My guess is Donovan would have gotten wrecked as well.
Teams that draft a first round QB and don't give him proven WRs, RBs, or OLine are destined to fail. Couch had talent, what he didn't have was an unlimited supply of confidence to get him through the beatings he took while the Front Office continued to flounder year after year and miss on pick after pick.
Look at it this way: The year they picked Couch, they didn't pick a single OLineman. The following season, the first OLineman they picked was in the 10th round. They didn't spend a single day 1 pick on an OLineman until FOUR seasons later and that pick (Jeff Faine) was the ONLY day 1 pick Cleveland spent on an OLineman in Couch's career.