Whether you claim the entire history of the franchise called the "Cleveland Browns" or consider this team a different one from what we had before The Move, one thing is clear. Things have been very, very different since 1999, especially at the quarterback position.
We've all seen the jerseys with double-digit QB names on the back, but even those don't fully capture how crazy this quarterback carousel has been. The Browns have played 24 seasons since returning in 1999, and only three of those 24 have seen them only start one QB for the entire year. That makes 21 times in the last 24 years that we've had at least two different starting QBs.
And it's not like we haven't looked for long-term options in that time. Those 24 seasons have seen a ridiculous 40 different players get the start under center. Few have been truly good, but there's been a big spectrum on the bad side, from below-average all the way down to "how did they ever start an NFL game?"
Let's get right into it and do the unfortunate work of ranking all 38 of them, from worst to best.
Click to Jump to a Player
- 40. Bruce Gradkowski
- 39. P.J. Walker
- 38. Dorian Thompson-Robinson
- 37. Ken Dorsey
- 36. Spergon Wynn
- 35. Luke McCown
- 34. Connor Shaw
- 33. Kevin Hogan
- 32. DeShone Kizer
- 31. Doug Pederson
- 30. Austin Davis
- 29. Jake Delhomme
- 28. Jeff Driskel
- 27. Bailey Zappe
- 26. Tyrod Taylor
- 25. Brady Quinn
- 24. Charlie Frye
- 23. Brandon Weeden
- 22. Robert Griffin III
- 21. Ty Detmer
- 20. Thad Lewis
- 19. Nick Mullens
- 18. Cody Kessler
- 17. Case Keenum
- 16. Jeff Garcia
- 15. Colt McCoy
- 14. Seneca Wallace
- 13. Johnny Manziel
- 12. Tim Couch
- 11. Derek Anderson
- 10. Jason Campbell
- 9. Trent Dilfer
- 8. Brian Hoyer
- 7. Jameis Winston
- 6. Deshaun Watson
- 5. Jacoby Brissett
- 4. Josh McCown
- 3. Kelly Holcomb
- 2. Joe Flacco
- 1. Baker Mayfield
40. Bruce Gradkowski
Sorry Bruce, but somebody needs to be in last place. And I have a feeling even Gradkowski himself wouldn't argue that his Browns performance wasn't the worst in the group.
Gradkowski started one game for the Browns in his career, appearing in only one other. His first action came in Week 16 in 2008, when he went 2-of-5 for 8 yards with an interception. But this list is just looking at starts, so we can forgive that dud.
Nothing changed in his start though. He went 5-of-16 for only 18 (yes, eighteen) yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions. We were, naturally, shut out in that game, Gradkowski did actually get the Browns into field goal range on the first drive, but Phil Dawson missed a 53-yarder and never got near enough to try again.
This first entry raises an important point of distinction on this list, too. Gradkowski is not the worst quarterback to ever start for the Browns. He was a serviceable backup with an eight-year NFL career. But on this list we're ranking performances as the Browns' starter, and it's hard to get much worse than a 1.0 passer rating.
39. P.J. Walker
Comparing a modern quarterback's numbers to some of the players on this list from the early-2000's can be tricky, because the game has evolved so much. Numbers that would be pretty bad by today's standards could have been fine in 2002.
But P.J. Walker's are an exception. Walker went a combined 54-of-111 (48.6%) with 1 touchdowns and 5 interceptions across his six games (2 starts) with the Browns in 2023. Making things even worse, he took 11 sacks while adding just 30 yards rushing.
The Browns were desperately searching for quarterback help all season, and Walker got more chances than he ever deserved. Not even once did he make it look like he might be the long-term answer.
38. Dorian Thompson-Robinson
Dorian Thompson-Robinson could have been a long-time fan favorite if he never actually played a regular season game. The preseason star sent presumed QB2 Josh Dobbs out of Cleveland before the season even started, and fans were hyped to have such a great backup.
The hype train screeched to a halt in Week 4, when he got his first career start and threw for 121 yards with no touchdowns and 3 picks in a 28-3 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
He ended up getting to make another two starts, and while they weren't quite as bad, he still finished the season with an overall line of 60/112 for 440 yards with 1 touchdown and 4 interceptions. He didn't even look great on the ground like he had in the preseason, adding just 65 yards on 14 carries (4.6 yards per attempt).
