20 most disappointing Cleveland Browns quarterbacks of all-time
By Randy Gurzi
Most disappointing Cleveland Browns quarterbacks: 2. Brady Quinn (2007-2009)
With the third overall pick in the 207 NFL Draft, the Cleveland Browns had a decision to make. In need of a quarterback, there was some speculation they could take Brady Quinn out of Notre Dame. However, they had Joe Thomas, the Wisconsin left tackle, as their top-rated player.
In the end, they decided to take Thomas which was clearly the right call as he turned out to be a stud. It looked even better at first as they still found a way to land Quinn who had a historic slide in the draft.
That slide ended when Cleveland traded their second-round pick (No. 36 overall) and their first pick in the 2008 NFL Draft to Dallas for the right to draft the Notre Dame signal-caller. Quinn was relieved to be drafted and it looked as though he was ready to put Cleveland football back on the map.
That ended up not happening as he was third on the depth chart as a rookie and watched as Derek Anderson led the team to 10-wins — which came after Charlie Frye was originally the starter. He backed Anderson up for the first two seasons before finally being named the starter in his third campaign by new head coach Eric Mangini.
Quinn struggled as the starter and was benched by Mangini as Anderson took back over. There was a lot of back and forth throughout that season as neither player could hold onto the job. That was until Quinn finally seemed to break through as he had a four-touchdown game in Week 11 — which included three scores in one quarter.
Sadly, he couldn’t continue to ride that high and ended the season on IR. Quinn finished that campaign with two wins in nine starts and completed just 53.1 percent of his passes for 1,339 yards with eight touchdowns and seven picks.
He was traded in 2010 to Denver for Peyton Hillis and a sixth-round pick which was an unceremonious ending for a player who came in with a whole lot of hype.