Buckeyes land at No. 2 (once again) in both AP, Coaches polls
November 28, 2016Indians’ 2017 lineup could be elite if they go all in
November 28, 2016The Cleveland Browns have a bye week and then four more chances to keep from going winless on the season. You will read thousands of jokes about the Browns losing the bye week, and they will be more caustic than ever before. There’s always some truth in comedy — even the trite variety — and the Browns really must find a way to win their bye week if they want to win a game this year. They must find a way to find health and chemistry and maybe just the tiniest bit of luck to avoid going 0-16. The future of the team and its fanbase might be in the balance.
“I totally get where the fans are or what they are feeling,” Hue Jackson said following Sunday’s loss. “They deserve better and we get that. They deserve better, and I totally respect that. It is tough with the situation we are all in because everybody wants an answer.”
The plan wasn’t to win in 2016 and everyone knew it. The issue, however, arises from the notion that even a team that’s in it to be young and rebuilding doesn’t plan on going winless. Even by their own aggressive rebuilding standards, you have to think that Sashi Brown, Paul DePodesta, and Hue Jackson have missed their modest goal. I would call it a test of faith, but to think anyone should conjure up faith in the architects of this season is unrealistic. They might pull it off, but to project a bright future with no evidence feels foolish at best.
There’s no other choice, however. Between the front office and coaching staff missing their mark, ownership has given the entire organization no alternative. The Browns’ leadership has their back against the wall, and they need to fight their way out because there’s nobody else to help. When you fire as many people as Jimmy Haslam has fired in just over four years, it’s impossible to fathom another shakeup and subsequent talent search. We used to argue about the concept that nobody wanted a job with the Cleveland Browns because NFL jobs are such a finite thing. With each Berea bust-up it becomes more and more difficult to make the case that someone wouldn’t just turn the Browns down and wait for something better.
If you think the Browns can look for more people, just read this list since Haslam bought the Browns.1
- Mike Holmgren
- Tom Heckert
- Pat Shurmur
- Mike Lombardi
- Joe Banner
- Rob Chudzinski
- Ray Farmer
- Alec Scheiner
- Mike Pettine
This list hits just the high-level folks. For each one of them, there are multiple people — assistant coaches, for example — who lost their jobs in the wake of Jimmy Haslam’s Tennessee Titanic of an organization.2
Cleveland Browns fans are the ones left holding the bag. For the benefit of subsidizing the suck, they have had their stadium taken over and lost any sense of identity that tied the team back to an era they liked. Browns fans have seen losing, but looking at FirstEnergy Stadium this year it’s hard to argue that this time the sense of apathy and quit are amplified to levels we’ve never seen before.
I was one of the people who said that uniforms didn’t matter that much, but I think I was wrong. More often than not I think the Browns look like a creamsicle or a bowl of sherbet. Imagery is powerful, and now that this team doesn’t visually approximate the team I grew up watching, I think it makes it easier to see how little any of this has to do with the history and tradition I revered as a kid. If it were a catchier name, I’d rename the team to the Cleveland Existential Crises because that’s what the team has done to all the fans I know.
I met a life-long Browns fan in Charleston, South Carolina over the Thanksgiving holiday who knew WFNY and pulled me aside for a Browns talk. He was hoping that I could give him some reason for hope or faith with what’s happening with the Browns. He’d given up on the Browns about a year ago, and his sole reason for giving up on the team was Jimmy Haslam and his habit of rash decision-making. I talked to him about some of the possibilities that could make you feel good about the future, but I felt like a dummy if I didn’t mute every bit of infinitesimal optimism that I invented as a possibility.
