NFL Draft Bust Vault: DE Courtney Brown, Cleveland Browns
Since their re-emergence on to the NFL landscape in 2000, the Cleveland Browns has been a punching bag for the NFL, the fans, the analysts, the critics, you name it. A franchise with historic figures such as Otto Graham, Jim Brown, Ernie Banks, coach Paul Brown, and more is now a punch-line to many.
The franchise’s troubles of the 2000s can be traced to two main components: Poor coaching and failed draft picks.
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The first draft pick to kick off the resurrection of the Browns in the 2000s was DE Courtney Brown out of Penn State. Drafted first overall in the 2000 NFL Draft, Brown was supposed to be the building block for a franchise that was basically building from scratch. At Penn State’s pro day, Brown measured 6’4 271 pounds, ran a 40 time in 4.5 seconds, and benched press 225 pounds 26 times. Scary. Frightening.
What was significant about the selection of Brown was that Cleveland had the pick of the litter with their first pick. A team that was built with cast-offs, has-beens, and average players, the Browns were faced with an opportunity to select a pillar. Looking back at that draft as a whole, LaVar Arrington, Chris Samuels, Jamal Lewis, Brian Urlacher, John Abraham were some of the name that could’ve been a Cleveland Brown. However, the franchise turned to the athletic defensive end out of Penn State.
His rookie season saw results on the positive side with 69 tackles and 4.5 sacks. Brown also played and started all 16 games that initial season. Brown only played five games in 2001 which was impacted by injuries, although he did total 4.5 sacks in those five games as well. Year three of his career was only 11 games worth of production with only 30 tackles and two sacks. The 2003 season wasn’t much of a leap for Brown with only 28 tackles and six sacks, missing only three games that season.
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In 2004, Brown played in only two games, totaling only two tackles.
That was the last straw. Five seasons in Cleveland, only 47 games played, totaling just 17 sacks. Cleveland released the defensive end where we wound up in Denver for only one season. The same mediocrity wound up in the Mile High city where he only racked up two sacks.
The injuries took their toll. There is no overlooking that. Ultimately, the connotation of Brown being drafted first overall to Cleveland was that it started a chain of events. A chain of events that included the failed draft picks of Tim Couch, William Green, Brady Quinn, Trent Richardson, Brandon Weeden and more. Those chain of events also includes coaching hires of Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, Charlie Weis, and now Mike Pettine which have all resulted in eventual walking papers.
The last decade and a half for the Browns have been damaging to the reputation of the franchise. What got the “party” started was the whiffing on Courtney Brown.
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