2025 Update: A second, far more miserable season (440 yards and 6 interceptions with no passing touchdowns in two starts) send DTR tumbling down this list. The only silver lining in his tenure is that the Browns were actually able to get some value back in a trade.
37. Ken Dorsey
Like Gradkowski, Ken Dorsey's debut as a backup was awful (0/3 with a pick), and things didn’t get a whole lot better as a starter.
Dorsey did manage a couple 100-yard games, but you know things are bad when that’s the silver lining. He completed just 43 of 88 pass attempts (48.8%) for 370 yards with no touchdowns and 0 interceptions. He also fumbled twice while being sacked five times.
Dorsey did orchestrate a couple scoring drives, but the defense and Braylon Edwards get most of the credit for those,.Leading your team to 19 points in three games is also not exactly something to hang your hat on.
36. Spergon Wynn
Fans might completely forget Spergon Wynn was ever a Brown if his name didn't sound so cool, and his lone start was certainly one people in Cleveland wanted to forget pretty quickly.
After getting sporadic playing time earlier in the year, Wynn finally drew the start for a 3-10 Browns team in Week 14 of the 2000 season. We were coming off a 44-7 blowout loss to the Ravens and had already scored 7 points or fewer seven times that season. How much worse could things get?
How much worse, indeed. The 48-0 blowout loss remains to this day the biggest losing differential in any game for the Browns since they returned to the NFL in 1999.
Wynn himself was a Gradkowski-esque 5-of-16 for 17 yards. I know a lot of people would put him behind Dorsey for that, but I’m willing to credit him with one saving grace — he didn’t throw any interceptions. It’s not like Travis Pretince or Jamel White had any chance of rushing the Browns to victory, but at least Wynn was able to keep the ball in their hands a little more than a more pick-happy passer would have.
35. Luke McCown
Luke McCown ended up having a solid NFL career as a backup, hanging around in the league for 10 seasons. But it was clear in his rookie year that he didn't have it in him to be a starter.
Already 3-8 and on a five-game losing streak, the Browns handed the keys to the offense over to McCown in Week 13 of the 2004 season after Kelly Holcomb broke his ribs in one of the highest-scoring games in NFL history the week before.
Any hope of continued fireworks fizzled under McCown.
His debut ended up being his best game, but even then he only went 20-of-34 for 277 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 picks in a 42-15 blowout loss. It was all downhill from there, and he ended up with a combined stat line of 48/97 passing (49.5%) for 608 yards with 4 touchdowns and 7 picks.
The Browns lost those games by a combined score of 110 to 29, and it would be a decade before Cleveland would allow another McCown to start at quarterback.
34. Connor Shaw
A strong candidate for "most easily forgotten Browns starting quarterback since 1999", Connor Shaw appeared in one game in his entire NFL career — a Week 17 start against Baltimore in 2014.
It was about as much of a run-of-the-mill forgettable flop as you’ll see. Not hilariously bad, nothing outlandish, but pure generic underwhelming play.
The game was a 20-10 loss, and Shaw went 14-of-28 for 177 yards with no touchdowns and 1 pick. He was also sacked four times, and his seven rush attempts gained up just 9 yards.
Like Wynn, the low interception number did some heavy lifting, and keeping the ball safe at least allowed Terrance West to put up a solid 94-yard, 1-TD stat line in the loss.
Never getting a chance to play in another game, let alone start one, does ding Shaw in these rankings too.
33. Kevin Hogan
Kevin Hogan got his lone start during the 2017 season after making a couple appearances as a fifth-round rookie in 2016, and it was another one of those “not quite so bad that it’s funny, but certainly pretty bad” games.
He actually threw a touchdown (but all credit goes to Seth DeValve for the tough catch on the fade. Remember Seth DeValve?) but that doesn’t erase the 20-of-37 passing, 140 yards or 3 interceptions he put up.
This was also the first time Deshaun Watson ever played against the Browns. He got to see first-hand how much we needed him.
32. DeShone Kizer
I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty excited about DeShone Kizer. An exciting young second-round quarterback stepping into an offense with who I thought would be a future star wide receiver in Corey Coleman? And we had Duke Johnson and David Njoku, plus Josh Gordon even played a few games?
Well in retrospect, Kizer's support cast was awful, but that doesn't excuse how he played.
Kizer threw an NFL-leading 22 interceptions to go with just 11 touchdowns, leading the Browns to an 0-15 record in his 15 starts. He missed one game (the Kevin Hogan start), and the Browns finished the year going 0-16.
