Today, December 30th, marks the anniversary of the first publication of the Browns Wire. Our first article posted on Dec. 30, 2016.
We’ve come a long way since that first piece, written about Terrelle Pryor and his potential return to the Browns for the 2017 season,
Only three Browns remain on the roster from Week 17 of the 2016 season: left guard Joel Bitonio, wide receiver Rashard Higgins and long snapper Charley Hughlett.
We’ve gone through a winless season, one that somehow didn’t result in the firing of head coach Hue Jackson. We saw the end of Joe Thomas’ illustrious career.
Our early focus was on the No. 1 overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft, which became Myles Garrett. We got to do that all over again the very next year with the Baker Mayfield draft in 2018. There have been big trades for wide receivers Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr., with the latter ending poorly despite the initial buzz.
There have been three head coaches (not counting interim head coach Gregg Williams), three GMs and over 300 players that have come and gone in Browns uniforms. We lived through Hard Knocks, survived the weird Freddie Kitchens reign, the bizarre Brock Osweiler experience, the Josh Gordon saga, and Garrett’s helmetgate.
We’ve been there for the ugly winless season through the glorious playoff victory over Pittsburgh just 11 short months ago. There have been (including this one) 8,998 posts since that first one. We’ve shifted from me being the managing editor to Jared Mueller taking over, with hundreds of contributions from Josh Keatley, Brad Ward and many others over the years.
The most-read post came from the summer of 2020:
https://brownswire.usatoday.com/lists/my-5-biggest-worries-about-the-browns-in-2020/
So from me and the rest of the Browns Wire family, thank you for allowing us into your lives and attention. It’s been quite an interesting, fun and eventful five years. Here’s to covering the Browns hoisting a Lombardi Trophy sometime in the next five…