Cleveland Browns biggest draft bust an easy choice

The Cleveland Browns have made poor draft picks over the years, but picking the worst one ever is about as easy a choice as they come.

The Cleveland Browns have had their share of misses in the annual NFL Draft.

While it feels, at times, as if the Browns are the only team to miss on a player, it truly does happen to everyone. That is evident when you peruse ESPN.com, which asked its NFL Nation reporters to select the biggest draft bust for each of the league’s 32 teams.

The list is interesting enough, but for some reason they only went back as far as 1979 when looking at the draft picks. Why they didn’t go back to the start of the common draft in 1967 is a mystery.

But what is not a mystery is that ESPN got it wrong with their selection for the Browns, as they tapped cornerback Justin Gilbert for the “honor”:

"Gilbert was the first choice in the Ray Farmer-Mike Pettine era. The Browns traded down, then up to acquire him. Gilbert was supposed to be a key part of Pettine’s defensive approach, but the Browns learned they had an immature, disinterested player. Gilbert started three games and produced very little before being traded within the division to Pittsburgh after two seasons in Cleveland."

This is not to say that Gilbert does not deserve a spot high on any list of horrible draft selections. Outside of one play – an interception return for a touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts in his rookie year – Gilbert did nothing to warrant a spot on the roster, let alone a place on the field.

There are plenty of other names that could be on the list, including:

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Center Curt Burris, who was a first-round selection in 1955 but never played a game for the Browns;
Tackle Billy Corbett, the team’s first selection in the 1974 draft who also never played a down in Cleveland;
Wide receiver Willis Adams, a first-round pick in 1979 who finished his NFL career with 69 total receptions;
Running back Greg Allen, the Browns first selection in 1985 who lasted two years in the league, finishing with nine rushes for 35 yards;
Linebacker Mike Junkin, the fifth-overall selection in 1987;
Clifford Charlton, a first-round selection in 1988 who made one start in two years before being out of football;
Linebacker Craig Powell, who then-head coach Bill Belichick drafted in the first round of the 1995 draft after trading down in a panic because the player he wanted – tight end Kyle Brady – went to the New York Jets one spot before the Browns were on the clock.

Those were all bad picks, but even taken collectively, they would not be enough to topple the undisputed worst pick in franchise history: quarterback Johnny Manziel.

The Browns second first-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, Manziel was an off-field disaster from the moment he texted former quarterback coach Dowell Loggains that Manziel was ready to “wreck this league.”

Everything went downhill from there, as Manziel continued to have a series of off-field incidents, and was even worse when he actually played. From a historically horrendous first start against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 14 – when he threw for 80 yards, two interceptions and was sacked three times – to more nonsense in two years than most players fit into an entire career, Manziel was, by any definition of the word, a disaster in Cleveland.

Next: Browns: 10 best first-round picks of all-time

If there is a player out there that the Browns can draft who will ever top Manziel’s time in Cleveland, let’s hope we never meet him.

And for that reason, Manziel will hold the crown as the worst pick in franchise history for probably as long as the Browns remain an NFL franchise.

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