Countdown to Draft Day; Cleveland’s 10 Worst First-Round Picks Since 1999

We are ten days away from the 2016 NFL Draft.

The Browns have the No. 2 overall pick in the draft. We’ll see if they trade down or stay there.

For many Browns fans, the question is “How will they screw it up this time?”

Starting today, I’ll be counting down the 10 worst First-Round Draft-Picks the Cleveland Browns have selected since 1999.

We’re basically going from terrible to worst.

It’s not easy to differentiate between varying levels of awful. Feel free to disagree with our choices.

We start at #10: Phil Taylor Defensive Tackle

Let me preface this by saying, if I ever met Phil in a dark alley, I would be crushed. This is not a personal attack on the man. I don’t know him personally. For all I know, he’s a stand up guy.

I’m just writing this from the standpoint of a Browns fan who felt that the pick did not live up to expectations.

Taylor spent four seasons in Cleveland after being selected 21st overall in the 2011 NFL Draft.

The Browns originally held the #6 overall pick, but opted to trade that pick to the Atlanta Falcons, who in turn went out and drafted Julio Jones, the superstar wide receiver, who is arguably one of the best in the NFL.

When Taylor was healthy in Cleveland, he made an impact.

The defensive tackle played in all 16 games in his rookie year, with four sacks and 59 tackles.

Unfortunately, his career was pretty much all downhill from there.

Taylor played in 8 games in 2012, but had a bit of a bounce back year in 2013, playing in 15 games, and accumulating 26 tackles.

2014 was when it all started to come together that maybe this guy’s career in Cleveland was going to turn into a total bust after all.

He only played in five games, making ten total tackles.

He was cut before the first preseason game in 2015 and did not appear in an NFL game that season.

Taylor recently signed with the defending Super Bowl Champion Denver Broncos.

Maybe he will get back to his old self and show flashes of what he did at times with the Browns.

He’s only 28 so it’s not out of the realm of possibility for him to have a solid bounce back season.

However, for the purposes of our countdown, it’s fair to say Taylor was a bust for the Browns.

Especially given the fact that if the Browns would have taken the receiver, Jones, they might have had an elite playmaker who could still be helping the Browns have a top-tier offense.

It’s hard to say what coulda, woulda, shoulda happened if Jones did end up becoming a Brown, but one thing is for sure; Phil Taylor’s tenure with the Browns was not what we were hoping for it to become at all.

For what it’s worth, Taylor wasn’t the only bust the Browns acquired from trading the #6 pick to Atlanta.

As a matter of fact, we’ll see two more of those players in the coming days on our list.

Come back tomorrow to see who earns the #9 spot.