Browns players who can move up the team’s record book in 2024

The Cleveland Browns boast some memorable names in the Top 10 of various offensive categories on the franchise’s all-time list.

Brian Sipe, Otto Graham, and Bernie Kosar lead the quarterbacks in passing yards and touchdowns. Jim Brown and Leroy Kelly dominate the rushing stats. Among receivers, Ozzie Newsome, Dante Lavelli, and Mac Speedie are familiar to most fans.

The problem, at least for today’s exercise, is that it has been decades since many of the franchise’s best players suited up for the Browns. Such is the nature of a franchise that has cycled through numerous forgettable players since 1999.

The current roster features a handful of players who have been working their way up the lists, however, and with productive seasons in 2024 could move to the brink of the Top 10 - and in two cases into the top three.

The Browns need quarterback Deshaun Watson to stay healthy for the entire season and reclaim some of his past mojo if the team is going to make a playoff run this fall. If Watson can put up a full season, then it is not a stretch to believe he will post just the second 4,000-yard passing season and second 30-touchdown season in team history. If he hits those marks, Watson would finish the campaign at No. 12 on the list for career passing yards, just 866 behind Derek Anderson, and hit the Top 10 in career touchdown passes, again just behind Anderson.

If he had not suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 2 of last season, running back Nick Chubb would already have surpassed Mike Pruitt and Leroy Kelly on the career rushing list to reside at No. 2. As it currently stands, Chubb sits just 29 yards behind Pruitt and 763 yards behind Kelly, so a mid-season return could position Chubb to still finish the season at No. 2 on the list.

When it comes to catching passes, if tight end David Njoku can post the first 1,000-yard receiving year of his career, he will move up to No. 9 on the franchise’s all-time list, pushing fellow tight end Milt Morin out of the Top 10. And if Njoku repeats his 81-reception season, he would find himself at No. 3 all-time in receptions, trailing Lavelli by just 18 receptions.

None of this necessarily translates to winning, of course, but the fact that the Browns finally have a stable of talented players who are etching their names in the franchise’s record book does not hurt the cause. And it certainly beats the alternative of seeing the roster turn into a revolving door filled with forgettable names from year to year.