Are these the 5 worst first-round picks since 1999 for the Cleveland Browns?

The Cleveland Browns have not always been the best at selecting players in the Draft.

The Cleveland Browns have had a great run of drafting talent as of late. Names like Myles Garret, Denzel Ward, and Nick Chubb are anchoring a team with lofty expectations. That hasn’t always been the case, and one could argue no team has drafted as poorly since 1999 as the Browns have in totality, at least in the first round.

Sure the Browns have had some really good picks, in and out of the first round, but when they’ve missed, they missed in a way that can only be described as next level. Our sister site Dawg Pound Daily seems to agree with us to an extent and decided to select the five worst picks since the Browns came back in 1999.

While there’s no doubt the team has struggled, did Dawg Pound Daily pick the worst of the worst? Here’s who Dawg Pound Daily picked as their five worst picks;

1. Justin Gilbert
2. Johnny Manziel
3. Courtney Brown
4. Brady Quinn
5. Kellen Winslow II

As you can see there are some contenders here, and I encourage everyone to go read why they picked the ones they did. While I agree with the likes of Gilbert, Manziel, and Quinn, my five worst were a bit different.

Before the draft, I ranked every player the Browns have ever taken in the first round, which you can read at the bottom of the article, but I didn’t have Winslow II or Brown in my bottom five.

Here’s who I picked as the Browns’ five worst picks (full ranking in the link below);

1. Justin Gilbert
2. Johnny Manziel
3. Brady Quinn
4. Corey Coleman
5. Phil Taylor

Why Phil Taylor and Corey Coleman are worse than Courtney Brown and Kellen Winslow

When you look at Quinn and Manziel, they are two of the least productive players I have ever seen, and Gilbert was just a washout. Yet, I can’t say Courtney Brown is among the five worst players, as he had a six-year career. Brown had his fair share of injuries that hurt his production but six years in the NFL isn’t something to scoff at.

Coleman has only played three seasons due to injuries and Taylor only four due to injuries. Yes, Brown as a number one pick overall had more expectations but he helped the team get to the playoffs. Taylor and Coleman didn’t help the Browns do anything but waste draft picks.

So if we’re basically putting Brown where he is due to his lack of production and injuries, you have to basically rule that any first-round pick that had a short, ineffective career, due to injuries in the same space. Brown was a productive player to a degree, more so than Taylor and Coleman combined.

So Brown, in my opinion, can’t be ranked lower.

As for Winslow, he’s a former Pro Bowler who played nearly nine years in the NFL. He’s clearly not among the five worst careers of first-round draft picks. The author of the Dawg Pound Daily also seemed to put his legal issues front and center, while my list was strictly about on-the-field play. I don’t disagree that Winslow is a trash bag pretending to be a person. I’m just saying that on a list like this, production is the most important factor.