Cleveland Browns: 6 best one-year wonders since the 1999 return

Derek Anderson

The only Pro Bowl quarterback the Cleveland Browns have had since 1999 is Derek Anderson. He had a one year blow out in 2007 and nearly lead the team to the playoffs. Though a 10-6 record wouldn’t be enough. That 2007 season was magical, though. Before all that, the former Oregon Beaver went to Baltimore in 2005 in the sixth round of the NFL Draft. After one year, he was waived and the Cleveland Browns claimed him.

He played mostly near the end of the season, going 0-3 as a starter. Yet, his 2007 season would see him explode onto the scene. He threw for nearly 3,800 yards, with 29 touchdowns for a Pro Bowl appearance. Warning signs were there, however. He completed only 56.5% of his passes and threw 19 interceptions in the same year. The talk was that then-head coach Romeo Crennel could help get Anderson to be even better the next year and the town took to it. There were conversations happening of where Anderson fell in the pecking order fo the NFL’s best quarterbacks.

Anderson would shut that conversation down pretty hard in 2008. His completion percentage fell to barley 50% and injuries plagued him all year. Unlike others on this list, there wasn’t any good reason. The pieces largely returned, as did the coaching staff. Overnight Anderson just lost it.

That’s not to take away from him, however. He’s done something no one has done since Bernie Kosar, and that shouldn’t be scoffed at. Here’s hoping that current quarterback Baker Mayfield can ascend to the level of discussion that Anderson did oh so briefly in 2007. That way Mayfield can become just the second quarterback since 1999 to go to the Pro Bowl as a member of the Cleveland Browns.

Anderson’s time was fleeting, volatile, and out there; but dang, it was fun.