How the Cleveland Browns trade of Myles Garrett ultimately pans out, there’s little doubt with respect to team history it is seismic. Few trades have changed the course of the franchise in a manner this one could in the immediate and, potentially, far future.
There are many for the team that had that sort of impact. Here are the Top 5 blockbuster trades – good or bad – in Browns history:
Acquiring quarterback Deshaun Watson remains the team’s most infamous trade
Talk about changing the destiny of the Browns, this one remains the most infamous in team history. It’s still affecting it as, according to reports, Deshaun Watson currently is leading the race for the No. 1 quarterback spot. Sure, it’s early.
But considering the team gave up three first-round draft choices, a third rounder and four fourth-round picks for a quarterback who has played 19 games in his time since arriving, it seems dubious.
Ernie Acorsi’s move to get Bernie Kosar on the Browns stands out as huge one
Then Browns GM Ernie Kosar followed Miami Hurricanes quarterback and Boardman native Bernie Kosar’s lead and grabbed the signal caller, who led his college team to a national title, with a first pick in the July 1985 NFL Supplemental Draft.
After Kosar’s finagling through a loophole, the Browns sent first-, third- and sixth-round picks for the Buffalo Bills’ first overall supplemental draft choice. He remains the best quarterback the team has had since it returned from NFL exile in 1999. Kosar led the Browns to three AFC championship games against the Denver Broncos, unfortunately losing them all.
A trade for QB Frank Ryan gives Browns last championship
The Browns last won an NFL championship in 1964 thanks to the efforts of two men – Jim Brown and quarterback Frank Ryan. Ryan was the last quarterback to win a championship in Cleveland.
The team acquired Ryan in a trade with…wait for it…the Rams in 1962 for defensive lineman Larry Stephens and third- and sixth-round draft picks in 1963, and was expected to be a backup, but fate intervened and he was thrust into the starting role due to injury.
Ryan and the Browns stunned the league in 1964 when they beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in the NFL Championship Game. He remained the starter until 1967.
The Browns’ trade of Paul Warfield to Miami lives in infamy
The Cleveland Browns drafted Paul Warfield out of Ohio State in 1964 with the No. 11 overall pick. Warfield was on the 1964 squad that won the NFL championship. They were still in championship form when they traded him in 1969 to the Miami Dolphins for the No. 3 overall pick in the 1970 so they could select – wait for it – a quarterback. Sound familiar, right?
With that pick, they selected Purdue QB Mike Phipps, who was less-than-stellar in seven seasons with the team, and this was in an era when developing first-round rookie quarterbacks was the rule, not the exception.
As for Warfield: he went on to a hall of fame career as a member of the legendary undefeated 1972 Dolphins team, that remains the only unbeated team in NFL history. After a stint in the World Football League, he returned to the Browns for two seasons in 1976 and 1977. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton in 1983 in his first year of eligibility.
Denver Broncos actually did the Cleveland Browns a favor…in 1979
It’s not every day that an All-Pro defensive lineman drops into your lap, but thanks to the Denver Broncos that’s what happened for the Browns in 1979 when they traded for Lyle Alzado, who was involved in a contract dispute with Denver. Alzado was known for having a nasty disposition on the field and the use of the head slap in his play.
The Broncos received the Browns’ 1980 second- and fifth-round draft choices and a third rounder in 1981. What did the Browns get? Alongside quarterback Brian Sipe, wide receiver Dave Logan, running backs Greg and Mike Pruitt, tight end Ozzie Newsome, linebacker Clay Matthews and safety Thom Darden, he helped lead the Browns’ resurgence as a member of the beloved Kardiac Kids teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was short-lived, but for those who lived in that moment, it was glorious.
George M. Thomas covers a myriad of things including sports and pop culture, but mostly sports, he thinks, for the Beacon Journal.