It's pretty telling that even as a former second-round pick, Kizer wasn't able to stick on any NFL rosters as a long-term backup. The best thing to be said for that season is it got us the No. 1 overall pick.
31. Doug Pederson
The same football mind that has made Doug Pederson a great head coach also made him a valuable backup throughout his 10-year NFL career. That football IQ wasn't enough to shine through when he did get a chance to prove himself on the field though.
The Browns went 1-7 through Pederson’s eight starts in the 2000 season, and while I don’t like to put win-loss records entirely on QBs, he definitely played a big role in that record.
Peterson completed 55.7% of his passes (actually slightly above his career-average of 54.8%), but he averaged just 95.2 yards per game, throwing 2 touchdowns and 8 interceptions.
Posting those numbers now may well have put him closer to the bottom of this list, but we do have to account for the fact that it was a different game back then. Eight qualifying passers had interception rates over 4.0% in 2000, for example, compared to zero in the 2022 season.
30. Austin Davis
Austin Davis showed enough as a rookie with the Rams in 2014 that the Browns brought him on board to compete for the QB job in 2015. It was already a pretty big red flag that he didn’t see the field until injuries gave him the opportunity in Week 12 though.
And once he was starting, things were pretty rough.
Davis ended up getting two starts down the stretch (Week 13 and Week 17), and we lost those games 37-7 and 28-12.
The coaching staff really let Davis air it out (attempting 84 passes), but completed just 48% for 470 yards with no touchdowns and 3 interceptions.
The big bright spot was for fantasy football managers relying on Gary Barnidge, since Barnidge had 5 receptions for 59 yards in one game and 8 receptions for 66 yards in the other. Pretty good if you’re in a point-per-reception league.
29. Jake Delhomme
Jake Delhomme wasn't exactly considered a top-tier starting quarterback when he led the Carolina Panthers to a Super Bowl appearance, but things went way downhill once he left Carolina.
A 35-year-old Delhomme was our Week 1 starter in 2010 before getting hurt, going 20/37 for 227 yards with 1 touchdowns and 2 interceptions in that debut, then things got much worse when he returned.
He returned to the starting lineup from Week 12 through Week 14, and while we did win two of those three games, Delhomme contributed just 1 touchdown to 3 interceptions in that stretch.
28. Jeff Driskel
It's easy to forget Jeff Driskel actually started a game as part of the revolving-door quarterback situation. Part of that is because he was one of five quarterbacks to start a game for the year, and part of that is because his performance was as run-of-the-mill as it gets.
Driskel completed exactly 50% of his passes (13 of 26) for just 166 yards with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. His longest completion went for only 31 yards, and he was truly as unremarkable as can be. Not horrible, I guess, but not enough to earn a second start even for a team desperate to find QB help.
27. Bailey Zappe
Another one-start wonder who is a little tough to rank, Bailey Zappe's Week 18 start was totally forgettable, but at least he didn't have a multi-start run of misery. Throwing for 170 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions on 16-of-31 passing is an ugly line regardless of era, but it's especially weak when you consider that he did it in the pass-happy NFL of 2025.
26. Tyrod Taylor
Tyrod Taylor came to Cleveland after stringing together three very serviceable years as the Buffalo Bills' starter, even making a Pro Bowl.
I love Taylor's game, and if this was just a ranking of the quality of quarterback these guys were over their whole careers I'd have him much higher on the list. But even I can't argue with the results when he started for the Browns.
Taylor's Week 3 injury paved the way for No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield to take over the starting job, but Taylor's play was going to let that happen soon anyway.
Taylor was just 41-of-84 passing (48.8%) with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions over the three starts. He contributed 125 yards and 1 touchdown with his legs, but he also lost another 81 yards on sacks, so that was a bit of a wash.
On the plus side, the Week 1 tie he orchestrated against the Steelers did snap our 17-game losing streak.
25. Brady Quinn
A first-round pick in the 2007 NFL Draft, Brady Quinn had a benefit that not all young Browns QBs got. He was actually brought along slowly, not forced into a starting role right from the start.
Of course, by the time he did end up starting it was clear he was never going to be ready for the job.
Quinn made three starts in his sophomore season, completing 50.6% of his passes with 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
Things stayed about the same from there, going 2-7 across nine starts in his second season while completing 53.4% of his passes with 8 touchdowns and 7 interceptions.
