Cleveland Browns: 10 biggest ‘what ifs?’ in the NFL Draft since 1999
1. What if the Cleveland Browns took McNabb over Couch?
The very first draft the Browns participated in once returning to the league was one in which they had to take a quarterback. The choices came down to Tim Couch out of Kentucky or Donovan McNabb out of Syracuse.
The Browns went with Couch to lead them into the new millennium, but that was the first of many quarterback misses until 2018.
Couch would only last four seasons in the NFL, where McNabb spent 13 seasons with the Eagles and made the playoffs in eight seasons, including a Super Bowl run in 2004.
McNabb had a career record of 98-62-1 while Couch went 22-37. The former went on to have a great career and was one of the upper echelon quarterbacks in the early 2000s. The latter was out of the league after four seasons.
What if the Browns had taken McNabb? Would he have had the same success he did in Philly? We will never know, but even if he had half the success, it would be better than whoever was the signal-caller for the Browns in that same time frame.
As we’ve seen many times in this list, the Browns missed out on countless players by picking others instead.
Next. Haslam already talking about Mayfield extension. dark
This now ill-fated decision back in 1999 may have set the Browns misery in motion. Luckily, things are drastically different in 2021 and beyond.