Ranking every Cleveland Browns first round draft pick since 1999

1. OT Joe Thomas, 2007 – 3rd overall

I mean, who’d you expect? When I say Joe Thomas played his position better than anyone played their position during his career, believe that. He’s that good. Not only is he that good for his generation, but when we look at all-time great left tackles, Joe Thomas is also arguably number one.

Thomas is credited with only 30 sacks across 167 games played. He’s apparently had 6,680 pass-blocking attempts and that means he only failed 30 times. He had a pass-blocking success rate of 99.5%, which is absurd. He’s also one of the least penalized left tackles in NFL history as well. Another just bonkers stat.

He also did it with countless quarterbacks being rotated in, many of whom were unable to scramble out of the pocket, let alone let a pass rip a moment sooner than most would. Imagine how few sacks he would’ve given up had he played with a quarterback like Russell Wilson all those years.

Thomas never got to see the playoffs but his status as an icon in Cleveland and future Hall of Famer are all set. Thomas is set to be eligible for the Hall of Fame next year, so this could be the last few months of us referring to him as anything, other than “Hall of Fame player, Joe Thomas”.