Quinn wasn’t a total failure, but that kind of production in his third year as a pro made it clear that a future as a starting NFL quarterback wasn’t in the cards for the Notre Dame alum.
24. Charlie Frye
Charlie Frye was good enough to stick around and make 19 starts over his three-year tenure with the Browns (more than anyone ranked behind him on the list so far), but that doesn’t mean he was actually good.
His 6-13 record is actually pretty decent for a Browns QB of the era though, and a 62.4% completion percentage is better than a lot of the guys we’ve looked at.
Still, even when adjusting for the era, throwing 23 interceptions to just 14 touchdowns is really rough. As is never averaging even 200 yards per game for a season.
23. Brandon Weeden
Who could have predicted that a 28-year-old rookie QB wouldn't work out?
Weeden was a grown man playing against a mix of teenagers and early-20-somethings in college, so of course he looked like a decent prospect.
But predictably, a rookie that old didn’t have much room to grow through his career.
Weeden led the browns to a 5-15 record over his 20 starts in two seasons, though admittedly his play was far from the sole cause.
He had a nearly 1-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio (23 TDs to 26 picks), and he averaged 222.4 yards per game, keeping a passer rating north of 70 each season.
I'm not going to dock him points for being over-drafted, but nothing about his play in the pros ever stood out as special.
22. Robert Griffin III
The idea of RG3 having a career resurgence in Cleveland and becoming the next franchise quarterback was incredibly fun. The reality of having Griffin as our starting QB was a lot less so.
He got hurt in the 2016 season-opener (not having a great game in the progress), and he wasn't back in the lineup until Week 14 when he struggled through the final four starts of the season.
It took Griffin five games to throw his first touchdown as a Brown, and overall he ended the year with a weak 72.5 passer rating, thanks in part to his three interceptions. He contributed 190 rushing yards too, but that certainly wasn't enough to make up for his poor passing performance.
21. Ty Detmer
Ty Detmer was brought to Cleveland to mentor Tim Couch. I'm not going to count Couch's play against Detmer, but Detmer's numbers really speak for themselves.
He got a ceremonial Week 1 start in an era where teams generally didn't like to start their rookie QBs, but fans were having none of that nonsense after Detmer went 6-of-13 for 52 yards with no IDs and 1 pick in a 43-0 loss to the Steelers.
Detmer did redeem himself after Couch got hurt in Week 15 though, finishing the season with a pair of 150-plus yard games with 1 touchdown in each and no interceptions. They were both losses, but at least the losses weren’t entirely on Detmer.
20. Thad Lewis
It's hard to rank Thad Lewis because of the context of his lone start — a meaningless Week 17 loss that didn't earn him many more NFL looks.
But there are two reasons I've got him as high as I do:
First of all, it was a solid showing. He wasn't exactly airing it out, but he went 22-of-32 for 204 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 pick. That's good for a passer rating of 83.3.
And even though the game didn't mean much to the Browns, the Steelers played their starters. He wasn't just up against a bunch of second-stringers getting run to close out the year.
Lewis ended up signing with the Bills the following offseason, and we never really got a chance to see if he could keep up what he showed in that first start.
19. Nick Mullens
The middle of this list is where things get a little dry. Nick Mullens' lone start certainly wasn't comically bad like a Spergon Wynn, but it was also nothing to write home about. And it was just a lone, insignificant start.
Real peak "middle of the list" vibes.
Mullens went 20-of-30 for 147 yards with a touchdown and no picks in a 14-16 loss against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 15 of the 2021 season.
The mediocre icing on the grocery store-bought cake? The result of that game moved both teams to 7-7 on the year. It doesn't get more middling than this.
18. Cody Kessler
Cody Kessler leading the Browns to an 0-8 record helped us secure the 2017 first overall pick that brought Myles Garrett to Cleveland. So fans should already love him for that.
But it's not really fair to reduce Kessler to just his record, because that Browns team was bad all around, and Kessler actually held up pretty well. He obviously wasn't a guy that would single-handedly win any games, but he also didn't blow up in the spectacular fashion that some of our starters have.
Kessler was constantly under pressure, getting sacked 19 times in his 8 starts, but he still managed to complete 65.6% of his passes for 1,369 yards with 6 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions. That ability to avoid turnovers is important, but didn't make up for the fact that he had next to zero big-play ability.
17. Case Keenum
Continuing to work our way through the "I guess he was fine" tier, Case Keenum actually won both of his starts with the Browns.
