Sep 21, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns helmet on the field before a game against the Baltimore Ravens at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ron Schwane-USA TODAY Sports
The Cleveland Browns will enter the 2015 NFL season with what many experts consider one of the worst group of pass catchers in the NFL.
That seems a bit harsh as, while they may not be upper-echelon receivers, Dwayne Bowe, Brian Hartline and Andrew Hawkins are professional receivers who know what needs to be done on Sundays. Add in Travis Benjamin, Taylor Gabriel and possibly one more player (Shane Wynn, perhaps?) and the group as a whole may be more productive than people are giving them credit for.
Related: Cleveland Browns Top 10 passing games of all-time
It hasn’t always been that way for the Browns, of course, as the franchise has seen numerous talented receivers running free across the grass (and painted dirt) of the old Municipal Stadium, including Hall of Famers Dante Lavelli, Paul Warfield and Ozzie Newsome, as well as the popular trio of Webster Slaughter, Reggie Langhorne and Brian Brennan.
While not as successful since returning to the NFL in 1999, the club has still had a few pass catchers of note, from Kevin Johnson and Dennis Northcutt, to Braylon Edwards, Kellen Winslow Jr. and, for a brief time, Josh Gordon.
In that spirit, here are the Top 10 receiving games in franchise history, ranked by receiving yards. Many of the names on the list will be familiar, but there are also a few surprises. As with our Top 10 passing list, Jonathan Knight’s 2013 book, The Browns Bible. was an invaluable resource in putting this article together.
Next: No. 10: Brian Brennan jolts the Chargers
The 1986 season was a special one for the Browns, who rolled to their second-consecutive division title and claiming home field advantage in the AFC playoffs after posting a 12-4 record, still the most wins in a single season since the franchise joined the NFL in 1950.
That is part of the reason why the game against San Diego on Dec. 21, 1986, turned into an impromptu holiday party.
The Browns had clinched the division title the week before in a 34-3 beat down of Cincinnati, so the team and the fans were ready to celebrate.
With nothing to play for, the offense opened things up as they rolled over the Chargers, 47-17. Among quarterback Bernie Kosar‘s 357 passing yards on the day were 176 yards (on seven receptions) by wide receiver Brian Brennan, then in his third year with the team. Fifty-seven of those yards came on a touchdown pass from Kosar to Brennan at the end of the first half.
The game helped Brennan finish the season with 55 receptions for 838 yards and six touchdowns – all team highs.
It was the best of Brennan’s eight seasons with the Browns, and he would finish his time in Cleveland with 315 receptions, 4,148 yards and 19 receiving touchdowns.
Next: Tied No. 7: The untouchable Eric Metcalf
The Browns entered the 1992 season in a funk.
It was the second year of head coach Bill Belichick’s tenure in town and he had spent much of his time up to this point clearing the roster of the aging players who had led the Browns to the playoffs for five consecutive years in the late-1980s.
Following a 6-10 finish in 1991, the Browns opened the ’92 season with two consecutive losses before heading to Los Angeles to face the Raiders, a team the Browns had only beaten on the road twice since 1970.
Luckily for the Browns, Eric Metcalf was there to save the day.
In a surprising 28-16 win over the Raiders, Metcalf scored four touchdowns while totaling 177 yards on just five receptions. In addition to a six-yard touchdown run, Metcalf had touchdown receptions of four-, 69- and 63-yards on the day.
It was the first four-touchdown game by a Cleveland player since Hall of Famer Leroy Kelly pulled off the feat in a 1968 win over the New York Giants. And it is even more impressive when you realize that Todd Philcox was Cleveland’s quarterback that day.
Metcalf accounted for 187 of the Browns 231 total yards of offense on the day, the Raiders had 464 but turned the ball over five times, and if it were not for his heroics the Browns would have fallen to 0-3 on the season.
The rushing touchdown would be the only one for Metcalf that season, and he would only catch two more touchdowns as Belichick started three different quarterbacks as the Browns finished 7-9 on the year.
Next: Tied No. 7: Reggie Rucker helps save the day
The 1979 season saw the Cleveland Browns continue their slow climb back to respectability, developing the Kardiac Kids mentality and setting the stage for a division title the following season.
