11. Tim Couch
I'm not going to argue with anyone who calls Tim Couch a bust as the No. 1 pick in the 1999 NFL Draft, but I also have a hard time getting too upset with how he performed.
Despite the quick success the Jaguars had had recently, there wasn't much hope for the Browns as an expansion team, and that fully extended to Couch. His situation was a lot like David Carr's with the Texans a few years later. Could Couch have been a star in the right environment? We'll never know.
What we do know is that, for the era and considering the talent around him, he really was not all that bad. Couch threw for 11,131 yards across 62 games in Cleveland, finishing with 64 touchdowns and 67 interceptions.
His 3.9% interception rate certainly hurt (only three quarterbacks with 500-plus attempts had a worse mark over that stretch), but his 75.1 passer rating beat out 15 500-attempt QBs in that time
Couch remained the passing yards leader among post-'99 Browns quarterbacks until he was unseated by another first overall pick in Week 1 of the 2021 season.
10. Derek Anderson
Ranking Derek Anderson is totally an exercise in how much you value a player's peak compared to their whole body of work. For some people, Anderson's 2007 season means he should be top-three on this list, and I honestly respect that.
That was Cleveland's first 10-win season since 1995, and Anderson was a Pro Bowler who threw for just shy of 3,800 yards with 29 touchdowns.
But where was that Derek Anderson for his other three seasons? Despite that amazing 2007 campaign, Anderson finished his Browns career with a 52.9% completion percentage, 46 touchdowns to 45 interceptions and an average of 181 passing yards per game.
9. Jason Campbell
Jason Campbell doesn't touch the peak of what Derek Anderson achieved, but his eight games were better than Anderson's Browns tenure in its entirety.
The Browns only went 1-7 under Campbell’s command, but you really can’t put the entire blame on his shoulders. His 11 touchdowns were nothing special but did set far enough ahead of his 8 interceptions. He also threw for 2,015 yards (223.9 per game). There are a lot of quarterbacks on this list who have better win-loss records but who weren’t throwing for the touchdowns or yards that Campbell was.
Was plenty of that production in garbage time? Sure, but there aren’t many players on this list who didn’t spend much of their tenure playing in garbage time.