Browns Mount Rushmore of wide receivers

Browns Mount Rushmore of Browns wide receivers – Slaughter and Warfield indelibly linked

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 20th in a series of stories about the Mount Rushmore-worthy players – the best players – in Browns history. Today we look at wide receivers (Group 2).

By STEVE KING

It was about 35 years ago when one man on the Mount Rushmore of Browns wide receivers delivered to the team another man on the Mount Rushmore of Browns wide receivers.

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Really.

The Browns had traded the top of their NFL Draft in both 1985 and ’86 to Buffalo to get the Bills’ No. 1 overall pick in the 1985 NFL Supplemental Draft, which they used to get their perceived franchise quarterback in Youngstown Boardman High School and Miami (Fla.) product Bernie Kosar.

But once they did that, the Browns had to get him a big-play, downfield, stretch-the-defense wide receiver.

They had Brian Brennan, whom they had drafted in the fourth round in 1984, but while he was productive as a rookie and had quickness and great hands, he did not have the top-end speed to be the kind of wide receiver they needed.

They had Reggie Langhorne, a little-known wide receiver from tiny Elizabeth City State who was drafted in the seventh round in 1985. Though the Browns didn’t know it then, he would turn out to be a real steal, surprisingly developing into a very good intermediate pass-catcher. They knew then that he was faster than Brennan, but still, he was not fast enough to be that deep threat.

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Brennan and Langhorne could both be complementary receivers, as the Browns saw it, but neither were No. 1 targets.

So they needed to get one in the draft. The problem, though, was that the Browns did not have those first-round draft picks in 1985 and ’86. That – at the top of the draft – is where you can best find a player the likes of whom the Browns needed. Their first pick in the 1986 draft would not be until the middle of the second round, at No. 43 overall.

So, then, Marty Schottenheimer, who had gotten the Browns head-coaching job midway through the 1984 season when Sam Rutigliano got fired, gave Paul Warfield a year-long project in the summer of 1985. Warfield, a Pro Football Hall of Famer and a member of the Mount Rushmore of Browns wide receivers (Group 1), was back working with the club in a variety of roles, including personnel. The coach told Warfield to look for a sleeper, a potentially great, deep-threat wide receiver who, because of the size of his school, his physical size or whatever, would slide and be available for the Browns when they selected in the second round.

Warfield searched and searched and then searched some more and finally came up with his man, San Diego State’s Webster Slaughter.

And, sure enough, Slaughter was there at No. 43 and the Browns took him. Warfield was right on point, as it turned out, as Slaughter had a tremendous career with the Browns and was at his best in the biggest games, especially in that first year of 1986.

He started the Browns off on a regular season-ending, five-game winning streak when he beat Donnie Shell down the left sideline to catch a 36-yard touchdown pass from Kosar in overtime to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 36-31.

Then in the AFC divisional playoffs against the New York Jets, he caught a 37-yarder from Kosar down the right sideline that put the Browns, who had trailed by 10 points with 4:14 left in the fourth quarter, into position to kick the game-tying field goal to complete the comeback and force OT. They eventually won 23-20 in double-overtime.

Slaughter, who played with Cleveland from 1986-91 before becoming one of the very first full-fledged free agents in 1992 when he signed with the AFC Central rival Houston Oilers, leads the list of those in Group 2 of Mount Rushmore of Browns wide receivers. He is joined by Brennan (1984-91) and two players from the Kardiac Kids era in Dave Logan (1976-83) and Reggie Rucker (1975-81).

Here they are:

WEBSTER “WEBSTAR” SLAUGHTER

Browns Mount Rushmore of Browns wide receivers

He is seventh all-time on the Browns with 305 catches, sixth with 4.953 receiving yards and seventh with 27 touchdown grabs. His 97-yard TD reception from Kosar in 1989 is still the second-longest passing play in Browns history.

BRIAN BRENNAN

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The Boston College product, who was always a go-to receiver for Kosar in third-down situations. is tied for fourth on the Browns with 315 career receptions and stands ninth with 4,148 receiving yards. He was almost one of the biggest heroes in franchise history when he caught a 48-yard TD pass from Kosar with just under five minutes left in the fourth quarter to put the Browns ahead of the Denver Broncos 20-13 in the 1986 AFC Championship Game. But we all know how that ended.

DAVE LOGAN

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Taken in the third round in 1976 out of Colorado and playing out of position at tight end in his first two seasons, he had 262 catches for 4,247 yards (seventh in team history) and 24 touchdowns (eighth). His best season was 1979 with 59 receptions for 982 yards and seven scores.

REGGIE RUCKER

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He came to the Browns in a 1975 trade after playing five seasons with the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants and New England Patriots. He and Brian Sipe combined for 26 TD passes, the fourth-most of any duo in team history. His 310 receptions and 32 scoring passes both rank sixth, while his 4,953 yards are fifth. That his life has come apart recently is a sad, sad story.

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NEXT: Fullbacks.

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Browns Mount Rushmore of wide receivers