When the Browns drafted Baker Mayfield first overall in 2018, they hoped their search for a franchise quarterback had finally ended. (Associated Press)
The long and winding road to the Browns' possible next quarterback search
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
We thought the Browns’ search for a franchise quarterback finally ended when the organization paired Baker Mayfield with Kevin Stefanski.
Their budding partnership looked so promising over the second half of the 2020 season that all the NFL Websites were calculating how rich the Browns would make Mayfield in a contract extension. Mayfield was on the verge of NFL paydirt – a contract of $150 million or more.
Now?
Now, it appears the Browns are going back to the drawing board. If they weren’t heading that way already, surely the weekend’s NFL divisional playoff games left them pondering if their quarterback position is suitable to compete against the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, much less Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, even Mac Jones for AFC supremacy in the immediate future.
The rest of the team is ready to win. The question is if the quarterback position is capable of making it happen.
In their season exit media interviews, Browns football hierarchy – GM Andrew Berry and Stefanski – attested to their “expectation” that Mayfield would come back from left shoulder surgery and “improve” in 2022. Their statements fell short of a commitment to Mayfield.
So the search may be on for somebody better. But where do they go to find him? Quarterbacks don’t just fall from trees, right?
Well, the Browns’ problem over the decades has not been a lack of supply. It’s been their evaluations and decisions. The truth is they have been their own worst enemy in finding The Man to lead them to the Promised Land.
In their expansion era, they have repeatedly chosen the wrong guy. Here is a road map to how they got here.
1999
The very first roster stocking exercise for the Browns was the expansion draft. Each of the 30 other teams had to expose five players from which the Browns could select three for their original roster. The list was loaded with broken-down has-beens and non-descript wannabes. Onto this list was sneaked a quarterback named Kurt Warner.
At the time the lists were submitted, I phoned a media or team rep of each team for some dope on each player. I never forgot the esteemed Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch telling me of the Rams’ list, “I’m surprised they put this quarterback on the list. He hasn’t played, but he’s big, healthy and they like his arm. The Browns ought to look into him.”
In retrospect, Warner should have been the perfect veteran quarterback to usher in the expansion era under first-time coach Chris Palmer until No. 1 draft choice Tim Couch was ready. Warner was 27 at the time, had only attempted 11 passes in an NFL cameo appearance with the Rams, but was a bigger (6-2) drop-back passer adequately equipped to run Palmer’s vertical pass offense.
Alas, President Carmen Policy and GM Dwight Clark already had a deal in the works to bring aboard ex-49ers Ty Detmer, a noodle-armed, pint-sized, West Coast-offense QB who was the antithesis of what Palmer needed.
We know what happened. Warner’s opportunity came with the Rams and he quarterbacked them to the Super Bowl title, embarking on a storybook Hall of Fame career that recently was retold on the silver screen.
Would Warner have been Warner had the Browns selected him? Probably not. But I asked Warner that question prior to his induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017.
“I don’t know,” Warner said. “It would’ve been fun to win a Super Bowl in Cleveland, though. I believe had I gone to Cleveland, I would have helped that franchise go to places it hadn’t been before. Somehow I would have found a way to succeed.”
2000
In their second draft, the Browns wanted to add a young quarterback to develop behind Couch and groom as a trade asset if the time came.
Palmer was attracted to passers with big arms. He found one in Spergon Wynn, a 6-3, 230-pound physical marvel who had transferred from Minnesota to Southwest Texas State. In two years, Wynn completed 55.1 percent of his passes and threw 24 touchdowns v. 19 interceptions.
On a hunch, Palmer convinced Clark to take Wynn in the sixth round with the 183rd overall pick.
Sixteen spots later, the Patriots took a skinny quarterback from Michigan named Tom Brady.
2004
When second coach Butch Davis readied to move on from the Couch era, the timing was perfect. The Browns owned the No. 7 spot in the draft that featured quarterbacks Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger.
Davis had seized a power vacuum created by the death of owner Al Lerner two years earlier. Policy was out and Randy Lerner, Al’s son, gave Davis the keys to the kingdom.
Seven weeks before the draft, Davis chose free agent Jeff Garcia as his replacement for Couch. Another six-footer with a noodle arm and trained in the West Coast offense, Garcia was a square peg Davis squeezed into a round hole. Davis competed with no other team and signed Garcia to a ridiculous $25 million contract.
Come the draft, Davis had no intention of selecting a quarterback. So when Roethlisberger was on the board when the Browns’ turn came, Davis didn’t give Big Ben a second thought. Roethlisberger played at the wrong Miami – the Oxford, OH-based school in the Mid-American Conference and not Davis’ beloved University of Miami.
Davis’ penchant for selecting players he either recruited to Miami, coached at Miami or coached against Miami continued when he traded up one spot with Detroit and selected tight end Kellen Winslow Jr., the infamous “I’m a soldier” from The U.
Roethlisberger was taken four spots later by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Roethlisberger proceeded to haunt the Browns for 18 years, compiling a 26-3-1 record against them.
Garcia was cut after one season, running up a 3-7 record, including an epic loss to the Cowboys in which Garcia posted a 0.00 passer rating.
