There have been 30 starting quarterbacks in the last 21 years of the Cleveland Browns and it’s time to rank them all to find out who stands where.
The Cleveland Browns are known for two things, replacing head coaches and replacing quarterbacks. They shockingly go hand in hand. In 21 years, the team has had 30 starting quarterbacks, and surprise, surprise, the team has had varying levels of success at the position.
There are nine categories that the players fall into. First is the Walk of Shame category, a list of all the quarterbacks who only started a single game in their Browns during their tenure. Then there’s the Busted Backups category. Home to players who only had a one-year stint on the team as a backup or spot starter and weren’t brought in to win the position in training camp.
Next is the Failed Free Agents category, littered with one-and-done free agent acquisitions that weren’t supposed to be done so quickly. Guys that the team brought in to be starters for the team and didn’t even finish the year as such. After that, the Draft Dumpster. Home to all the failed draft picks that just couldn’t get it done.
They aren’t all terrible categories, however. We have the Badass Pickups, a grouping of guys who were really good in spots but weren’t full-time starters. Then there’s the They Tried category. A group of guys who could’ve found success if the team was better managed.
Lastly, the last three categories are represented by only one player each. What are they? Keep reading to find out.
Walk of Shame
The most forgotten of the forgotten. Of the 30 players to start a game, these are the men who only got one start in their entire Browns career.
30. Spergon Wynn (1)
Spergon Wynn’s only start saw him throw for 17 yards and completed only five passes. The Browns were starting current Eagles head coach Doug Pederson but he wasn’t getting anything done. So former head coach Chris Palmer went with Wynn to try and generate some offense. The team’s top quarterback at the time, Tim Couch, was dealing with an injury that sidelined him the second half of the season.
29. Bruce Gradkowski (1)
Having to play the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers is the reason why Gradkowski is only the second worse quarterback since 1999. That Steelers squad would go on to beat the high-flying Cardinals in the SuperBowl. The Browns were 4-11 heading into this game, and the entire team played like it. Gradkowski threw two picks, three sacks, and had a whopping 18 yards passing.
28. Kevin Hogan (1)
Kevin Hogan never had a chance. Running for his life against the Houston Texans, this soon-to-be 0-16 Browns squad didn’t know how to use Hogan’s athletism to their advantage and despite performing admirably, he still only threw for 140 yards, completing 20 of 37 passing attempts, with three interceptions and four sacks. He did throw a touchdown though. So, yay?
27. Connor Shaw (1)
The Cleveland Browns were 7-8 heading into the final game of the 2014 season and had a chance for their third non-losing season since 1999. This, with the Browns being 7-4 at one point in the season. Yet Brian Hoyer and Johnny Manziel fell apart, and bad coaching from Mike Pettine guaranteed disaster. Injuries thrust Connor Shaw into the last game where Shaw would play at best average. He completed half of his 28 attempts, for 177 yards, and had only one interception.
26. Thad Lewis (1)
Besides Hogan, Thad Lewis was the only player to complete a touchdown pass in this group. Lewis had a good game (comparatively), throwing 22 of 32, for 204 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Yet he’s still on this list because he only ever had that one game.
Busted Backups
This is the category for all the guys signed to be or started the season as backups and eventually got starts with the team. Unlike the previous list, all stats from their time playing for the Browns will be counted.
25. Ken Dorsey (3)
Ken Dorsey might have been the best backup the team has ever had for an entire season because he never played. Dorsey was a Brown from 2006-2008, and only saw action in ’08. He went 0-3 as a starter, completed 47.3 percent of his passing, had seven interceptions, and no passing touchdowns to his name. Sometimes you gotta feel for former Browns coach Romeo Crennel.
24. Luke McCown (4)
Luke McCown had a good eleven-year career in the NFL as a backup. His only year with Cleveland though would come in 2004 as a rookie, where McCown threw 49% of his passes for completions, went 0-4, and had seven interceptions. He did throw four touchdowns, so that helps. Yet, this was the Jeff Garcia/Kelly Holcomb season. So you couldn’t expect much. Hey, remember Lee Suggs?
