The Cleveland Browns have been searching far and wide for a long-term franchise quarterback over the last quarter century. With the 2026 team away for the summer break, here at Dawg Pound Daily we’ve decided this is the perfect time to take a stroll down memory lane in an eight-chapter series called Cleveland's Quest for a Quarterback. This is Chapter 6.
To be clear: this exercise isn’t about dunking on the Browns. It’s about getting to the bottom of the seemingly unsolvable riddle that has plagued Cleveland’s proud fan base for far too long. We’re here to answer the questions: When did the Browns flunk the test? And when did the right decision get overshadowed by the football gods’ unrelenting cruelty?
The Cleveland Browns' decision to embrace chaos worked out exactly as one would expect
The year is 2014. The Browns have cleaned house again, this time after giving head coach Rob Chudzinski one season on the job. What's more, he seemed to have found something with Brian Hoyer, and the duo combined to win three games in three chances before Hoyer suffered an untimely torn ACL.
It was all for naught, as the Browns were bringing aboard Mike Pettine, known for his defensive work with the New York Jets.
Gone were 2013 quarterbacks Brandon Weeden and Jason Campbell. Hoyer, by virtue of the two-year deal he had signed the previous offseason, remained in house as the perfect bridge quarterback should the Browns opt for a rookie in the 2014 NFL Draft. Initially armed with the No. 4 pick, the Browns opted for a trade-down to No. 9.
While they received a considerable haul from the Buffalo Bills, who had their sights set on wide receiver Sammy Watkins, the next three picks wound up being EDGE rusher Khalil Mack, offensive tackle Jake Matthews, and wide receiver Mike Evans. What's more, 12 of the first 16 picks of the 2014 class made the Pro Bowl. Needless to say, the Browns' pick, Justin Gilbert, was not one of them.
The top-10 pick was instantly overshadowed, however, when the Browns opted to trade back up to pick No. 22 and select Texas A&M's lightning-rod quarterback Johnny Manziel. While the story has been distorted through a game of telephone, there was legitimate influence from a homeless gentleman in Cleveland on the Browns owner. After he told the owner to draft the controversial Aggie, Haslam decided that was the common refrain among Browns fans.
The Browns passed on solid options like Derek Carr and Teddy Bridgewater for Manziel. While neither turned out to be the franchise savior their respective teams hoped for, their careers far exceeded anything Manziel ever did on the field.
Manziel's rookie season would go on to take an eerily familiar path. The veteran Brian Hoyer was tabbed as the starter to begin the season, and he became the latest example of Anderson's Law as defined in Chapter 4. Instead of the veteran who had never been a franchise quarterback stinking up the joint and greasing the skids for an easy transition to the rookie, Hoyer played competently.
A 7-4 start gave way to a two-game losing streak. Sitting at 7-6, Pettine opted to hand the keys to the rookie while the playoffs were still in reach.
Manziel quickly took the Browns out of playoff contention. His lack of professionalism, maturity, and preparedness cost the team. Still struggling with that maturity aspect to this day, Manziel has said he studied "zero" film during his time in Cleveland.
Following injuries to Hoyer and Manziel, undrafted rookie Connor Shaw got to achieve his childhood dream and start an NFL game. Surely, he would have hoped to play against a more forgiving foe than a Baltimore Ravens team armed with ferocious rushers Terrell Suggs, Pernell McPhee, and Paul Kruger. But beggars can't be choosers.
In 2015, Manziel got the typical problem child treatment. Rather than focusing on the individual, it became about his surroundings. They brought in the consummate journeyman and dad-vibe quarterback in Josh McCown to help Manziel along. Only they didn't realize that McCown is a quarterback whisperer, not a miracle worker.
The team bottomed out to a 3-13 record, with McCown (1-7), Manziel (2-4), and Austin Davis (0-2) splitting up the remnants of a deplorable campaign. Ahead of the season finale, Manziel took an ill-fated Las Vegas trip that proved to be the final nail in the coffin. After Haslam appeared to be willing to let it slide, the team fired Pettine and hired Hue Jackson. Shortly after, Manziel was out of the NFL — for good.
Some lost causes are simply too far gone, and Manziel proved to be the latest disappointment in a long line of them. How the Browns would press forward was an interesting shift from their last few forays, however.
Analytics and tanking find a willing guinea pig in Cleveland
After seemingly trying each of the conventional methods to acquire a franchise quarterback — drafting at the top of the draft (Tim Couch), trying a veteran free agent (Jeff Garcia), hitting on a mid-round QB (Charlie Frye, Colt McCoy), and taking late first-round fliers (Brandon Weeden, Manziel) — the Browns hit full desperation mode.
Armed with the original second overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft, the Browns declined to meet Tennessee's asking price for pick No. 1, the selection that became Jared Goff to the Los Angeles Rams. Cleveland could've had Carson Wentz at No. 2, though they seemingly decided he wasn't worth the risk either. The goal, evidently: stockpile draft picks. By trading down with the Philadelphia Eagles, that's precisely what they did.
They went into the campaign with the league's most inexpensive roster, another telltale sign that they had no intentions of winning. The quarterback troika of the returning Josh McCown, former draft bust Robert Griffin III, and tough-as-nails third-round rookie Cody Kessler would lead the offense in 2016.
The results should've been expected.
Cleveland faltered to a grim 1-15 record, an embarrassment that took until Week 16 to avoid a full winless slate. As a small consolation for their fans, the franchise was awarded the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft. This fork in the road is perhaps the biggest "what if?" in Cleveland Browns history, and it's a true toss-up.
On one hand, Myles Garrett was viewed as the closest thing to a can't-miss prospect imaginable. He possessed every measurable quality, had all the production, and exceeded every pre-draft expectation. The only tiny problem? He didn't play quarterback. For all of his dominance, Garrett spent most of his career in games that had no bearing on the playoff picture. It doesn't help that the 2017 class is the one that featured Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson.
There's no way to know how the Watson saga would've played out in Cleveland, but the fact that he was available at No. 12, where the Browns held their second first-round pick, means they could've paired the two as rookies instead of trading a boatload of draft picks, including three first-rounders, for his services six years down the line. Even if Watson busted in Cleveland, they'd at least have all the picks they squandered for him to make it right (but I digress).
In a world where the Browns drafted Mahomes No. 1, perhaps they would have won so many games by now that they'd have become the league villain instead of the Kansas City Chiefs. Regardless, it's difficult to dismiss the can't-miss label affixed to Garrett at the time. It makes it impossible to fault Cleveland for the decision they made, even if going another way would've probably been more fruitful.
Now, the decision to forge on with a rookie QB in DeShone Kizer, a second-year third-rounder in Cody Kessler, and a second-year Day 3 pick in Kevin Hogan rounding out the room? That was disastrous. Consummate veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick — the most curious omission from the Browns' jersey that features seemingly every journeyman — was available for the taking, at least to keep the team respectable.
Perhaps therein lies the disconnect. The Browns may not have wanted to be respectable. And respectable they were not. The young troika of signal-callers kamikaze-piloted the Browns to only the second 0-16 season in NFL history and just the third winless campaign ever. There's indignity, there's metric tons of manure, and then there's that.
The only positive thing that could be said about the campaign is that it netted them the first overall pick again. Fans can rest assured the Browns learned their lesson. Opting for Garrett over a quarterback made little impact in the win column.
The matter of which quarterback it would be at No. 1 became the question at the forefront...
— This series will continue with Chapter 7 on Saturday, July 25. See Chapter 1, "The Right Pick, the Wrong Plan," here.
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