Eight players who hit the 100 games mark for the Browns.
Joel Bitonio will become just the fourth player in the Browns’ modern era to start 100 games for Cleveland in his career. That is a feat all its own. He’s also going to be one of eight players since 1999 to have played in 100 games or more as well.
Despite the ups and downs of the franchise, the Browns actually have had some success at getting guys to be long-term parts of the team. Sure, the wins didn’t always come but the team did find some gems.
Not all of these guys are Hall of Famers but some of them should absolutely be considered. They won’t because of how lame some pundits are when viewing special teams’ players but that’s a different issue for a different day.
Now, this idea came from a Dan Labbe article from Cleveland.com that highlighted the rarity of Bitonio’s 100th start and where it stands within the franchise. I thought we should know who those people are, but more importantly, I thought it’d be good if we highlighted more than just the guys who got to 100-starts, but also who played in 100 games as a whole. It’s an equally impressive feat because sometimes there are extenuating circumstances as to why certain people get credited for a start.
It’s a very arbitrary stat in football. So instead, we’re looking at the players who have played in 100 games for the Browns, and don’t worry, there’s no special team bias here.
Here are four former Cleveland players who just missed the mark.
- Joe Haden (90/81 started)
- D’Qwell Jackson (97/96 started)
- Dennis Northcutt (99 games/started 46)
- Ahtyba Rubin (99 games/75 started)
G Joel Bitonio – 100 (All Starts)
Joel Bitonio was the obvious standout of the Browns 2014 NFL Draft class. He was taken alongside Justin Gilbert and Johnny Manziel, not exactly all-time greats. He would’ve had some competition from Christian Kirksey, had he been healthy. If Kirksey played every game before leaving for Green Bay, he would’ve been at 96.
Bitonio, on the other hand, hit 100. He not only hit 100 but he’s started every game he ever played. He did miss some time, this milestone should’ve been hit in the fifth game of last season, but he missed six games in 2015 and 11 games in 2016.
That’s it, however. Since then he’s been nothing but one of the three best offensive linemen the team has had since it came back, with Alex Mack being in a close second to his third and Joe Thomas being the far and away best of the lot.
Bitonio has been selected to the past three Pro Bowls and the past three All-Pro lineups as a second-teamer; making him routinely a top four-guard in the NFL at worst. At 29 years old, he still has a lot of time to get to a fourth, fifth, and maybe even sixth Pro Bowl/All-Pro team and if he does, he’ll be a lock for the Hall of Fame.
C Alex Mack – 101 (All Starts)
Like with Joel Bitonio, Alex Mack is a Hall of Fame-worthy talent. He went to three Pro Bowls while in Cleveland (and another three with Atlanta) and was named to the All-Pro’s second team with the Bowns before getting another two selections with the Falcons.
Mack is arguably the best offensive linemen in the Browns history not named Joe Thomas and he was easily one of the more impressive talents the team has ever had. He was not keen on staying in Cleveland long, and because of that he got to see the cups of a championship with the Falcons but ended up losing due to Tom Brady being Brady.
Mack was the team’s first-round pick in 2009 and is one of the few players from that draft class that is still playing in 2021. His selection was a bit controversial, as the Browns opted to take him over Clay Matthews III, son of Cleveland Browns legend Clay Matthews Jr.
Both men had Hall of Fame careers in their own right and played positions of need for the Browns in 2009, so it wasn’t like it was a bad pick in hindsight. Like with Bitonio before, Mack was the standout player of the Browns draft class that year, with everyone else largely being a bust.
DT Orpheus Roye – 102 ( All Starts)
Easily the first “big” free agent the Browns ever had coming back to the league in 1999. He signed with the team in 2000 and left the dreaded Pittsburgh Steelers in doing so. Not only was he a big “get” in free agency but the Browns took away one of the Steelers’ best defensive players from the few years prior.
Roye never won any awards and was never elected to a Pro Bowl and frankly, that’s a shame. Few players in not just Browns’ history but in NFL history were ever as consistently good for as long as Roye was. When you think about the fact that there have been hundreds of thousands of players to take part in the NFL, it’s very easy to say that Roye was consistently better for longer than most of the guys that ever suited up.
He played defensive tackle or end for the team depending on the front they were running at the time and started 102 games for Cleveland alone. He had 88 tackles in 2005, a career-high and one of the most impressive single seasons by a linemen ever.
For context, only other defensive linemen had more combined tackles in a season than Roye, and that being Aaron Kampman, who had 89. Roye’s ’05 season also saw him rack up the fifth most tackles in a single season by a defensive lineman, and is third all-time in assisted tackles. When we say Roye was a legend, we aren’t being hyperbolic.
Daylon McCutcheon – 103 (96 Starts)
The 2005 season would see two Browns’ legends play their last snape for the franchise with Orpheus Roye and Daylon McCutcheon both finishing up together. Roye went back to the Steelers for a SuperBowl run, while McCutcheon ended up retiring two years later due to injuries. If Roye was the Browns’ first successful foray into free agency, McCutcheon could be argued was the first successful draft pick the Browns ever had.
