Cleveland Browns: 6 best one-year wonders since the 1999 return
By Chad Porto
Peyton Hillis
The only Cleveland Brown to ever be the cover athlete of the Madden video game franchise was Peyton Hillis. You can knock it or love it, but that’s where we’re at. Hillis was a fullback at Arkansas, as Houston Nutt favored scat-batt Felix Jones and future top draft pick Darren McFadden over Hillis. Hillis led the team in receiving yards in his senior year, and was third on the team in all-purpose yards behind McFadden and Jones. Both McFadden and Jones went in the first round, Hillis in the seventh.
On a season to season performance, Hillis’ one year with the Browns was as good if not better than any singular season that Jones and McFadden produced. Hillis came out of college as a hidden gem and went to the Denver Broncos were he started at fullback. After Josh McDaniels came in, he wrecked the team and lost the respect of many of the previous seasons’ players, resulting in Hillis getting traded to Cleveland where he busted out big time.
Dawning No. 40, Hillis went full-Mike Alstott on everyone, running over people left and right, and even shredding the Baltimore Raven’s league-leading rushing defense. He put together over 1,654 rushing yards, 13 touchdowns, won the Madden cover athlete honor, and brought the “leap” into the football zeitgeist, making it trendy around the league.
He was poised for a huge year in 2011, but a contract dispute and admitted maturity issues sidelined Hillis from recapturing his previous year’s glory. A change in head coaching may have been an issue, and the offensive line was not as good as the year prior. Also, let’s be fair here, there was no one else on offense who could provide a spark like Hillis could. The receivers were all bums, Colt McCoy never became the quarterback we all wanted him to be and he went from one bad head coach to another.
It makes sense why Hillis fell off. His own attitude, plus a dysfunctional organization are a combination for disaster.