The Cleveland Browns traded up to select Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders with the No. 144 overall pick in the fifth round of the 2025 NFL Draft on Saturday. Sanders was projected to be a top-five pick, and the general consensus was that Sanders was the second-best quarterback prospect in this year’s draft. NFL teams evidently disagreed with that assessment.
Sanders slipped out of the first round, then went unselected on Day 2. Five quarterbacks were selected ahead of Sanders before Cleveland finally put an end to his free fall. Sanders, the son of Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders, was the sixth quarterback prospect selected in this year’s draft, and the second quarterback selected by Cleveland.
The Browns selected Dillon Gabriel in the third round before trading up to select Sanders. If either of the rookie quarterbacks hope to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, they’ll have to end a long-standing tradition of poor quarterback play in Cleveland. The Browns have not had a true franchise quarterback since Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham played his final season in 1955. Since then, Cleveland has burned countless draft picks on quarterback prospects.
Browns have drafted 13 quarterbacks since the 2000 NFL Draft
The Browns have churned through many quarterbacks since the turn of the century. General manager Andrew Berry is hoping to put an end to that cycle, but history suggests that Gabriel and Sanders will not have an easy path to Canton. The Browns have now selected 13 quarterback prospects in the past 26 draft classes. None of their prior 11 quarterbacks were able to find lasting success in Cleveland.
Here's a list of every quarterback drafted by the Browns since 2000.
Quarterback | Round | Draft | Record (in CLE) |
|---|---|---|---|
Spergon Wynn | 6 | 2000 | 0-1 |
Luke McCown | 4 | 2004 | 0-4 |
Charlie Frye | 3 | 2005 | 6-13 |
Brady Quinn | 1 | 2007 | 3-9 |
Colt McCoy | 3 | 2010 | 6-15 |
Brandon Weeden | 1 | 2012 | 5-15 |
Johnny Manziel | 1 | 2014 | 2-6 |
Cody Kessler | 3 | 2016 | 0-8 |
DeShone Kizer | 2 | 2017 | 0-15 |
Baker Mayfield | 1 | 2018 | 29-30 |
Dorian Thompson-Robinson | 5 | 2023 | 1-4 |
Dillon Gabriel | 3 | 2025 | -- |
Shedeur Sanders | 5 | 2025 | -- |
None of those 11 quarterbacks managed to finished their tenure in Cleveland with a winning record. In total, they posted a combined 52-120 record (.302) as the Browns' starters.
The Browns skipped over Tom Brady to select Texas State’s Spergon Wynn in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. They selected Louisiana Tech’s Luke McCown in the fourth round of the 2004 NFL Draft. A year later, they used a third-round pick to select Akron’s Charlie Frye. Notre Dame’s Brady Quinn was selected in the first round of the 2007 NFL Draft. In 2010, they used a third-round pick on Texas quarterback Colt McCoy.
Then, Cleveland spent two first-round picks on quarterbacks over a three-year span. They drafted Oklahoma State’s Brandon Weeden in the first round of the 2012 NFL Draft and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft. USC’s Cody Kessler was a 2016 third-round pick and Notre Dame’s DeShone Kizer was a 2017 second-round pick. The Browns selected Oklahoma’s Baker Mayfield with the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. The last quarterback they selected was UCLA’s Dorian Thompson-Robinson, a 2023 fifth-round pick.
Including their two new rookie quarterbacks, the Browns have now spent 13 picks on quarterbacks since 2000. Those quarterbacks were drafted using four first-round picks, one second-round pick, four third-round picks, one fourth-round pick, two fifth-round picks and one sixth-round pick.
In 2017, the Browns traded a third-round pick for quarterback Tyrod Taylor. In 2022, the Browns traded three first-round picks, a third-round pick and two fourth-round picks for quarterback Deshaun Watson. They also traded a fifth-round pick for quarterback Kenny Pickett this offseason. Excluding a few other trades, that brings Cleveland to a total of 21 draft picks used on quarterbacks in the past 25 years. Those quarterbacks have produced just one playoff victory — a 48-37 wild-card victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers following the 2020 season.