While there is a case for Tim Couch and Kevin Johnson, both members of that 1999 class, it was McCutcheon that had longevity. He was a starter for all but a handful of games of his seven-year Browns career.
He was easily the team’s best secondary player, and while that wasn’t a hard feat at the time, with his only competition being Anthony Henry, he was insanely reliable. Maybe never as good as Joe Haden at his peak but McCutcheon’s peak was arguably longer and had a lesser noticeable drop-off.
It’s hard to say what would’ve happened if McCutcheon didn’t end up needing microfracture knee surgery, which ultimately ended his career. He missed all of 2006 and was released right before the Browns 10-6 season in 2007. Had the Browns held onto him, and he was healthy, he may have made the difference and gotten the team into the playoffs that year.
LB Andra Davis – 105 (83 Starts)
Andra Davis, not to be confused with former Browns receiver Andre’ Davis, who were both drafted in the same year as one another, was another one of the 100+ club guys. Davis came to the team in 2002, shortly after they moved on from Wali Rainer. He was meant to serve as a backup to Earl Holmes and learn under him, with the idea of Davis replacing Holmes the next year.
That’s exactly what happened and in his second year with the team, he had 138 combined tackles, five sacks, six pass deflections, and two forced fumbles.
It was a heck of a sophomore season for Davis, who would never reach those heights again. Injuries, mostly surrounding concussions, slowed and halted Davis’ progress down quite a bit. It would be those that would cut his time with the Browns short.
He’d have one good year in Denver before riding out the rest of his career with the Bills.
In what’s a recurring trend on this list, Davis was easily the biggest standout among the Browns’ 2002 draft class. The team drafted three new linebackers that year, intending on them to be the corp of the future, and Davis ended up being the last one selected. Yet, he became the best of the bunch. Kevin Bentley and Ben Taylor had their moments, Davis was the true standout.
RS/WR Josh Cribbs – 124 (31 Starts)
It’s a real shame how NFL experts and pundits view special teams. They’re clearly necessary and not just anyone can do it. it takes a unique and detailed skillset that is almost as non-football as it gets. They’re usually on the other end of 11 dudes barreling after them across the length of the field. That’s not exactly commonplace. Usually no more than a few yards separate the ball-carrier and the defense, but in a returners case, it could be 60 yards or so of separation.
So when Josh Cribbs stepped on the field and did his thing, it was beyond impressive. Like with everyone else on this list, Cribbs was the best player to come out of the 2005 NFL Draft. Though it was arguably the closest someone has come yet to challenging that throne. Braylon Edwards was the Browns’ top pick that year and he had some good years. While Edwards was a better receiver than Cribbs, Cribbs was much better overall as a playmaker. The other thing that makes his selection as “the Browns best from 2005’s draft” was that he wasn’t drafted but signed as an undrafted free agent.
Still, he was a rookie that year, so it counts.
He was easily the most exciting offensive player the Browns had during his heyday, and if NFL writers and pundits gave more respect to the skillset needed by return men, kickers, and punters, then no one would argue that Cribbs deserves to be a Hall of Famer, as he was arguably the best to ever do that job.
He was a three-time Pro-Bowler and two-time All-Pro and was selected to the 2000’s All-Decade team.
LT Joe Thomas – 167 (All Starts)
Joe Thomas is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and that’s not in dispute. He was taken third overall in the 2007 NFL Draft and as always, was the team’s best rookie from that draft class. While he only played in one season with the Browns that had a winning record, his rookie year, he was often the best player on the team and constantly stayed loyal to the team despite never having a reason to.
The team never competed during his career and was the lone bright spot for the squad when the team needed it. He was always the concomitant professional and always back the squad, even when he had no reason or logic to do so.
During his time with the Browns he went to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years in a row, and the one time he didn’t go was the very same year he suffered his only major injury and consequently ended up retiring due to that injury and the years of wear and tear on his body.
From 2008 to 2015, Thomas was either a First-Team or Second-Team All-Pro Player and was the best left tackle in the game. The team ultimately never gave him the offense he deserved and as a result, his second-best season was a 7-9 campaign.
K Phil Dawson – 215 (No Starts)
This one technically doesn’t count but we’re going to say it anyway to keep the motif; Phil Dawson was the Browns’ best player from the 1998 NFL Draft. Technically, none of that is true. The Browns weren’t in operation in 1998, and Dawson’s first team was technically the Oakland Raiders and his second was the New England Patriots.
Dawson wouldn’t make a team until the Browns started up in 1999 when as a second-year player he would make the squad as their kicker. So he was technically still a rookie though (in my mind), as he never played an NFL regular-season game prior to the Browns.
Once Dawson joined the Browns, he ended up becoming the team’s stable player for 14 seasons. During his time with Cleveland, he only missed seven games during his entire career. He kicked for nearly 20 years, retiring after the 2018 campaign at 43 years old.
He has played the most games in modern franchise history with 215. He was responsible for 1,271 points during his time with the franchise, second all-time. The only person who’s scored more points than Dawson? Lou Groza, an NFL Hall of Famer.
Like with Josh Cribbs, Dawson deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame. He was easily the most consistent kicker during his entire run, and while others had bigger moments, none of them besides Adam Vinatieri was as good for as long.