Cleveland Browns: Top 10 quarterbacks of all-time
By Thomas Moore
Mike Phipps was another borderline case for making the list, in large part because of the costs the Browns paid to acquire him.
Unlike the other first-round quarterbacks who have brought disappointment rather than wins, Phipps not only cost the Browns a first-round draft pick, but also the services of Hall of Fame wide receiver Paul Warfield, who the team traded to Miami for the draft pick they turned into Phipps.
Phipps was coming off a successful three-year run with the Boilermakers. He led Purdue to three consecutive 8-2 seasons, making him the winningest quarterback in school history at the time. Purdue earned a share of the 1967 Big Ten Championship, finishing ninth in the Associated Press poll.
His senior year, he was a unanimous All-America selection and runner-up in the Heisman Trophy balloting while setting school records for passing yards (2,527) and touchdown passes (23). He also became the first quarterback to beat Notre Dame in three consecutive years (for what that is worth).
Phipps started one game in each of his first two seasons as the Browns went 7-7 his rookie year (missing the playoffs) and 9-5 his second year, which included a playoff loss to Baltimore.
He took over as the starting quarterback in 1972 and led the Browns to a 10-3 record while making 13 starts. That season would turn out to be the highpoint of Phipps’ time in Cleveland.
Over the next four years, Phipps would only make 36 starts and throw 25 touchdown passes against 56 interceptions. In 1976, his last year in Cleveland, Phipps was injured in the season-opener against the New York Jets and would only make one additional start that season.
While Phipps may not have worked out in Cleveland, the blame doesn’t fall entirely on his shoulders.
The core veterans that made up the talented teams from the 1960s were starting to retire, and rather than strategically use the draft to build a team that could grow with his young quarterback, Modell mortgaged the future by trading away high draft picks for players that proved to be little more than afterthoughts in the franchise’s history books.
Among the shortsighted deals in the early 1970s were trading a first-round pick and a second-round pick for linebacker Bob Babich; a third-round pick for Don Horn, a 28-year-old backup quarterback who would throw eight passes (completing four of them) in a Cleveland uniform; and a fourth-round pick for Gloster Richardson, who caught 22 passes over three seasons.
Phipps may not have been the answer the Browns were looking for, but he may not have been as bad as Browns fans remember him to be.
Next: No. 8: Vinny Testaverde (1993 to 1995)