The Browns took the Municipal Stadium field on Nov. 18 sporting a 7-4 record as they prepared to face the Miami Dolphins. A loss the previous week had dropped the Browns to third place in the division, leaving them in desperate need of a victory.
It looked bad, though, as the Dolphins scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to build a 24-17 lead. But Brian Sipe hit Ozzie Newsome with a 34-yard touchdown pass with a little more than a minute remaining, sending the game into overtime.
On the first possession of the extra period, Sipe drove the Browns to the Miami 39-yard line where he then hit Reggie Rucker with a game-winning touchdown pass to keep Cleveland’s playoff hopes alive.
The touchdown reception was Rucker’s ninth catch of the day as he totaled 177 receiving yards, part of an effort that saw the Browns shred the Dolphins’ defense for 500 total yards.
The Browns had acquired Rucker from New England before the 1975 season for a fourth-round draft pick, one of the better trades the team made that decade. In seven seasons with the Browns, Rucker would land on the franchise’s Top 10 list in receptions (310), receiving yards (4,953) and touchdown receptions (32).
Next: Tied No. 7: Gern Nagler's career day
Sep 21, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns helmet on the field before a game against the Baltimore Ravens at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ron Schwane-USA TODAY Sports
While it was not the house of horrors that Three Rivers Stadium was for the Browns, Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field was the site of two of Cleveland’s four losses to Pittsburgh during the 1950s.
The Steelers had swept the Browns in 1959 and while Cleveland won the first meeting of 1960 and came to Forbes Field on Nov. 20 with a 5-2, Cleveland had reason to be concerned even though Pittsburgh had not won a game in a month.
The Browns’ fears were realized when, despite putting up more than 400 yards of total offense, they could only score 10 points and dropped a close game to the Steelers.
The offensive output included a career day from tight end Gern Nagler, who pulled in 10 receptions for 177 yards. His biggest catch of the day came on a fourth-and-24 play near the end of the game, when Nagler hauled in a pass from Milt Plum for 27 yards. Unfortunately for the Browns, they could not pull out the win as, on the game’s final play, wide receiver Leon Clarke was unable to hold onto a pass from Plum in the end zone.
Until we pulled the list for this article we had never heard of Nagler, a 14th-round draft pick in 1953 by the Chicago Cardinals out of Santa Clara.
Nagler played eight years in the NFL, making the Pro Bowl in 1958, and spent his final two years with the Browns, catching 55 passes for 857 yards and four touchdowns.
Next: No. 6: Pete Brewster takes down the Giants
Nov 16, 2014; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Browns mascot Brownie the Elf at FirstEnergy Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
The longest-standing name on the list dates back to the early days of the Browns in the NFL.
The Browns were in full on dynasty mode in the 1953 season when the New York Giants came to town on the first Sunday in December. Cleveland was terrorizing the league that season, bringing a 10-0 record in the home finale.
Cleveland posted a franchise-record 62 points that day against the hapless Giants, and had almost 500 yards of total offense.
Leading the was Pete Brewster, who hauled in seven catches for 182 yards and touchdowns of 22 yards, 23 yards and 36 yards.
Brewster was drafted by the Chicago Cardinals in the second round of the 1952 NFL Draft out of Purdue, but was immediately traded to the Browns. After appearing in just four games as rookie, Brewster would start every game over the next four seasons with the Browns.
In seven years with the Browns, Brewster played in five NFL Championship Games, winning two; made the Pro Bowl twice, in 1955 and 1956; led the NFL in yards per reception, with 20.5 in 1957; while catching 186 passes for 3,372 yards and 19 touchdowns.
Brewster was inducted into Purdue’s athletic hall of fame in 2007.
Next: No. 5: Webster Slaughter strikes oil
The Cleveland Browns were a team in transition in 1989.
While many of names were the same, head coach Marty Schottenheimer had been replaced by Bud Carson, who was trying to keep the team winning as its best players were starting to age.
The Browns were in a three-way tie with Cincinnati and Houston when they hosted the Oilers on the last Sunday in October.
Trailing 10-0 at halftime, the Browns scored four second-half touchdowns to rally and defeat the Oilers. Leading the way was fourth-year wide receiver Webster Slaughter, who was on his way to the best of his six seasons in Cleveland.
