Cleveland Browns: 15 best free agent acquisitions of all-time

It’s not often you find a punter on a team’s list of best free agent signings, but that’s what happens here as the next player to come up for the Browns in Chris Gardocki.

It’s not a knock on Gardocki because he did put together a 16-year career and once made the Pro Bowl while playing for the Indianapolis Colts. That was the second franchise Gardocki played for after he had spent four seasons with the Chicago Bears — who had drafted him in the third round out of Clemson.

That’s a rather high spot for a punter to go in the draft, but he still never lasted very long in one spot. After four seasons with the Bears, Gardocki landed with the Colts for another four years and then joined the Browns.

He had his longest tenure with Cleveland, as he punted for the Browns for five seasons. During that time, he punted the ball 20,220 total yards for an average of 43.4 yards per kick. Despite only being with the Browns for five years, he’s still currently third all-time for punting yardage, behind only Horace Gillom and Don Cockroft.

The most memorable thing to happen during Gardocki’s career with the Browns was an incident with the Pittsburgh Steelers that resulted in a fine for the punter. In his second season with the Browns, Gardocki was hit by linebacker Joey Porter, who was flagged for roughing the punter. Gardocki took exception to the hit and flipped off Pittsburgh head coach Bill Cowher.

The two obviously moved past this, as Gardocki later joined the Steelers by signing with them in 2004. He played three seasons in the Steel City for the Browns’ hated rival before calling it a career.