His first one, a 17-14 win over the Broncos, saw him go 21-of-33 for 199 yards with 1 touchdown and 0 interceptions. His second, a Week 17 win over the Bengals, had him do even better with 176 yards, 2 touchdowns and 1 pick on 17-of-24 passing.
The 2021 season was a forgettable one in Cleveland (aside from being Baker Mayfield's last one with the Browns), and Keenum is absolutely part of how forgettable it was.
16. Jeff Garcia
When the Browns landed a two-time Pro Bowl QB, expectations were pretty high. Everybody was ready to move on from the Tim Couch era, and Garcia was going to let us do just that.
But Garcia wasn’t nearly enough.
His 1,726 yards with 10 touchdowns (plus 2 rushing touchdowns) and 9 interceptions brought the Browns to a 3-7 record.
This season included an incredibly low nadir (passer rating of 0 against the Cowboys in his second start) and a very fun peak (a 99-yard touchdown pass to Andre Davis), but overall it was not good.
15. Colt McCoy
Colt McCoy, who has somehow still started games in each of the last five NFL seasons, honestly exceeded expectations as a third-round pick back in 2010.
He made 21 starts in his first two years with the Browns, and while it wasn't pretty it was on par with the performances we were getting from anyone else in that time (I mean, just look one spot ahead for proof of that).
McCoy’s first two seasons saw him throw for a combined 4,309 yards with 20 touchdowns and 20 picks, completing 58.4% of his 586 pass attempts.
It became clear that he didn't have a long-term future as an NFL starter, but he did enough to springboard himself into a nice long career as a backup.
14. Seneca Wallace
Already a five-year vet with 14 NFL starts to his name when he became a Brown, Seneca Wallace was in and out of the lineup through the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
Brough to Cleveland to reunite with his former coach in Mike Holmgren, injuries both brought Wallace into the lineup (when Delhomme got hurt) and back out of it.
Despite being a capable scrambler, Wallace only contributed with his arm in his four starts in 2010, throwing for a solid 693 yards with 4 touchdowns and 2 interceptions on 63-of-100 passing. The Browns went 1-3 in that stretch though, and an ankle injury forced him out of action.
He found his way back into the starting lineup for the final three games of the 2011 season, doing worse as a passer (53-of-105, 550 yards, 2 touchdowns, 2 interceptions), but he also added 70 yards on 7 rushes. Unfortunately all three of those games were losses.
13. Johnny Manziel
As one of the most polarizing quarterbacks the Browns have ever had, you'll see Johnny Manziel all over the place on people's Browns QB rankings. And often it's incredibly low.
But when I'm just looking at how Manziel played when he was on the field, it's not relevant to factor in how much potential anyone believed he had, or how obnoxious he was off the field. Manziel started eight games for the Browns. Would I have liked him to develop into someone who could have started way more? Sure. But let's look at how he played in those starts.
As a rookie, things were admittedly ugly. He got out there for two starts, and they were both losses with a combined score of 47-13. Manziel had just 112 yards passing on 26 attempts, throwing no touchdowns and getting picked off twice. And he did nothing with his legs, notching 16 yards on 7 carries.
His starts in 2015 were really not all that bad though, even showing some serious promise. He went 109-of-188 for 1,279 yards (213 per game) with 6 touchdowns and 4 interceptions, also adding 189 rushing yards on 30 carries.
The Browns were 2-4 in those games. Obviously that's not great, but considering they went 1-9 the rest of the way it's kind of hard to fault Johnny Football for the poor record.
12. Tim Couch
I'm not going to argue with anyone who calls Tim Couch a bust as the No. 1 pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, but I also have a hard time getting too upset with how he performed.
Despite the quick success the Jaguars had had recently, there wasn't much hope for the Browns as an expansion team, and that fully extended to Couch. His situation was a lot like David Carr's with the Texans a few years later. Could Couch have been a star in the right environment? We'll never know.
What we do know is that, for the era and considering the talent around him, he really was not all that bad. Couch threw for 11,131 yards across 62 games in Cleveland, finishing with 64 touchdowns and 67 interceptions.
His 3.9% interception rate certainly hurt (only three quarterbacks with 500-plus attempts had a worse mark over that stretch), but his 75.1 passer rating beat out 15 500-attempt QBs in that time
Couch remained the passing yards leader among post-'99 Browns quarterbacks until he was unseated by another first overall pick in Week 1 of the 2021 season.
