Top 50 Cleveland Browns

The ranking of the Cleveland Browns is one of the more complicated ones in our big four Professional sports teams, as this is the only one that relocated and was given back to the city in question.

Formed in 1946 by Paul Brown, the Browns were an inaugural team in the All-American Football Conference.  Cleveland was an undisputed power in the new football league, winning the four Championships in the league’s existence.  The AAFC merged with the NFL in 1950, and to the shock of the stalwarts, Cleveland won the 1950 NFL Championship.

The Browns remained a power for years, winning the NFL Championship in 1954 and 1955, and they would draft Jim Brown, whose rushing skills transformed the game.  They would win it all again in 1964.  The Browns haven’t been to a title game since.

In 1995, Browns owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore, but a deal was struck with the city of Cleveland, keeping the intellectual property of the Browns with the city.  The Browns were back in 1999 but have not made a deep playoff run in this incarnation.

This list is up to the end of the 2024 season.

Note: Football lists are based on an amalgamation of tenure, traditional statistics, advanced statistics, playoff statistics, and post-season accolades.