23. Austin Davis (2)
So far no one has won a game, Davis included. After going 3-5 in St. Louis the year before, the Browns picked up Davis, who went 0-2 as a starter, but completed nearly 60% of his passes. Davis, however, saw a sharp decline from 12 touchdowns in 2014 to just one in 2015. His three interceptions are a little optimistic compared to everyone else we’ve seen so far.
22. Doug Pederson (8)
After Tim Couch got hurt, the Browns turned to Dough Pederson, who went 1-7 in his eight starts. He threw for two touchdowns and eight interceptions against a completion rating of 55.7%. Pederson was so bad that he was benched for Spergyn Wynn.
21. Ty Detmer (2)
Ty Detmer didn’t have the best completion percentage during his time in Cleveland, only 51.6% but the former Heisman Trophy winner did have a lot of yards (548), four touchdowns, and only two picks in just two starts. He did lose those two, but this was Cleveland in 2000. There was no chance of winning.
20. Jason Campbell (8)
Yes, Jason Campbell did start eight games for the Cleveland Browns. He didn’t, however, win the starting job out of training camp in 2013. The starter for the opener was Brandon Weeden. Kinda makes you think about how badly Campbell played if he lost out to Weedon. Campbell won only one game, week 9, the last win of the season for the 4-12 Browns. Campbell didn’t play great, but he played smart. He threw 56.8 percent of his passes for 2,015 yards, 11 touchdowns with just eight interceptions. He wasn’t very good and the offense stunk around him but he didn’t make too many mistakes.
Failed Free Agents
This is for all the times the Browns signed someone to be the starter but failed out after just one year.
19. Tyrod Taylor (3)
The Tyrod Taylor signing in hindsight wasn’t great. He started three games, won just once, lost another, and tied for the third. He threw an abysmal 49.4 completion percentage, with only two touchdowns, and somehow still two interceptions. The idea that he ever started over Baker Mayfield is part and parcel of why Hue Jackson was fired. That and going 1-31 over two seasons.
18. Trent Dilfer (11)
Trent Dilfer wasn’t supposed to be the savior of the franchise, but he did win the starting job in 2005. There was a time when the Browns wanted Dilfer to mentor Charlie Frye because of how much potential they saw in the young player. Dilfer, the veteran, went 4-7 in his 11 starts for the Browns. Threw just under 60% and had 11 touchdowns to 12 interceptions. This is the prototypical Browns season. Could’ve been better but have seen far worse.
17. Robert Griffin III (5)
After not being signed for the 2015 season, Robert Griffin was signed by the Cleveland Browns and Hue Jackson to be the starter for the team. Griffin wouldn’t make it more than a few weeks before injuries sidelined his season. He ended up getting five starts, going 1-4, and failing to do anything of note. Completing 59% of his throws, for 886 yards, two touchdowns, and three interceptions. At least he’s still in the league.
16. Jake Delhomme (4)
In his first year away from Carolina, Jake Delhomme had some respectable stats. He went 2-2 as a starter, threw for 872 yards, and completed 62% of his passes but also had seven interceptions. He did have a win percentage of .500 though. That’s something.
15. Jeff Garcia (10)
The sad thing is, besides Griffin, just about everyone on this list before now was done and out of the league almost right after they stopped in Cleveland. Not Jeff Garcia though, who would go on to have great years in Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. He even made it back to the Pro Bowl in 2007. Garcia in Cleveland though went 3-7 with a completion rate of 57%, while throwing for 1,731 yards, 10 touchdowns, and nine interceptions.
Draft Dumpster
Draft busts are always going to be given more leeway in my opinion than veteran signees. You don’t know how they’re going to pan out, which is why they’re higher on this list than the veterans who failed after only one season.
