Top Five Fridays: Worst Browns Draft Picks

This is my regular feature called Top Five Fridays. Here I'll list some of my favorite things like, Top 5 Ways to Annoy a Michigan Fan or Top 5 Most Overrated Athletes (cough cough, Brett Favre, cough cough)..... Have no fear, we'll get to both those topics in good time. At the end there will also be a section for those that just missed the cut.

The Cleveland Browns will not be picking in the first few rounds at this year's college-selection process of the National Football League thanks to some trades. This could be a good thing based on our history. Either way, in honor of tomorrow's NFL Draft, today's topic is:

Top 5 Worst Draft Picks by the Cleveland Browns Since Re-Expansion

1. Tim Couch (1st pick, 1999 NFL Draft)
Quarterback, Kentucky
The second this guy showed up at the first Browns' rookie mini-camp there was already sign for concern. As the story goes, Couch had never had a real playbook in either high school or college. Now, I don’t know how true that is, but what little I remember from his college days is that Kentucky was always in a no huddle offense with Couch pointing people in the direction. It looked like he was just making everything up as he went along, so the story could be true.

Tim has since gone down as one of the biggest busts in NFL Draft history and without question the worst draft pick in Cleveland’s storied past, not just the re-expansion era. On a personal note, I was never happy with the selection. Rookie quarterbacks rarely succeed, but when they do, its typically with a veteran laden team that has a solid running game (see: Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh.) I believe Cleveland needed to focus on building an offensive line and a defense that first year. A veteran quarterback should have been handed the reins for a couple of seasons until a solid offense was built. Nothing will destroy a young quarterback quite like being handed a pile of crap to work with.

Here are some notables that were drafted after Couch:
Donovan McNabb (2) – QB, Syracuse
Edgerrin James (4) – RB, Miami (FL)
Ricky Williams (5) – RB, Texas
Torry Holt (6) – WR, NC State
Champ Bailey (7) – CB, Georgia

2. Gerard Warren (3rd pick, 2001 NFL Draft)
Defensive Tackle, Florida
I’m giving the nod to Warren over Courtney Brown for several reasons. We'll get into more of this when we get to number three, but the 2001 draft was not as strong near the top. Many believe the Browns would have been better served by trading down. This would have given them additional picks, something that young and untalented teams need. Obviously it would be easier to make that assessment now, seven years later, but even then there were no “sure things” after Michael Vick went number one overall. And as it turns out, even he is in prison, so nothing was certain. Warren never amounted to anything and, just as his two predecessors, his NFL career was about as long as his college career with much less notoriety.

Here are just a few of the notable first round picks after Warren:
LaDainian Tomlinson (5) – RB, Texas Christian
Richard Seymour (6) – DT, Georgia
Koren Robinson (9) – WR, NC State
Steve Hutchinson (17) – OG, Michigan
Nate Clements (21) – CB, Ohio State
Deuce McAllister (23) – RB, Mississippi
Reggie Wayne (30) – WR, Miami (FL)

3. Courtney Brown (1st pick, 2000 NFL Draft)
Defensive End, Penn State
I could have easily put this as the number two biggest bust, but it was widely regarded that both Courtney Brown and his Penn State teammate, linebacker LaVar Arrington, were "can’t miss" prospects. It was heavily debated which Nittany Lion they would take, but in the end Cleveland listened to the rumors about Arrington’s “character issues” and went with Brown. Often injured and rumored to be very soft in workouts, Brown was awful in Cleveland and eventually was traded to Denver before disappearing completely. Arrington had a very good career, though it was cut short by an injury. He retired in 2007 after rupturing his Achilles tendon in 2006 and then getting into a motorcycle accident the following June.

Notable first round picks:
Chris Samuels (3) – OT, Alabama
Jamal Lewis (5) – RB, Miami (FL)
Plaxico Burress (8) – WR, Michigan State
Brian Urlacher (9) – LB, New Mexico
John Abraham (13) – DE, South Carolina
Chad Pennington (18) – QB, Marshall
Shaun Alexander (19) – RB, Alabama

Another thing that the 2000 draft was known for is the star players taken in the later rounds. Here is a small sample:
Laveranues Coles (78) – WR, Florida State
Dante Hall (153) – WR, Texas A&M
Marc Bulger (168) – QB, West Virginia
Adalius Thomas (186) – LB, Southern Mississippi
Tom Brady (199) – QB, Michigan

4. Willie Green (16th pick, 2002 NFL Draft)
Running Back, Boston College
If character issues were such a big concern for LaVar Arrington, how come the Browns all of a sudden threw caution to the wind during the very next season to get a running back from a weak running back class? Clevelanders were legitimately excited about Willie because he was considered a top 5 prospect that fell specifically because of the aforementioned character problems. His father was a heroin addict that died of AIDS when Willie was 12 and his mother died of the same disease a year later. He had two suspensions in college for marijuana use. One year into his NFL career he was arrested for drunk driving and marijuana possession. While suspended, his wife stabbed him in the back, literally, and upon returning it was announced that a woman other than his wife would be having his child.

Some notable picks after Green:
Javon Walker (20) – WR, Florida State
Ed Reed (24) – SS, Miami (FL)
Lito Sheppard (26) – CB, Florida
LeCharles Bentley (44) – C, Ohio State
Clinton Portis (51) – RB, Miami (FL)

5. Quincy Morgan (33rd pick, 2001 NFL Draft)
Wide Receiver, Kansas State
It’s not that Quincy was a horrible player. It turns out he wasn’t worth his stock, and he’s out of the league now, but by all accounts he had a very good college career and was projected to go at some point in the second round. The reason I have him on this list is because the 2001 draft was deep at wide receiver and there were a handful of Pro Bowlers taken after him, two of which were in the same round and actually projected higher.

Chad Johnson (36) – Oregon State
Chris Chambers (52) – Wisconsin

Chambers is the one that really bothers me because he was born and raised in Cleveland. He was underrated coming out of high school and didn’t get an offer from Ohio State, so he went to Wisconsin. He was underrated again coming out of college and turned into a late second round pick. I was in the same high school graduating year (1997) as Chambers and I went head to head against him in track. Granted it was the 400m, not the 40-yard dash, but Chambers was enormous even then and was easily the fastest human being I’d ever run against.

Other notables that went after Morgan:
Steve Smith (74) – WR, Utah
T.J. Houshmandzadeh (204) – WR, Oregon State


"Juuuuust a bit outside. He tried the corner and missed."

C Jeff Faine (21) – Notre Dame, 2003 – We should have known better than to take any member of the Fighting Irish in the first round.
LB Rahim Abdullah (45) – Clemson, 1999 – He was recently suspended by his team, the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL, for kneeing an opponent in the neck.
RB Travis Prentice (63) – Miami (OH), 2000 – He held seven NCAA records at the end of his college career, but never did anything in his four NFL seasons.