We’ll start this list when the Browns returned in 1999 and show you exactly how every single starting Browns quarterback from then until now fared after they left our fair city. After seeing this list, you may not be that afraid if the Browns show Manziel the door either before the trade deadline of Nov. 4 or after this season.
1. Ty Detmer, 1999-2000 (2 starts, 2 seasons): After spending the 2000 season on injured reserve due to a major injury, Butch Davis decided to release him upon taking the head coaching job and replaced him with journeyman Kelly Holcomb. The 33-year-old Detmer signed with the Detroit Lions and spent two seasons there, making four starts and playing in five games. One of those starts came against the Browns in Cleveland, in which Detmer threw seven interceptions in helping the Browns win. He wound up with just 906 yards, 3 touchdowns and 10 interceptions before calling it a career.
2. Tim Couch, 1999-2003 (59 starts, 5 seasons): Couch is the poster child for quarterbacks during the expansion era. He started the most games of any on the 23-man list and is credited as the only one to take the Browns to the playoffs. However, his career crashed and burned due to injuries thanks to his taking 76 sacks as a raw rookie. After a miserable 2003 season in which he split time 50-50 with Holcomb, he was released when Garcia was signed. After failing to acquire Couch in a trade, the Packers signed him in 2004 as a free agent in the hopes that he’d be Brett Favre’s heir apparent. However, he suffered a torn labrum in training camp and tried to play through it, which didn’t help. He was released without taking a regular season snap. In 2007, Couch attempted a comeback with the Jacksonville Jaguars. He was released after one preseason game, but tested positive for HGH and quickly retired. He never took another NFL regular season snap after the Browns cut him and is now an analyst for Fox Sports South.
3. Doug Pederson, 2000 (8 starts, 1 season): Pederson was signed in an emergency when Detmer was injured during the final preseason game and was expected to simply serve as Couch’s veteran mentor. However, when Couch suffered a season-ending thumb injury after seven games, Pederson was pressed into service, and it was not good. He only threw two touchdowns and won one game. After the season, he signed with the Packers, where he served as Favre’s backup for four more years, retiring at the age of 36. He never started another game, and threw for just one touchdown and two interceptions in mop-up duty during that time.
4. Spergon Wynn, 2000 (1 start, 1 season): Wynn will go down in history as the guy Dwight Clark drafted just four picks ahead of where Tom Brady was selected by the Patriots. Clark raved about his arm and compared it to John Elway’s. That was his “mad dog in a meat market” epitaph. Wynn, after one miserable start in which the Browns never even crossed midfield, was traded, along with fellow rookie running back Travis Prentice, to the Vikings for a conditional draft pick. Wynn was pressed into service in 2001 with the Vikings after an injury to Daunte Culpepper. Despite having Hall of Famers Cris Carter and Randy Moss to throw to, Wynn only had one touchdown compared to six interceptions in two miserable starts. His NFL career was over after that season.
5. Kelly Holcomb, 2001-04 (12 starts, 4 seasons): Holcomb was a guy who had a tendency to throw for a lot of yards one week, but struggle the next. He is infamous in Cleveland for starting the franchise’s only playoff game since 1999, a 36-33 loss to the Steelers in which he threw for 429 yards – an NFL postseason record for a game ending in regulation – but blew a 33-17 fourth quarter lead. Following 2004, new GM Phil Savage purged all three quarterbacks. He wound up signing with the Bills, where he started eight games as a 32-year-old in 2005, going 4-4 with 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He spent 2006 without playing in a single game for the Bills, was traded to the Eagles in 2007, then to the Vikings on the eve of the regular season, started three games for the Vikings in 2007 and then retired quietly following his offseason release. He threw 12 touchdowns and 9 interceptions post-Browns, but was never a regular starter again.
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