Slaughter had 184 receiving yards on just four receptions, which was made possible by touchdown receptions of 80 yards (on a flea-flicker) and 77 yards from quarterback Bernie Kosar. It was the third consecutive week that Slaughter topped 100 receiving yards, but even with 184 receiving yards, it wasn’t his best performance in a Cleveland uniform.
Next: No. 4: Webster Slaughter lights up Monday Night
A week before hosting the Oilers, the Browns took on the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football.
The Browns were holding a 17-0 lead late in the third quarter when they took over on their own three-yard-line after stopping the Bears on a goal-line stand.
On the team’s first play, quarterback Bernie Kosar, never one to be shy about looking for a big play hit Webster Slaughter down the left sideline and Slaughter took the pass all the way into the end zone for a 97-yard touchdown – the longest touchdown pass in franchise and Monday Night Football history.
Slaughter’s long touchdown reception helped him finish the night with 186 receiving yards on eight receptions, the second in a stretch of three games where Slaughter would surpass 100 receiving yards. For the month of October, Slaughter had 28 receptions for 582 yards, earning AFC Player of the Month honors.
Even though Slaughter would play just six seasons with the Browns, he remains in the franchise’s Top 10 in career receptions (305), career yards (4,834) and career touchdown receptions (27). His 1,236 receiving yards in 1989 are the third-most in team history,
And his two-game total of 370 yards would stand as a team record for 14 years.
Next: No. 3: The Wizard takes off against the Jets
During much of the early 1980s, Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome was one of the few bright spots of the Cleveland Browns’ offense.
And that was never more evident than in 1984.
During a 5-11 season that marked the end of head coach Sam Rutigliano’s tenure in Cleveland, and catching passes from Paul McDonald, Newsome led the team with 89 receptions (Brian Brennan was second with 35), receiving yards with 1,001 (Duriel Harris was second with 512), and five of the team’s 14 touchdown receptions.
So it was somewhat fitting that Newsome’s best day came in a loss.
In a 24-20 loss to the New York Jets on Oct. 14, Newsome caught 14 passes for 191 (the rest of the team combined for 108 receiving yards). The Browns had a chance to pull out the win, but three consecutive sacks of McDonald on the final drive wiped away the team’s final opportunity for a victory.
While it was just one of 10 100-yard receiving games in his 13 years with the Browns, Newsome is still the franchise leader in receptions (662) and receiving yards (7,980), and is fifth all-time in touchdown receptions (47).
Next: No. 2: Josh Gordon's career day Part 1
His time in Cleveland is likely going to go down as one of the most-dissapointing careers in franchise history, but for two weeks late in the 2013 NFL season, Josh Gordon was a good as any wide receiver to play the game.
On Nov. 24 in a home loss to Pittsburgh, Gordon caught 14 passes for 237 yards and a touchdown. The game marked the fifth time that Gordon gained more than 100 receiving yards that season, breaking Braylon Edwards’ franchise record, and was the third time in a four-game stretch that Gordon broke the century mark.
And to think that he was doing it while catching passes from Jason Campbell and Brandon Weeden makes it even more remarkable.
As impressive as his day was against the Steelers, Gordon was just getting started.
Next: No. 1: Josh Gordon's career day Part 2
The Browns stayed home the following week to face the Jacksonville Jaguars in what ultimately would be the third of seven consecutive losses to close the 2013 season.
But even though it was another lost game in another lost season, Gordon gave the 69,654 fans in attendance a day to remember.
Gordon finished the day with 10 receptions for 261 yards and two touchdowns, making him the first player in NFL history to post consecutive games with more than 200 receiving yards. In addition, his 498 yards over two games is an NFL record.
Gordon would go on to make the Pro Bowl after finishing the season with 87 receptions, 1,646 yards and nine touchdowns. His reception total is the fourth-most in team history for a single season, and his receiving yards easily put him at the top of the franchise’s single-season list, outpacing Braylon Edwards by almost 28 percent.
Suspensions have now derailed Gordon’s NFL career – he missed the first 10 games of last season and is now indefinitely suspended – but for two weekends in late October, Gordon was pure magic on the field.
And it may be a long, long time before anyone bumps him from the top of the team’s all-time receiving list.