Mount Rushmore of Browns special teamers – Making Wright plays at right time

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the fourth 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 special teamers, those who cover and block on kickoffs and punts.

By STEVE KING

They can set the tone for games.

And they often do.

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When special teamers make big hits on returners, when they blast would-be tacklers off their feet or when they rush in to get a piece – or all – of the ball on field-goal attempts and punts, it excites their teammates and, if it’s a home game, their fans as well, providing all kinds of momentum. Their play can turn games around, or make the outcomes even more certain than they already were.

Who have been those players for the Browns over the years? More specifically, who have been the best of those players for the club?

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My Mount Rushmore of Browns special teamers are Felix Wright (1985-90), Travis Tucker (1985-87), Bill Cowher (1980-82) and Joshua Cribbs (2005-12).

Here’s a look at all four:

FELIX WRIGHT

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Wright waited, waited and then waited some more for a chance to play safety on those great Browns teams in the last half of the 1980s. He helped pave the way for that to happen by catching the coaches’ attention with his special teams play game after game.

It was midway through the 1986 season and the Browns, after falling to 4-3 with an embarrassing 17-14 home loss to a bad Green Bay Packers team, were struggling again – even more so this time – the following week at Minnesota. The letdown of the Packers game had followed them to the Metrodome. They were listless in falling behind 17-3 at halftime.

Their offense was going nowhere, and their defense was a step behind the Minnesota offense.

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So the Browns needed something – anything – to jump-start them. And they got it in the third quarter when star cornerback Frank Minnifield, who also excelled on special teams, blocked a punt that was returned 30 yards for a touchdown by Wright to cut the margin to 17-10.

That ignited the Browns, both in that game and for the rest of the season. After Minnesota kicked a field goal, the Browns scored 10 answered points in the fourth quarter to pull out an improbable, come-from-way-behind 23-20 win to improve to 5-3. They had outscored the hosts 20-3 in the second half.

Rejuvenated after their expected big season seemed to be in peril, the Browns lost just once in their final eight games to finish 12-4, win their second straight AFC Central title and secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

And it all spawned off that blocked punt return by Wright, off an asset from Minnifield.

TRAVIS TUCKER

Tucker didn’t see much time as a tight end. And when he did, it was almost always as an extra blocker, as evidenced by the fact he caught just four passes for 43 yards over his three seasons in Cleveland. The Browns already had their tight end. His name was Ozzie Newsome. Perhaps you’ve heard of him.

But Tucker was outstanding on special teams. If there was a tackle to be made, he made it. And as was evidenced by the Wright play, the Browns looked to their special team to make plays. Tucker obliged.

BILL COWHER

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Long before he went on to a Pro Football Hall of Fame head-coaching career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cowher cut his coaching teeth with the Browns as their special teams coach on Marty Schottenheimer’s staff in 1985 and ’86. The way he coached those special teams, enthusiastically running up and down the sideline exhorting his players, was the way he played special teams throughout his six-year career, including the three seasons he spent with the Browns’ Kardiac Kids teams. He was all over the field making plays. He performed like that, too, in the few occasions he saw duty at linebacker for Cleveland.

JOSHUA CRIBBS

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He’s clearly the best special teams cover man the Browns have ever had. Though he was a quarterback at Kent State, and a punt and kickoff returner, wide receiver and wildcat quarterback in Cleveland, he hit returners often – and hard, like a sledgehammer, as if he were a linebacker. His play on special teams was worth the price of admission.

NEXT: Punt returners.

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