@tour2ma said:

Jerry Sherk remains my all-time favorite defender. As you've read here before, I maintain that were it not for a knee cutting his career short he'd be in the HoF.

He and Walter Johnson were a good pair together!

@texasag1969 said:

What about the guys drafted by the Browns and traded away: Doug Atkins, Henry Jordan, Willie Davis, Dick LeBeau. All HOF, all fairly contemporary...all went to other teams.

Think what the Browns defense would have been with all those guys playing on it...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Davis

Added OL names were Wooten and Monte Clark... relatively easy to forget with Schafrath and Hickerson as their opposites.

Same for Johnny Brewer... our "blocking" TE lost in the receiving corps of Collins and Warfield. Some will remember that Johnny finished his career with us at OLB.

D side was a virtual no-name collection. Paul Wiggins and Bill Glass were bookend DEs in our 4-3 flanking Ed "Big Mo" Modzelewski and Jim "No. 69" Kanecki. Jim Houston and Galen Fiss flanked the above mentioned Costello. Bernie Parrish and Bobby Franklin were secondary favs.

After "the glory days"...

Leroy Kelly, an 8th round pick, had the toughest act to follow in the history of the game and did so to an extent no one could have imagined.

Jerry Sherk remains my all-time favorite defender. As you've read here before, I maintain that were it not for a knee cutting his career short he'd be in the HoF.

1. Dawgpound Browns 1985-1989

This was the best team we have fielded in my life. We could run, we could pass, we could play defense with passion and precision. And it was fun! We were at the top of the NFL in talent, wins and notoriety,

2. Old Guard Browns 1969 -1973

This is the team I fell in love with as a kid. Leroy Kelly, Bill Nelson, Milt Morin, Gene Hickerson, Walter Johnson, Jerry Sherk, Erich Barnes ... I still have all of their football cards memorized. This was after the glory of Paul Brown and Jim Brown but before there was any hint of mediocrity. I figured the Browns would always be 9-5, or 10-4 and make the playoffs my whole life.

3. The Kardiac Kids 1979-80

I enjoyed the whole Sipe era, 1976-83, we were always outmanned underdogs but fought our hearts out to the last whistle. 79-80 was the best, when we were pulling out victory after last-second victory. I was in high school, living in Steeler country during the Noll years, and these Browns gave me something to believe.

4. Belichick figures it out 1994

Not an era, but just a year, thanks to Art Modell. But it had all the makings of an era: Belichick's defense was becoming no less than "great". The offense was running, bumbling and stumbling to victories. Ozzie Newsome picking the players and Bill Belichick coaching them ... nah, never would have worked ...

5. Butchie gives us hope 2001-2002

I need a fifth, so I will mention Butch Davis' first two years. The defense was playing lights out in 01 before injuries caught up, but in 02 we hung in there as a team and made the playoffs and came one play from shocking the world. Then it all fell apart ... Hoping the Hue jackson era knocks this out of the Top five real quick.

"On November 4, 2010, Brown was chosen by NFL Network's NFL Films production The Top 100: NFL's Greatest Players as the second-greatest player in NFL history, behind only Jerry Rice."

@the-gipper said:

...Milt Moran, Erich Barnes, Bernie Parish, Walter Beach....onto Leroy Kelly, etc.

I also missed Graham's era.

The Kosar days were good days also.

@the-gipper said:

Hey Gip, you forgot Groza, Fiss, Shofner, Costello, Fleming, Plum, Renfro, & others.

That was my favorite time as well, the late 50's through the mid '60s.

I hope the younger folks on this board get to witness Teams like those. Not only do I think they will, I believe WE will live to see it too. Great times.

Mike