14. DeShone Kizer (15)
In terms of just out-and-out performance, DeShone Kizer is arguably the worst player to ever put on a Browns jersey. Yet we’re looking at starting quarterbacks on this team. The number of games you play, what you had around you, and total stats, isn’t all that matters. Kizer was garbage, but we have two quarterbacks who in their entire Browns career threw for less than 20 yards as a starter. Kizer is terrible, but he’s still just 23 years old at the time of this piece. In his lone season as a starter, he went 0-15, threw for just shy of 3,000 yards (so that’s good at least), but had only 11 touchdowns to a whopping 22 interceptions.
But Baker Mayfield had a “terrible” year in 2019. Ok.
13. Charlie Frye (19)
Our first multi-year starter. That’s so dang sad. Charlie Frye started 19 total games over his three years with the Cleveland Browns. He completed a respectable 62% of his passes, for 3,490 yards, but only 14 touchdowns to 23 interceptions; while amassing six wins, and 13 losses in that span. He did tack on three more rushing touchdowns in 2006, for 215 yards rushing. Frye was athletic but never consistent enough to make it work.
12. Brady Quinn (12)
Brady Quinn was a boring quarterback. He didn’t have the big arm everyone thought he would, he wasn’t really that athletic, and he didn’t take a lot of risks, but still made a lot of mistakes. He went 3-9 as a starter in 2008 and 2009, after sitting behind Derek Anderson in 2007. He completed a terrible 52% of his passes, with only 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions to show for it. He did throw 1,902 yards for what it’s worth. Making the move from Anderson, who had a cannon, to Quinn was the downfall of Anderson’s confidence as a starter. If Quinn wasn’t on the team and management wasn’t so quick to rush to see what Quinn could be, maybe the team would’ve been better long term. Who knows?
11. Johnny Manziel (8)
It’s not hard to say that Quinn was better than Johnny Manziel, he may have been but Manziel was exciting. Sure, he only went 2-6 as a starter and was plagued by substance issues but he did put up some interesting numbers. He completed 57% of his passes, for 1,675 yards, with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also rushed for 259 yards, with a touchdown added on. Who knows what he would’ve looked like if he had a more stable environment, a better support structure, and a head coach who knew how to use him?
10. Brandon Weeden (20)
Brandon Weedon had a huge arm. That was obvious. He also wasn’t as bad as people thought he was. He did complete 56% of his career passes in a Browns uniform while amassing 5,116 passing yards, 23 touchdowns, and 28 interceptions. Not bad when you realized he only played 20 games for the Browns. He did only go 5-15 though, which is probably why the team gave up on him so fast. Plus he was a 29-year-old rookie. If he hadn’t played five-plus years of minor league baseball, what would Weedon of looked like?
9. Cody Kessler (8)
The first “good” quarterback on this list. It took 21 players to finally get to a player who was actually good as a Cleveland Brown. Holy hell, man. He was on the team for two seasons but only started eight games, going 0-8 in the process. The former third-round pick out of USC did play well. Completing 65.6% of his completions, for 1,380 yards, with six touchdowns and two interceptions in the lone year he started. That was the year the team went 1-15, so imagine what Kessler could’ve done with today’s Browns’ quad. Kessler is the Patriots’ backup at the moment and may have a shot to start for the team.
Badass Pickups
Next up we have the players who came in and became starters and did alright in their roles, unlike the high-priced free agents and drafted rookies before them. The expectations were lower for these players and they still outperformed them.
8. Seneca Wallace (7)
Seneca Wallace is one of my favorite players of all time. Simply from his days at Iowa State alone, where he had one of the greatest runs in the history of college football. Wallace started as a backup to Matt Hasselbeck in Seattle, before eventually joining the Cleveland Browns for two seasons.
He was originally the backup, but over the two seasons did start seven games. He went 1-6 in those games but did put up 1,261 yards passing, with six touchdowns to four interceptions while completing 57% of his passes. If Wallace was in a system during his career that utilized his legs as much as his arm, Wallace could’ve had even more impressive stats across the board.
