How did the Cleveland Browns get so bad?

November 14, 6:18 PMNFL Draft ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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Beyond the 2002, and 2007 season the Cleveland Browns, have had nothing but losing seasons since rejoining the NFL ten years ago. The question that has to be asked is why? Beyond hiring the wrong coach this year in Eric Mangini, and hiring the wrong man to be the General Manager, the Cleveland Browns have done a poor job drafting players.

It seems that all of the wasted first round picks have finally caught up to this team. Since 1999 this team has made 11 first round picks, and at least eight of those picks are highly questionable.

Of those eight we can excuse the drafting of Tim Couch (1999 1st overall) since all 32 NFL teams would take a chance on a franchise QB. We can also excuse the Courtney Brown (2000 1st overall) pick since his career was derailed due to injury.

That leaves us with six highly questionable draft picks; 2001 3rd overall DT Gerard Warren, 2002 16th overall RB William Green, 2003 21st overall C Jeff Faine, 2004 6th overall TE Kellen Winslow Jr., 2005 3rd overall WR Braylon Edwards, and 2007 22nd overall QB Brady Quinn.

Of those six, maybe we can count Braylon Edwards as a malcontent and since he had a few productive seasons in Cleveland not label him a draft bust. However that leaves five pick in ten years that are legitimate NFL draft busts.

To be fair maybe we don’t count Warren since he had a few productive if not outstanding years with the am, but that does leave us with the 2008 draft where this team did not have a pick until the fourth round. The front office dealt away many picks to draft Quinn in 2007, and to acquire DT Shaun Rogers, and DE Corey Williams. None of those players exactly worked out for this team.

In the end we see a lot of mismanagement, picks that did not work out (Couch, Warren, and Brown); players picked who have off the field problems (Green and Winslow Jr.), players with a lot of attitude (Edwards), and players selected far too high in the draft (Quinn, and Faine).

This seems to suggest that bad NFL teams will make bad decisions, and the Cleveland Browns along with the Detroit Lions seem to support that conclusion.