The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Couch says starting Taylor the right move
Tim Couch has some free advice for Browns general manager John Dorsey and head coach Hue Jackson.
Tim Couch has some free advice for Browns general manager John Dorsey and head coach Hue Jackson:
Stick to the plan of starting Tyrod Taylor no matter how good rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield looks this summer.
Couch was the first pick of the 1999 draft when the Browns were an expansion team. Chris Palmer was the Browns head coach in 1999.
Palmer announced veteran Ty Detmer would be the starting quarterback so Couch could sit, watch and learn. Palmer reasoned the Browns were a young, inexperienced team. It made no sense to risk scarring his young quarterback in their first season.
But that isn’t what happened, and the Browns quarterback situation has been a mess for going on 20 years.
The Steelers crushed the Browns, 43-0, in the 1999 season opener. Palmer yanked Detmer with 11 minutes to play in the fourth quarter and inserted Couch. Couch’s first NFL pass was intercepted. His other two passes against the Steelers were incomplete. Yet the day after the Pittsburgh Massacre, Palmer named Couch the starter for Game 2 against the Titans in Tennessee.
“You were coming into an expansion team,” Couch said on July 30 before the Browns practiced in Berea. “The expectations were so high on the No. 1 draft pick, a quarterback coming in, from the fans, the media — even your own teammates. They’re expecting this is going to turn this thing around, get us in the right direction. When it doesn’t happen, things can go south pretty quickly.
“You lose your confidence. The fans’ expectations are shattered. Your teammates are looking at you sideways and thinking, ‘What’s going on with this?’ ”
Couch, the analyst for Browns preseason games this summer, was at practice July 29 and July 30. He played five seasons with the Browns. He had to retire after two shoulder surgeries and being sacked 166 times. He hadn’t been back to Berea until earlier this year when he was hired for the TV gig, but he remembers all too well being rushed into action.
“It’s extremely hard (for coaches to be patient),” Couch said. “The plan for me was to play behind Ty Detmer and that lasted about half of the first game. They threw me in and certainly we weren’t ready as a team and I wasn’t ready, but I was in there starting.
“For me in 1999, I just wanted to be one of the guys. I didn’t want to come in as the No. 1 pick and think everything should have been handed to me. I wanted to play with toughness. I did get beat up a lot that year. I got sacked 56 times in 15 starts. But my thing was I continued to get up. I wanted to show the guys, ‘I know we’re struggling. We’re not a very good football team. But I’m in this thing with all you guys.’ ”
Jackson’s plan is to start Taylor at quarterback, just as Palmer’s plan was to start Detmer. The fans in 1999 were starved for quick success after three years without NFL football. The 2018 fans are starved because the Browns won just four of their last 53 games.
“You always have a plan in place,” Couch said. “The plan they have here is to start Tyrod, but if he’s not playing up to expectations and they’re not winning football games, the pressure is going to be so intense to put Baker on the field. That’s something they’re going to have to deal with as the season goes on. Hopefully the ideal situation happens where Tyrod is playing well, they’re winning games and Baker can sit and he can learn.”
Jackson after practice on July 30, probably not for the last time, reaffirmed his plan to start Taylor.
“Do I have to tell you 51 times?” Jackson said. “I don’t have temptation (to start Mayfield). Baker Mayfield is doing great. Tyrod Taylor is doing great. This thing is going to play out just like I told you it would. I am not going to change.”
Time might not heal all wounds, but it certainly heals some.
Couch has been warmly received by fans at training camp. He graciously gives his autograph to fans, some of whom might have booed him 18 years ago. He was 22-37 as a starter and remains the winningest quarterback of the expansion era.
“The positive feedback that I’ve gotten from Browns fans, it’s been humbling,” Couch said. “One thing I think that every athlete will tell you is all they want to do is just be appreciated, be appreciated from your teammates and fans.
“Just talking to these fans yesterday, obviously the quarterback gets the blame when things aren’t going well, but I think as time has went on, I think fans are realizing that it probably wasn’t all my fault and I was probably a decent player, but I was just in a tough situation, and that’s OK. There are a lot of guys that went into tough situations. I’m OK with that.”
Couch turns 41 on July 31.