11. Derek Anderson
Ranking Derek Anderson is totally an exercise in how much you value a player's peak compared to their whole body of work. For some people, Anderson's 2007 season means he should be top-three on this list, and I honestly respect that.
That was Cleveland's first 10-win season since 1995, and Anderson was a Pro Bowler who threw for just shy of 3,800 yards with 29 touchdowns.
But where was that Derek Anderson for his other three seasons? Despite that amazing 2007 campaign, Anderson finished his Browns career with a 52.9% completion percentage, 46 touchdowns to 45 interceptions and an average of 181 passing yards per game.
10. Jason Campbell
Jason Campbell doesn't touch the peak of what Derek Anderson achieved, but his eight games were better than Anderson's Browns tenure in its entirety.
The Browns only went 1-7 under Campbell’s command, but you really can’t put the entire blame on his shoulders. His 11 touchdowns were nothing special but did set far enough ahead of his 8 interceptions. He also threw for 2,015 yards (223.9 per game). There are a lot of quarterbacks on this list who have better win-loss records but who weren’t throwing for the touchdowns or yards that Campbell was.
Was plenty of that production in garbage time? Sure, but there aren’t many players on this list who didn’t spend much of their tenure playing in garbage time.
9. Trent Dilfer
After the Jeff Garcia experiment failed, how about a different former Pro Bowler? This time with a Super Bowl ring.
Dilfer was traded for in part to mentor Charlie Frye, and he made 11 starts while he did it. And while he didn't set an especially lofty bar, he still managed to post numbers that Frye simply couldn't reach.
Dilfer threw for 2,321 yards with 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions, going 4-7 in 11 starts. His 76.9 passer rating that year ranked 22nd among 34 qualifying quarterbacks. Not great, but a real above-average showing from a Browns starter of the era.
8. Brian Hoyer
The Browns gave Brian Hoyer his first opportunity to prove that he was more than just Tom Brady's backup.
He took over starting duties in Week 3 of the 2013 season and had two good showings, throwing for 590 yards with 3 touchdowns and 3 picks, before suffering a season-ending injury early in Week 5.
He got the starting job in Week 1 of the following season, but couldn’t live up to the flashes he had shown the year before, throwing for 3,192 yards (245 per game) but with just 11 touchdowns and 12 picks across 13 starts.
Fans were so ready to believe in what a healthy Hoyer could do, and he does hold one of the best passer ratings of any quarterback on this list, but he was ultimately a letdown.
7. Jameis Winston
Does "fun factor" matter when ranking a quarterback? For the sake of trying to make an accurate ranking, no, but that definitely puts Winston higher in a lot of "favorite Browns starting quarterback" rankings.
A guy who only led the team to a 2-5 record across seven starts, throwing 12 intercpetions in that stretch, isn't usually going to endear himself to fans. But Winston, not just through his entertaining off-field character, won a lot of people over.
In a season that didn't leave a lot to cheer about, Winston at least kept this offense exciting, throwing for 2,121 yards and 13 touchdowns. Excluding Week 14, when he made an early exit with injury, Winston averaged 315.3 yards and 2.0 touchdowns per game in his starts, and he was responsible for the only three games all season in which the Browns scored over 20 points. They averaged 20.5 points per game in those six full starts, compared to an absurd 12.3 per game the rest of the way.
6. Deshaun Watson
Deshaun Watson is one of hte strangest players to rank on this list. Based on perceived talent, there's no way you'd expect him to be even this low. At the same time, when we just consider his actual body of work in Cleveland, there's definitely a case for ranking him even lower.
When I first wrote these rankings after the 2023 season, it was still "wait and see" and Watson, since his first two seasons with the Browns had so many off-field factors weighing into his performance. But his 1-6 run in 2024 made these struggles impossible to write off.
Through three seasons in Cleveland, Watson's raw numbers are at least not terrible, but 3,365 yards with 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions across 19 games is seriously underwhelming for a guy getting paid what he is.
I'm not factoring in his contract into this ranking (or he'd be a whole lot lower on the list), but even erasing everythign else and focusing only on on-field production, it's hard to justify bumping him up much higher.
5. Jacoby Brissett
Because the 2022 season was a disappointing one for Browns fans, it can be easy to overlook that Jacoby Brissett actually had a solid year.
