Mount Rushmore of Browns tight ends – Newsome a big get in 1978

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 18th in a series of stories about the Mount Rushmore-worthy players – the best players – in Browns history. Today we look at tight ends.

By STEVE KING

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One of the biggest evolutions in the modern game began with a big curiosity about big backsides.

Really.

It was 1978, his first year as Browns head coach, and Sam Rutigliano was preparing for the NFL Draft.

He gave receivers coach Richie Kotite, with whom he had been an assistant under Hank Stram with the New Orleans Saints in 1977, a task. Rutigliano wanted him to go to Tuscaloosa, Ala., the home of the University of Alabama, and measure the width of Crimson Tide wide receiver Ozzie Newsome’s backside.

“Huh? What? You want me to do what, Sam?” said Kotite, who had played five seasons in the NFL as a tight end and had coached the position with the Saints.

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“I want you to take a tape measure there and measure the width of his butt,” Rutigliano repeated.

“OK, I give up, why?”

“I want to see if his frame is big enough to put on some weight. And if it is, then I think he could play tight end in the NFL.”

Newsome was a tall, skinny wideout – no pun intended – in head coach Bear Bryant’s wishbone offense. Translated, it meant he wasn’t exactly overworked as a pass receiver.

But Rutigliano, who really understood the passing game, thought he could take Newsome and turn him into a playmaking NFL tight end. That was his genius. And it worked like a charm, for Newsome became even more than that – much more really – in that he was a transformational tight end.

The Browns drafted Newsome with the latter of their two first-round picks, at No. 23 overall, and immediately switched him from wide receiver to tight end. At the same time, he took Dave Logan, a skinny tight end who had struggled for two years in former Cleveland head coach Forrest Gregg’s offense simply because he didn’t have enough bulk, and moved him to wide receiver.

“When I called Dave to tell him what we were doing, he was so happy that I thought he was going to climb through the phone line and give me a big kiss,” Rutigliano said.

With his length (he was 6-foot-4), long arms and athleticism (he was a great player, especially as a rebounder, on the University of Colorado basketball team. and was drafted out of high school as a baseball player), Logan became an outstanding wide receiver for the Kardiac Kids.

As for Newsome, whereas before he came into the league, tight ends were big, lumbering guys who blocked and caught short passes, he could run downfield and make receptions. It was like having another wide receiver. He was a match-up nightmare in that he was too big and strong for safeties to cover, and too fast for linebackers.

From that point on, every tight end drafted would be like Newsome, beginning the following year in 1979 when the San Diego Chargers selected Kellen Winslow Sr. Both he and Newsome are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

So, then, Newsome, who played from 1979-90, leads the Mount Rushmore of Browns tight ends. He is joined by Milt Morin (1966-75), Steve Heiden (2002-09) and Kellen Winslow Jr. (2004-08).

Let’s take a look:

OZZIE NEWSOME

The three-time Pro Bowler leads the Browns with 662 careerr receptions, exactly twice as many as runner-up Gary Collins (331), and also with 7.980 receiving yards, almost 2,500 more than runner-up Ray Renfro (5,508). He is also fourth with 47 touchdown catches. In addition, he caught a pass in 150 straight games, which was the second-longest such streak in the NFL at that time.

MILT MORIN

He was the Browns’ first true tight end as the position began to evolve in the mid-1960s, and a very good one, as evidenced by his two Pro Bowl trips. The team’s first-round draft pick in 1966, at No. 14 overall, out of Massachusetts, he caught 271 career passes, putting him just out of Cleveland’s top 10 list. His 4,208 receiving yards put him seventh.

STEVE HEIDEN

When he arrived in 2002 in a trade with the San Diego Chargers, with whom he had caught just 14 passes in three seasons, no one in Cleveland knew who he was. By the time he left nine years later, everybody knew. He had 201 receptions for 1,689 yards and 14 touchdowns, including a career-high five in 2004 when he tied a Browns record with three TDs in a game at Cincinnati. Not too bad for someone who played his college ball at South Dakota State.

KELLEN WINSLOW JR.

Yes, his life has sadly nosedived recently, but when he was healthy, which wasn’t nearly long enough, he was one heckuva player for the Browns. Taken with the No. 6 overall draft choice in 2004 out of Miami (Fla.), he missed all but two games of his first two seasons with injuries, but rebounded impressively when he returned in 2006 to tie Newsome for the team record with 89 receptions. He had 82 the next season, which are No. 6 in Browns history. His 1,106 receiving yards in 2007, when he made the Pro Bowl, are fourth. When it was all said and done, he had 219 catches for 2,459 yards and 11 touchdowns.

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NEXT: Wide receivers (Group 1).   

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