Has Tim Couch proven himself to be the quarterback this team needs? This season, the first overall pick of the 1999 draft has been in the crosshairs of everyone from Jamir Miller to the fans in the stands and the online forums.

Even Browns CEO and President Carmen Policy sounds like he’s wavering. Almost one year ago, the team picked up the option on Couch’s seven-year, $48 million contract, paying him an $8.75 million bonus in addition to a salary $4.4 million this year. He’s scheduled to get $6.2 million in 2003, $7.6 million in 2004 and $8 million in 2005. “I think he’s our future,” Policy said at the time, “Everyone was, to a man, totally convinced that this was the right thing to do.”

Is Couch still “the guy” for this team? “I hope so,” Policy said after the game last Sunday. That’s definitely not a “yes,” and it’s a far cry from “totally convinced.”

Couch’s play these last two games — the rematch of the infamous Ravens game, and at home against another top draft pick, Atlanta’s Michael Vick — may not determine his future with the Browns, but it will determine how the team’s management, coaches, and fans view the quarterback situation during the off-season. If “The Deuce” is as solid as he was last Sunday and the Browns finish 9-7, then playoffs or not, the job will be his to lose. If not, I suspect it will be no secret that Kelly Holcomb gets a bona fide chance to compete for the starting job he’s been patiently awaiting.

I’m not totally sold on Couch, but I’m not in the “bench him” crowd either. His play has been poor at times, stellar at others. On balance, that’s “average.” In time, maybe even next year, he could become a star, as Bernie Kosar and Brian Sipe once were. He has the potential to take the Browns where they’ve never been: to the Super Bowl. But not as a superstar. I don’t see him ever rising to the level of Joe Montana, Brett Favre, or Johnny Unitas.

Perhaps a model for comparison would be Bart Starr. Though they have different talents and came into the league in different eras and with different expectations (Starr was a 17-round draft pick!), there are enough similarities to make it premature to give up on Couch:

–Starr threw more interceptions than touchdowns for each of his first five years, 1956-1960. (Couch has three more INTs than TDs for his career to date.)

–Starr broke into the league with a poor team in transition. He had two different head coaches his first three years. Then Vince Lombardi came along. Couch had it even tougher: he became the focal point for the first ever franchise to be “reborn” and was thrust into the starting role in the second game following the Browns’ embarrassing 43-0 debut defeat.

–Despite his inauspicious beginning and the nagging doubts about his arm and leadership ability, Starr — as part of a cohesive, talented team with strong coaching — went on to win the NFL title five times and was MVP of the first two Super Bowls. Couch, if ever surrounded by half the talent and coaching skill that Starr enjoyed, surely has the potential to climb the mountain at least once, even if he never puts up the numbers expected of the league’s top pick.