Easily our most successful attempt at starting a former Tom Brady backup, Brissett had a passer rating of 88.9 (20th among 33 qualifying QBs) and threw for 2,608 yards with 12 touchdowns to 6 picks in 11 starts while also adding 238 yards and 2 scores with his legs.
Not all-timer numbers by any stretch, and disappointing because Browns fans were hoping for a much bigger year even while waiting for Deshaun Watson to make his debut. But those are absolutely fine numbers relative to most of the players on this list.
4. Josh McCown
Josh McCown is not only the best McCown on this list, but one of the best players on the list overall.
One of the final stops on his league-wide 9-team tour, Cleveland had McCown start 8 games in 2015 and another 3 in 2016.
He only won 1 of those 11 games, but he had some really strong showings along the way. Despite facing constant pressure (he was sacked 41 times), McCown threw for 3,209 yards with 18 touchdowns to just 10 interceptions, for per-game averages of 246.8 yards, 1.4 TDs and 0.8 picks. Plus he added almost 10 yards per game rushing.
Again these are not game-winning numbers, but there haven't been many Browns QBs capable of being a playmaker like McCown without also having the downside of horrific interception rates.
3. Kelly Holcomb
There were 44 quarterbacks to record at least 400 pass attempts between the 2002 and 2004 seasons (the years Kelly Holcomb played in Cleveland).
Holcomb's passer rating of 82.4 was above average, ranking No. 20 in that group and beating out veteran names like Kurt Warner, Jeff Garcia, Jake Plummer and Mark Brunell.
Holcomb didn't get a ton of chances while playing behind Tim Couch, but he showed serious flashes when he did get on the field.
Holcomb's two starts in 2002 saw him throw for a combined 524 yards with 5 touchdowns and no picks. Those games resulted in a 20-7 victory and a 40-39 shootout loss. He even started in the playoffs that year, throwing for 429 yards with 3 touchdowns and 1 pick in a 36-33 loss to the Steelers that can absolutely not be blamed on him.
It was downhill from there, especially when he got an extended look as a starter in 2003, but that was a tough team for any quarterback to look good on. A high peak and solid overall numbers more than warrant this ranking for Holcomb.
2. Joe Flacco
It feels very, very wrong to be updating this article after the 2024 season (it was originally written before Week 1) and realize just how high Joe Flacco needs to be plugged in on the list. The guy made five regular and one playoff start, after all.
But he's the reason the Browns made the playoffs in a year that saw them roll out five different starters.
The Browns lost Flacco's first start, but they then ripped off a four-game win streak, scoring 20-plus points in each game to earn a playoff spot.
Flacco went 123-of-204 (60.3%) for 1,616 yards with 13 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. That put him just behind Watson for the team lead in completion percentage, but he did it while pushing the ball downfield in a way we hadn't seen all season.
1. Baker Mayfield
I know this sucks for a lot of Browns fans. I know a lot of you want to hate him. I know a lot of you are upset he didn't carry the Browns further. But if you read through the previous 33 entries, I really don't know how you can deny Baker Mayfield's ranking as the best Browns quarterback since 1999.
He may not have eclipsed 20,000 passing yards in Cleveland like Brian Sipe and Bernie Kosar did in the 70's, 80's and 90's, but his 14,125 rank No. 3 in franchise history and No. 1 since 1999. Only Tim Couch (11,131) comes even close, and Mayfield has Couch beat by 2,994 yards in two fewer games.
Different eras, sure, but Mayfield ranked 17th, 14th and 17th in the NFL in passing over his first three seasons. Couch’s best ever ranking was 18th.
Baker led the Browns to our first 11-win season since 1994 and first playoff appearance since 2002. And that 48-37 Wild Card win over the Pittsburgh Steelers is probably the greatest moment in Browns history to any fans who weren't watching before The Move. Baker was instrumental in that win too, throwing for 263 yards with 3 touchdowns and no picks.
There are a lot of ways to measure the best starting quarterback. You can do it on stats, which Baker wins. You can do it on team success, which Baker wins. And you can do it on that intangible "it."
Baker ultimately proved that he didn't have "it" for the long term, and he fizzled out. That's true. But for those first few years of his career, Mayfield gave the Browns fans the most hope they've had since the '90s, and just as importantly he helped elevate the Browns to be an organization that started to be taken seriously on the national stage.
I'm just as happy to laugh at his post-Browns misfortune as anyone, but I'm also going to give full respect to what he did in Cleveland.