Mount Rushmore of Browns quarterbacks – Otto, Bernie, Brian and Brainy Frank.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 24th – and last — in a series of stories about the Mount Rushmore-worthy players – the best players – in Browns history. Today we look at the Mount Rushmore of Browns quarterbacks.

Advertisement: Buying or selling a home? Visit the Jacob Coker Group with Keller Williams Chervenic Realty

By STEVE KING

We’ve saved the best – or at least the most important, most visible and most recognizable, so yeah, I guess, the best — for last in this series of stories about the Mount Rushmore of Browns players.

That is, of course, quarterbacks.

Everybody – even those who are only casual fans – know the quarterback of the team in their city. They may not know three other players – or perhaps even no other players – on the team, but they’ll know the quarterback. Oh, yes, they most certainly will know – and know about — the quarterback, and likely much more than just his name.

And that’s probably as it should be, for, as you’ve read on this website, Browns Daily Dose, any number of times, if a team has a quarterback – a good one, that is – then it has a chance. And if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. It really is that simple, because quarterback is the most important not just on the football team, but in team sports overall.

So, considering all that, then, all of you reading this will know the four players who are on the Mount Rushmore of Browns quarterbacks. Again, perhaps you’ve seen all of them play – or just one or two or none at all; it doesn’t matter – but you likely have heard of all of them. It’s more like that you have indeed – with any question — heard of all of them.

No drum roll needed here. These four men – Pro Football Hall of Famer Otto Graham, who played for the team in the first 10 years of existence, 1946-55, and Cleveland Browns Legends Frank Ryan (1962-68), Brian Sipe (1974-83) and Bernie Kosar (1985-93) – stand head and shoulders above all other Browns quarterbacks in history. For sure, work on this Mount Rushmore was finished long ago.

Here’s a bit about them:

OTTO GRAHAM

A quarterback’s No. 1 job isn’t necessarily to throw for 300 yards and four touchdowns, but rather it’s to win the game, and ultimately championships. And in that regard, then, Graham is the best quarterback in pro football history in that he guided the Browns to the league championship game in each of his 10 seasons, with seven titles. That is unprecedented. It will never, ever be matched, or even anywhere close to it. His individual numbers are outstanding, too. When you add together the statistics from his four years in the All-America Football Conference from 1946-49, and his six years in the NFL (1950-55)  — this is a comparison you’ve never seen anywhere else – you’ll find that Graham is third in career pass completions (1,464) in Browns history, second in yards (23,584, just 129 yards behind Sipe), first in touchdown passes (174) and second in quarterback rating (86.6). He was also excellent in carrying the ball, as evidenced by the fact he ran for 44 touchdowns, the fifth-highest total for the team. And, oh, yeah, he was the ultimate winner in a bottom-line business in which winning is all that counts. It is the only thing.

Click here for a Daily Dose of our best coffee

BERNIE KOSAR

He grew up in the Greater Youngstown area rooting for the Browns and had a poster of Sipe on his bedroom wall. He went to Boardman High School, quarterbacked the Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes to their first national championship and then helped maneuver himself into position for Cleveland to select him No. 1 overall in the 1985 NFL Supplemental Draft. If that wasn’t enough to endear himself to Browns fans, then the fact he turned the team around immediately, leading it to five playoff appearances in each of his first five seasons, including four Central Division championships and three trips to the AFC Championship Game, certainly finished the job. He is second in team history with 1,853 completions, 21,904 yards and a quarterback rating of 81.6, and is third with 116 TD passes.

6+4+3=2 Shirts under $15!

BRIAN SIPE

There was nothing about the first part of Sipe’s career that gave any hint of the greatness he would enjoy. In fact, just the opposite was true. He was a 13th-round draft choice (four rounds from the bottom), at No. 330 overall, in 1972, but he wasn’t good enough to make the regular roster in either of his first two years, instead being relegated to the taxi squad, the forerunner of today’s practice squad. He finally earned a roster spot in 1974, but didn’t really solidify himself as the club’s undisputed starting quarterback until late in the 1978 season. When Sam Rutigliano got the head-coaching job in 1978, he immediately named Sipe as the starter. But four sub-par performances in a five-week stretch sandwiched around the midway point of the season had Rutigliano wondering privately if Sipe was really the guy. Then on Nov. 19 at Baltimore against the Colts, Sipe recorded his first 300-yard passing game, hitting 15-of-21 attempts for 309 yards and four touchdowns, with no interceptions, for an off-the-charts quarterback rating of 150.6, as Cleveland won easily, 45-24, to break a two-game losing streak. It was the most points scored by the Browns in a game since at about the same point of the 1968 season in a 47-13 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. That jump-started Sipe’s career – and the Browns overall. Two years later, in that Kardiac Kids joy ride of 1980, he had arguably the greatest season ever by a quarterback in team history by throwing for 4,132 yards and 30 touchdowns, both team records, to become the first Brown since Jim Brown in 1965 to win the NFL MVP award. He owns all but one of the club’s passing records, standing No. 1 in attempts (3,439), completions (1,944), yards (23,713) and touchdowns (154).

FRANK RYAN

Embed from Getty Images

Ryan, who has a PhD. in math and was known as Dr. Ryan when he played in Cleveland, doesn’t get nearly the attention that he deserves – and not just for his brain power. Sure, he threw three touchdown passes to wide receiver Gary Collins in the 27-0 upset victory over the Baltimore Colts in the 1964 NFL Championship Game, and, obviously, that is the accomplishment for which he is most known. But his stretch of excellence lasted a whole lot longer than that. From 1963, when new head coach Blanton Collier gave him the starting job over Jim Ninowski after they had shared it the previous year following Ryan’s arrival in trade with the Los Angeles Rams, through 1967, Ryan was the most productive – best – quarterback in pro football. During that five-year stretch, he completed 764 passes for 11,193 yards and 117 touchdowns, with 75 interceptions. His body finally broke down early in the 1968 season because of all the pounding he had taken, but not before Ryan had established himself as the game’s best during those previous five seasons, even if no one ever really acknowledged it – or at least not enough.

NEXT: More Mounts to build.

Cleveland Browns:

• “Here are the two NFL teams that would’ve played the Jags in London if international games weren’t axed” (CBS)
• 6+4+3=2 Shirts under $15!
• Mount Rushmore of Browns tight ends (Browns Daily Dose)
• “Inside the Browns’ gradual return to their facilities”
• “Browns replenish defensive depth around reinstated Myles Garrett” (ESPN)
• ‘The Corner Brothers’ Frank Minnifield and Hanford Dixon
• “With abundance of skill position players, coaches expect to change plan weekly to use them all, attack opponent” (BrownsZone) 

We may earn an Affiliate Commission if you purchase something through recommended links in this Mount Rushmore of Browns quarterbacks article.