would be impressive if it did not lead to Cleveland fans heading for the Interstate 480 bridge on NFL Sundays.

How is it possible that what was once a storied and respected NFL franchise has screwed up what is often called the most important single position in all of North American professional sports? The answer to that is complicated because there is no one answer. It includes baffling levels of incompetence combined with shockingly bad luck that has sunk the Browns for the past decade and a half. Things have gotten so bad that fans of the Browns yearn for the days when Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar playing under center for Cleveland.

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Neither Sipe nor Kosar won anything of merit while with the Browns, and neither was a great quarterback regardless of what older Cleveland fans and local sports talk radio hosts would lead you to believe. Men such as Brees, Rivers, Manning, Manning, Brady and Rodgers are great quarterbacks, players who have served as starters and faces of franchises for at least the better part of a decade. Kosar is still beloved by the Cleveland fan base, but a part of that falls on the reality that the Browns have lacked true greatness at quarterback for so long.

This run of futility began in 1999 with the so-called “new Browns” that were set up to fail thanks to the league’s rules for expansion teams. The myth that has been allowed to exist for too long is that the Browns made a mistake by drafting Tim Couch and not Donovan McNabb. No quarterback, past, present or future, could have won playing behind that shambolic offensive line and with the supposed weapons on that offense, and that the Browns didn’t finish that season with a 0-16 record may be proof that some deity out there does not hate Cleveland fans.

The real bad luck began haunting the Browns the following NFL draft. Yes, the Browns passed on Tom Brady. Cleveland did so several times. So did every other team in the league. It is entirely possible and even believable that Brady would have become a forgotten name on a list of failed former Cleveland quarterbacks had he been on the roster of the 2000 Browns even though the team did qualify for postseason play a couple of seasons after this draft. Failing to draft Brady should not be considered a coulda-shoulda-woulda moment for the Browns.

You don’t have to go to a 199th overall pick to find times when the Browns drafted incorrectly and missed on quarterbacks in the process. The Browns could have moved up a single spot to acquire Drew Brees in the 2001 NFL Draft. Ben Roethlisberger was there for the taking in 2004. Aaron Rodgers could have held up a brown and orange jersey in 2005. The Browns could have drafted Ryan Tannehill instead of running back Trent Richardson. Cleveland could have selected Russell Wilson over Mitchell Schwartz, or Nick Foles ahead of John Hughes.

But wait. There’s more. The Browns were not in the running for Drew Brees when he was given up on by the San Diego Chargers. They apparently were not considered to be real options when Brett Favre and Peyton Manning entered free agency. Cleveland could have been the home of the redemption of Michael Vick after Vick completed his stint in prison. Alex Smith only cost the Kansas City Chiefs a couple of draft picks that the Browns probably would have squandered.

It is silly for fans to cry over the spilled milk that was the Browns not mortgaging the future to trade up for Andrew Luck, Jameis Winston or Marcos Mariota. Those types of transactions are not only a thing of the past so long as memories of Robert Griffin III playing for the Washington Redskins remain in the minds of general managers. Cleveland should have had a true starting quarterback long before RG3 entered the league. Tony Romo wasn’t even drafted, and he went ignored by the Browns in 2003. That’s just another example.

Making what is, on paper, a logical and wise decision has even bitten the Browns in the past. Cleveland understandably gave quarterback Derek Anderson a new contract after Anderson helped the Browns go 10-6 in 2007. It was rumored during the subsequent offseason that a team, particularly the Minnesota Vikings, would be willing to offer multiple picks to the Browns for Anderson, but Anderson was instead retained by Cleveland. His 2007 form proved to be nothing more than a blip on the radar, and he was out of town and a lot richer a few years later.

Johnny Manziel deserves credit for working to turn his life and his career around following his nightmare rookie season. While he showed noticeable improvement in August preseason games, Manziel now needs to realize that he will go from a former symbol of hope to the latest mistake made by the Browns in under two years if he doesn’t show the Cleveland coaching staff something special over the next four months. Teddy Bridgewater. Derek Carr. Jimmy Garoppolo. David Fales. Any of those quarterbacks could have had Manziel’s roster spot.

Some fans who have already given up on Manziel have embraced a “Fail for Cardale” mantra in reference to Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones, a young man who has looked the part albeit in a handful of college football games. The question has to be asked to those emotionally broken individuals: Why, considering all that has occurred since 1999, would you have any faith that the Browns would get a draft pick right or not ruin Jones after selecting him? Doing so is similar to banking on winning the Powerball jackpot, except that people actually win the lottery.

The Browns having a great quarterback is a more infrequent occurrence.

Next: RG3 Not The Answer For The Browns

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