INDIANAPOLIS -- The names just ran off Indianapolis Colts linebacker D'Qwell Jackson’s tongue with ease at first.
“Let’s see, I started with Frye, Charlie Frye,” he said. “Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn, [Bruce] Gradkowski. Bup, bup, bup … [Brian] Hoyer. There was Chad … Chad …no, Thaddeus Lewis. I’m lost after that. Oh, Seneca Wallace. There was Colt McCoy."
What about Ken Dorsey, D'Qwell?
“That’s right, Dorsey,” Jackson said. “I’m telling you, man, it was musical chairs over there.”
Jackson is excused for not knowing every quarterback who took a snap during his eight seasons with the Cleveland Browns because, well, there were a lot of them.
From 2006, Jackson’s rookie year, through last season, the Browns used 11 different quarterbacks.
Stability is what Jackson and safety Mike Adams were looking for once their time in Cleveland ended. The musical chairs at quarterback became tiring. They wanted to play for an organization that didn’t have that problem and had a winning tradition.
“As a defense we were so tight and we stayed committed,” Adams said. “If you go back and look at the stats, the defense played very well. It was hard putting up points because we had a different quarterback every other week and the running game changed. It was a lot of stuff going on that we couldn’t control.”
Indianapolis had the stability Jackson and Adams were looking for. They’ve been to the playoffs 13 times since 1999. And outside of the 2011 season where the quarterback situation was a mess, Peyton Manning and Andrew Luck have taken the majority of the snaps since 1998.
“I was looking from top to bottom and that’s one thing this organization presented and I’m happy they wanted me,” Jackson said. “Signed the contract and never looked back.”
Jackson and Adams aren’t the only Colts who experienced the losing ways in Cleveland. Return specialist Joshua Cribbs was there, too, as was running back Trent Richardson and assistant coach Rob Chudzinski, who was fired after just one season as head coach of the Browns.
All five return to Cleveland on Sunday, and all five are likely headed to the playoffs with the Colts.
“Hell yeah, I’m looking forward to going back there,” Adams said. “They did a story when I was in Denver that 2012 was the first time I had been to the playoffs in my career. It feels good now in my career to not even have to think about losing. We have a chance here.”
Adams, Jackson and Cribbs joined the Colts as free agents. Chudzinski had a relationship with coach Chuck Pagano going back to their days together at the University of Miami. The Browns traded Richardson to the Colts just 18 games into his NFL career in September 2013.
“They gave up on me,” Richardson said. “When I talked to them, they told me that it was just a business move because there was nothing that they could help me on as far as the run game. Just looking back at it, it was a great move for me. I got to go to my first playoff game last year, we got to play and this year, we’re on a run to try to get to another playoff season. Trying to get to that big show. Like I said, they gave up on it."
The Browns have had a winning season only once in the past 11 years and haven’t been to the playoffs since 2002. The Colts will wrap up the AFC South for the second straight year with a victory Sunday and a loss by Houston in Jacksonville.
Losing was so common for players like Jackson, who has never been to the playoffs in his career, and Adams that at this point of the season they used the final few games as an audition period for other teams because they never knew if they would be back. And there was offseason vacation planning going on, too, because they knew exactly when their season would end.
“Ultimately you have to think down the road and keep that focus,” Jackson said. “Whatever you have to do to get through it. For me it was setting up trips to go out the country and that was my motivation to get through the year.”