Cleveland Browns: Ranking the most important players since 1999

8. Kelly Holcomb

Moving on from Northcutt, let’s take a look at the man who threw him that pass: Kelly Holcomb. Holcomb, for a little bit there, looked like the man who would become the Browns’ franchise quarterback. Of course, we know this to be false now, but he looked promising in the early 2000s.

Before Holcomb truly began to bounce around the league, he had a promising tenure with the Browns. Holcomb was able to serve as a backup to a young Peyton Manning for three years, and then packed up for Cleveland in 2001.

It seems that Holcomb served the prime of his career in Cleveland, and he was enough to keep the Browns in constant contention throughout 2001 and 2002. In fact, he led Cleveland to the playoffs in 2002, as mentioned before.

Holcomb would only remain with the Browns until 2004, when he was overtaken by Jeff Garcia and Luke McCown. However, the fact remains: Kelly Holcomb is the only modern Browns quarterback to lead his team to the playoffs.

So, let’s run on through the criteria for the list. Did the player have a lasting impact on the Browns? Well, in some ways, I suppose. Again, no other Browns signal-caller has taken them to playoffs since Holcomb. So, he does have a lasting impact on the franchise, at least until another playoff quarterback comes along.

Did his play have a lasting impact on the franchise? Not exactly; Holcomb is really just one of the 28 different starting quarterbacks for Cleveland since 1999. Finally, did the course of team or league history change due to this player? Once again, not really. It’s not his fault Dennis Northcutt got butterfingers.