7 Best Cleveland Browns of the 21st Century

1. Joe Thomas

There is only one man who was ever going to take this spot. Former Cleveland Browns left tackle Joe Thomas is a nearly-guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer, as well as far and away the best Cleveland Brown since 1999. There is no conversation to be had. Joe Thomas is No. 1 here.

From the day he stepped onto the field in 2007, until the tricep injury that would end his career on October 22, 2017, Thomas never missed a single snap of Cleveland Browns football. A snap count of 10,363 is widely believed to be the longest in NFL history, and it is perhaps one of the most impressive feats in all of football history. Thomas played every possible second, of every possible game, for over a decade. Not only that, but he was one of the best in the game while he was doing it.

Joe Thomas was considered by some the best left tackle in the NFL from 2007 to 2017. At the very least, he was considered a top-three offensive lineman in the league by nearly every football fan during his career in Cleveland. Thomas is the reason that the Browns stayed relevant through all the losing seasons, and it is the ultimate shame that his body did not hold up long enough for Baker Mayfield to arrive in Berea.

Since ending his football career, Thomas has made rounds on the media circuit as part of the ThomaHawk podcast with former Browns receiver Andrew Hawkins. Additionally, he will be working as an analyst for NFL Network during Thursday Night Football for the 2019 season.

Thomas is one of the most charismatic players to ever don the Browns uniform, and certainly the best player to ever put on the orange and brown. And there’s no argument about it.