3 Former Cleveland Browns players fans would love to see play one more time
By Randy Gurzi
2. Josh Cribbs, Kick Returner
For at least a little while, Josh Cribbs did return to the Browns. He was on the staff in 2018 as a special teams coaching intern but did not return with Freddie Kitchens staff. This return came just one year after he retired as a member of the Browns, in the same way Phil Dawson did.
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As for his actual playing career with Cleveland, Cribbs was a talented player who was honestly wasted on some awful team. Undrafted in 2005, he was on just one winning team which was the 10-6 club in 2007 — that just missed the playoffs.
Cribbs did absolutely everything for this team during his eight seasons. He lined up as a wide receiver, halfback, and Wildcat quarterback. In all, he had 753 yards rushing and two touchdowns as well as 107 receptions for 1,161 yards and seven scores.
Where his real impact came, however, was as a return man. Cribbs had 10,015 yards and eight touchdowns as a kick returner for the Browns and another 2,154 yards and three touchdowns as a punt returner.
He made the Pro Bowl three times for Cleveland, the first being in that 2007 season. That year, he had 1,809 yards on kick returns and three total special teams touchdowns. In 2009 he made it again with four touchdowns on returns and 2012 with 1,722 all-purpose yards.
Cribbs is now 36-years old, so seeing him return would be unlikely — even if it would be fun seeing him try and flip field position once again. But, we recently thought the same thing about Marshawn Lynch and he did just come back.