7. Josh McCown (11)
Only Cleveland and Tampa Bay can they had both McCown brothers on their roster. Josh McCown left Tampa to come to Cleveland, while his younger brother Luke left Cleveland to go to Tampa. Funny how that works out. The elder McCown was at times a godsend in the 2015 season. If it wasn’t for the coaching change in 2016, and the team’s desire to see what they had in Johnny Manziel (’15) and Robert Griffin/Cody Kessler (’16), McCown would’ve won more games and had better stats.
All in all, he was 1-10 as a starter, while completing 60% of his passes, for 3,209 yards, with 18 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions. Had he played an entire season, he could’ve had nearly 4,000 yards passing and at least 25 touchdowns. That’s pretty damn respectable stats, even if we don’t adjust them from 11 to 16 games. McCown deserved better than what he got in Cleveland.
They Tried
This is the crop of guys who if they had better coaching, and consistent playing time could’ve had a chance at something great. That’s not to say they would’ve, but there was enough potential there to warrant the opportunity.
6. Colt McCoy (21)
Over the three seasons, Colt McCoy was with the Browns, he went 6-15 in his 21 starts, completing just about 58% of his passes. He had 21 touchdowns, to 20 interceptions during his tenure with the Browns. Unfortunately for him, he went from being in Eric Mangini’s offense to Pat Shurmur and Shurmur wanted a bigger quarterback to throw, which is why McCoy got abandoned for Brandon Weedon, despite McCoy’s solid sophomore outing.
He continues to play well in relief to this day, having a stop in San Francisco before moving onto Washington for five seasons. He very nearly became the starter of the Redskins in 2018 but injuries derailed that opportunity. McCoy is still fondly remembered in Cleveland and why wouldn’t he be? Everyone wants to grow up like Colt McCoy. He signed with the New York Giants to be their backup for the 2020 season.
5. Brian Hoyer (16)
A. WINNING. RECORD. FINALLY. Brian Hoyer only started 16 games for the Cleveland Browns but he did so with a 10-6 record. In his two seasons with the Browns, he had 17 touchdowns and 16 interceptions while completing 56% of his passes. He did amass just shy of 4,000 yards passing with 3,941 total yards.
Despite having a 10-6 record during his two seasons under Rod Chudzinski and Mike Pettine, Pettine decided that a quarterback who could actually win would be bad for his career as a crappy coach, and let him leave after his second season with the Browns in the hopes of clearing room for Johnny Manziel.
Hoyer went to Houston and had another season with a winning record, while Manziel was out of the league the next season. Hoyer is now in New England with Kessler and unless the Patriots make a move in the draft, it’ll be two former Browns competing for the starting position.
4. Kelly Holcomb (12)
While it’s hard to say that Kelly Holcomb deserves to be over Hoyer, the fact is that Holcomb did play well in the team’s only playoff game since returning. So, yeah. Being brought in during the 2001 season to back up Tim Couch, Holcomb got the start at the beginning of the 2002 season due to Couch being injured. Holcomb torched the Kansas City Chiefs in what should’ve been a win, had it not been for Dwayne Rudd’s thrown helmet.
During Holmcomb’s 12 starts with the Browns, he went 4-8, with 25 touchdowns, 21 interceptions, and a completion percentage of 64%. He was an instant offense whenever he was put into the game, but despite making the playoffs in 2002, Butch Davis opted to play hot potato at quarterback, resulting in neither Holcomb nor Couch getting consistent use in 2003. This was partly why Davis would be fired as head coach.
Couch would move on to Green Bay, while Holcomb would spend one more year on the bench in Cleveland before moving on to Buffalo.
The last of the Pro Bowlers
The only Pro Bowler gets his own page.
3. Derek Anderson (34)
Derek Anderson spent four years in Cleveland and didn’t have consistent success. His Browns record was 16-18 over four years, but he did have one magical year that makes up for everything else. During the 2007 season, Anderson went 10-5 in relief of Charlie Frye and guided the team to only their second winning season since 1999.
During that lone year, he had 29 touchdowns, 19 interceptions, and 3,787 yards. It was a great season and Anderson even earned a Pro Bowl visit. Yet, this was still Cleveland and Anderson did all this greatness with the specter of a rookie Brady Quinn hanging over his head.