2005
After Davis was fired/resigned, Randy Lerner teamed NFL-recommended head coach Romeo Crennel with ex-Ozzie Newsome assistant Phil Savage as Browns GM. Savage inherited the No. 3 pick in the draft.
San Francisco had the No. 1 pick and Miami No. 2. Both teams were unimpressed with their options and wanted to move down, Savage told me at the time. The 49ers GM was Scot McLoughan (remember that name). The Dolphins were run by Nick Saban. Savage knew them both well, and declined to trade up.
The 49ers chose Utah quarterback Alex Smith first, the Dolphins took Auburn running back Ronnie Brown second. Savage took Michigan receiver Braylon Edwards third.
With the 24th selection, the Packers took California quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Savage had his sights set on Akron quarterback Charlie Frye, that year’s Senior Bowl MVP, and took him in the third round.
2012
Former Packers and Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren was calling the shots when the Browns sought (again) to stabilize the quarterback position in the 2012 draft.
Everyone knew the No. 1 pick would be Andrew Luck by the Colts. Holmgren inquired to the Rams about the price for the No. 2 overall pick to select Heisman Trophy winner Robert Griffin III, but it was too high. St. Louis traded with Washington for three No. 1 picks.
Holmgren used his top pick on Alabama running back Trent Richardson. With a second first-round pick, No. 22 overall, as a result of GM Tom Heckert’s trade with Atlanta the year before for Alabama receiver Julio Jones, Holmgren took quarterback, Brandon Weeden of Oklahoma State.
Weeden was 28 at the time as a result of spending four years pursuing a professional baseball career.
Two rounds later, the Seahawks chose Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson at No. 75 overall.
2014
Truck stop tycoon Jimmy Haslam bought the Browns in 2012. Two years later, the team was back in the hunt for a quarterback.
In anticipation of the draft season, CEO Joe Banner outsourced an analytics firm to rate the available college quarterbacks. The $100,000 project spit out Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater as the No. 1 QB prospect.
But two months prior to the draft, Haslam fired Banner and GM Mike Lombardi after a dysfunctional coaching search and replaced them with Ray Farmer. The quarterback search was conducted by Haslam, Farmer, coach Mike Pettine and offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan.
Pettine wanted a press cornerback direly for his defense and the Browns used their first pick on Oklahoma State cornerback Justin Gilbert. The Browns had another pick, however, as a result of Banner’s greatest move – a trade of Richardson the year before to the Colts.
The Browns had become enamored with Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M during their quarterback evaluations and they got caught in the moment on draft night, with Manziel egging them on in cell phone conversations with QB coach Dowell Loggains. Haslam greenlighted a trade-up of four spots and the Browns took Manziel at No. 22.
Bridgewater was taken No. 32 by the Vikings, Derek Carr No. 36 by the Raiders, and Jimmy Garoppolo No. 62 by the Patriots.
2016
Still searching for the right quarterback, a newly formed football operations department headed by former MLB executive Paul DePodesta and former team legal counsel Sashi Brown instituted analytics to drive the team’s football decisions.
The Browns owned the No. 2 pick but decided to trade it to stock up on multiple draft assets.
The Eagles used the No. 2 pick on Carson Wentz and made it to the Super Bowl two years later, although Wentz did not play in that postseason due to injury.
The Browns parlayed four additional trades into 11 draft picks over the next two years. They used two of them on quarterbacks Cody Kessler and DeShone Kizer.
2017
A 1-15 record earned the Browns the No. 1 overall pick. DePodesta argued to use it on North Carolina quarterback Mitchell Trubisky, but coach Hue Jackson and defensive coordinator Gregg Williams wanted pass rusher Myles Garrett. The coaches prevailed.
The trade with the Eagles the year before also netted the Browns the No. 12 pick. Sitting there, the Browns watched Kansas City move up to No. 10 in a trade with Buffalo and select Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes. Unfazed, the Browns traded the No. 12 pick to the Texans, who chose Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson.
The Browns then selected Kizer of Notre Dame at No. 52 overall.
2018
Another regime change saw Haslam fire Brown, move DePodesta aside, and put football operations in the charge of former Chiefs GM John Dorsey in December of the 2017 season.
Dorsey had a voice in the Chiefs’ selection of Mahomes the year before, but was shockingly fired by Kansas City in June, two months after the draft.
During his sabbatical, Dorsey scouted quarterbacks available in the 2018 draft from his basement and attended several college games on his own. He took a liking to Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield. So when he was named Browns GM, Dorsey had a jumpstart on quarterback evaluations.
Dorsey hired former associate McGloughan as a special consultant prior to the draft. McGloughan was on record publicly as saying Mayfield was the best quarterback prospect in the 2018 draft.
The Browns earned the No. 1 spot in the draft again by virtue of an 0-16 season. During the buildup to the draft, two league sources insisted to me that Wyoming’s Josh Allen fit the profile of big, pocket passer that Dorsey historically preferred.
With the No. 1 pick, Dorsey chose the diminutive Mayfield. USC’s Sam Darnold went No. 2 to the Jets. The Bills traded up to No. 7 and took Allen. The Ravens took Lamar Jackson at No. 32.
