Denver Broncos: 5 players you probably forgot were on the team

4. Courtney Brown, DE

Coming out of Penn State in 2000, Courtney Brown was one of the most coveted defensive prospects in recent memory.

The Cleveland Browns had just come back onto the scene in 1999 and were hoping that Brown could be the perfect defensive cornerstone and building block after they selected Tim Couch the year prior.

A physical freak of nature at 6-foot-5, 271 pounds, Brown could run a 4.52 in the 40-yard dash and had a 37-inch vertical jump. All of the numbers pointed to him being a dominant pass rusher in the NFL, but it didn’t work out.

He finished his five seasons in Cleveland with 17 sacks and six forced fumbles in 47 games.

But remember what I said about Mike Shanahan? No stone was left unturned.

There was one point in Shanahan’s tenure with Denver where he had acquired so many former Browns players that they were calling the Broncos’ defensive line the Brown-cos.

Courtney Brown was joined by the likes of former first-round pick Gerard Warren, and the Brown-cos experiment actually worked incredibly well for a season in Denver.

Brown started 13 of the 14 games he played in Denver, and he only had two sacks but the Broncos’ defensive front was formidable, allowing the least amount of rushing yards in the entire NFL and ranking third-best in scoring defense.

Both Brown and Warren (1st and 3rd picks in the 2000 and 2001 NFL Draft classes respectively) were key pieces of a tremendous 2005 Denver defense.