Despite playing alright in his follow-up season, Anderson was benched in week 10 against the Broncos for Quinn. They would only win one more time that whole year, ending the year with a 4-12 record due to coach mismanagement and pressure from the higher-ups to play Quinn.
This desire to pit Quinn against Anderson bleed into 2009 as well and both men again failed to find consistency in the offense, having to split first-team reps with one another. Anderson would show that he’s still game, even as late as 2014, when he relieved an injured Cam Newton with some success.
Had Anderson had the full support of the Browns organization, it’s entirely possible that he would’ve found his footing again, bounced back, and maybe been the last quarterback to start for the Browns before they acquired Baker Mayfield.
Hey, remember that one playoff game?
Just like Derek Anderson, the only quarterback to get us to the playoffs gets his own page too.
2. Tim Couch (59)
Say whatever you will about him being a “bust” but in my book, Tim Couch was pretty dang good. The only problem Couch faced was having to be the starting quarterback behind an offensive line that was garbage. Couch took more shots than a hockey goalie in practice.
Couch is one of the few players on this list to play his entire career in Cleveland, though he did try to become Brett Favre’s backup in Green Bay in 2004. Couch went 22-37 as a starter while completing 59.8% of his passes. He threw 64 touchdowns and 67 interceptions and showed great growth in 2001 and 2002, where he went 15-15 as the starter and lead the 2002 squad to the playoffs.
Over the course of his Browns career, he threw for 11,131 yards and became known for his ability to win last-second games. Yet all the late-game heroics in 2001 and 2002 couldn’t keep Couch upright. During Couch’s entire tenure with the team, the Browns never had a solid tackle worth their weight. His best blocker, Shaun O’Hare, wasn’t even given the opportunity to start most of the time; despite going on to being a Pro Bowler and SuperBowl winning guard for the New York Giants.
Constant damage to his shoulder caused Couch to fall out of the league, despite multiple attempts to come back. He wouldn’t have a bad post-football life, however, becoming an announcer for the SEC and was even brought back to do commentary with the Cleveland Browns in 2018. Plus, he married Playboy playmate Heather Kozar. So, you know, not a bad life all in all.
Plus he’s absolutely not a bust.
An Oklahoma gunslinger
There’s not even a debate, so sit down.
1. Baker Mayfield (29)
There are going to be some who disagree. Those are people who aren’t paying attention. Yes, in the grand scheme of the last 21 years, of course, the bar is so freaking low that he’s number one. It’s been really really bad to see just how poorly most of the other 29 starters played, but as bad as they were, Mayfield has been that good.
Baker Mayfield isn’t just the best quarterback the Browns have had since 1999, he’s arguably the best quarterback they’ve had since Brian Sipe. Dating back to the 1979 and 1980 seasons, the only player to throw for 20 touchdowns in back-to-back seasons has been Mayfield.
He had a down year in 2019 but that’s because the Browns had a really bad head coach and an even worse general manager in John Dorsey. Dorsey shook up the team between the 2018 and 2019 seasons, expecting to somehow destroy a team’s chemistry and just be fine because they got an injury-plagued diva in return.
Now there is talk about Mayfield being benched for a career journeyman, which is laughable and insulting. There have been multiple examples in the last 21 years of the Browns playing hot potato with the position and it absolutely failing. Case Keenum is not a starting quarterback, and to even say he could replace Mayfield is laughable.
Since 1974, Mayfield has more wins in his first two seasons as a Cleveland Brown quarterback (12) than anyone not named Derrek Anderson (13) or Bernie Kozar (16). Mayfield is already 8th all-time in Cleveland Browns’ history for touchdowns thrown and by the end of next year should be 5th. By his 30th birthday, he could be number two all time, assuming he stays healthy.
Mayfield’s “TERRIBLE YEAR” that everyone keeps screeching about is still better statistically than every other Browns’ quarterback in the last 21 years besides Anderson’s 2007 season. Give the man his due, he’s really been that good.