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5 Cleveland Browns quarterbacks who were not as bad as we thought

By Elliot Kennel

30 Dec 2001: Cleveland Browns quarterback Tim Couch, #2, walks off the field after a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans at Adelphia Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. The Browns won 41-38. DIGITAL IMAGE. Scott Halleran/Getty Images.
30 Dec 2001: Cleveland Browns quarterback Tim Couch, #2, walks off the field after a touchdown against the Tennessee Titans at Adelphia Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee. The Browns won 41-38. DIGITAL IMAGE. Scott Halleran/Getty Images. /
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Cleveland Browns. (Photo by Rich Schultz /Getty Images) /

Josh McCown, a true Warrior

Josh McCown has earned his stripes many times over. He’s big, smart, rugged, tough, and loyal;  full of piss, vinegar, controlled aggression, and desire. He’s everything you want in a quarterback, but he has never had the chance to start for a real winning team.

In 2013, he went in for an injured Jay Cutler in Chicago and had five sensational games for the Chicago Bears, posting a passer rating of 109.0 with 13 touchdowns versus only one interception that season. Other than that he played for horrid teams like Arizona, Oakland, Detroit, the Jets, and your Cleveland Browns as the bridge between the Manziel era and the Hue Jackson era. In short, yech.

Had the Browns provided a winning football team around him, odds are that McCown could have played well enough for the team to win, say in the top 20 of NFL starters. But let’s face it, the Manziel era and Hue Jackson era Browns were terrible and were not going to win more than a few games a season with the likes of McCown at the controls.

He will probably be an offensive coordinator in the NFL someday. He’s the kind of guy who eats, sleeps, and dreams about football 24 hours a day. He’s a lifer, with a closet full of football jerseys from all the different cities that he has played in over the years. He teases Tom Brady that Brady can never catch his record for being wanted by so many teams, while Tom is only on his second team. True that, and everywhere he has been, those teams want him back as a coach or backup quarterback.

One weird stat is that the most career starts he has ever had is 13, which happened once in 2004, and again in 2017 for the New York Jets. Those are almost different eras. In both cases, he had very strong reviews, but for teams recognized to be poor teams. In the case of the Jets, it was clear that he was going to be the bridge quarterback for Sam Darnold, and he filled that role very well.

Next. Browns No. 1 dark horse contender. dark

McCown is still not retired, appearing on the practice squad of the Houston Texans at the moment. It’s hard to see a place for him in the upcoming NFL season, but you never know. Check back in December.

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