“When things do not go right, it is easy to point fingers at a lot of different people,” said Jackson. “The best place to point it is at me—I am the head of it. With our staff and even with them, the issues we have that anybody feels on offense, defense or special teams, that starts with me because I am responsible for it all. I am not one to pass the buck on anybody else. I am never going to do that. If anybody is looking for that, that is not going to happen. What I have to do is continue to coach this football team. We have to continue to get better. Next season or next year or this offseason, we will take care of ourselves about the things we need to do to continue to get better. We have what have right now, and we have to work through it that way and just keep going.”
That’s where we are as Browns fans. As fans of this team, we know their backs are against the wall. We know there’s no possibility of help arriving. We’ve fallen victim to the “savior complex” too many times before. We know they have no choice but to ride out at least three years with some combination of Sashi Brown, Hue Jackson, and staff.
Knowing this is far from comforting, however. Continuity is good, but not just for the sake of continuity. Continuity without results is akin to stupidity. The Browns have to prove something, and as of yet, they’ve failed to show anything positive. What we’ve seen this year is that even by their modest standards of rebuilding they miscalculated wildly unless you think they were considering losing all their games. And if potentially losing all 16 games was a possible part of the plan, then I don’t even know what to say.
Your NFL team isn’t supposed to leave you this speechless, but at least during the bye week it’s alright to not have anything to say. I’d also recommend holding your tongue before spouting off one of those “Browns lose the bye week” jokes that we all know are coming.
- I know you know the list front to back, but it’s important to see it again. [↩]
- This, of course, does not apply to Chris Tabor. [↩]
65 Comments
I firmly believe the FO understood 0-16 was a distinct possibility and took a cold, calculated look at such.
And, Hue never thought a team he led could go winless no matter the lack of veteran talent.
As you properly note, the only big concern right now is Haslam having the patience to see it through. Otherwise, we just have to wait because they decided it was a lost year back in January.
Everybody knew they were going to be bad.
0-16 doesn’t bother me. It’s more novel than 2-14 or 3-13, their usual finishes.
I’ve enjoyed watching this season much more than the last couple.
I haven’t been watching, just reading the stories (and Hue Jackson frownie faces) here. I thought the big concern was that the HBT can’t pick talent or Hue can’t develop it (or bonus: MAYBE BOTH!). I haven’t seen the Jackson scowls move up into the “Oh!” range this season, rather seems to be a downward trend.
Of the 14 rookies on the roster, who is good enough to start elsewhere in the league?
I don’t believe they actually thought they were going to lose them all. I think they thought they oversold their ability to find rookies and young replacements on the fly.
Every rookie who has played significant minutes has contributed.
Coleman and Ogbah look to be the two best, followed by Nassib and Spencer Drango.
Everybody receiving playing time seems capable.
Contributed to what? To an 0-12 record? (tongue in cheek)
Well the good news is that if we can draft 4 solid players every year it will only take… 13.25 years to complete the rebuild 🙂
This. And I don’t think they really contemplated the negative blowback. They can talk about how hard it is and blah, blah blah, but there will be some serious negative consequences for this season. No one can predict what those will be, which makes it an even higher risk proposition.
hi HOP … while we drafted 14 rookies , there are actually 18 rookies on the roster at the moment & 7 of them are starting . this all adds-up to inexperience & losses … but the bright side is these guys are getting playing experience & will hopefully be better for it.
After 12 weeks there is no “hopefully better for it”, this is not hypothetical. Have they improved from week 1 to now or not?
Let me rephrase it as “I don’t think the FO cared if they lost them all or not”
I truly think the FO is thinking long-term and letting the coaching staff handle short-term w/ the head nod that they are making the short-term more difficult due to The Plan.
You know I’m biased there though as that is how I think an organization should work. “Seems” to be how they are working though.
Well, I could certainly point out what guys like Taylor Gabriel are doing on rosters other than the Browns to make the point of “how could we really answer that question?”
also, I’m attempting to answer that question anyway in a post later this week 🙂
I wish San Francisco would win their second game already, so the FO will let Hue get one for the rookies.
#TeamConspiracy
the offense NO & the defense YES
The Hue frownie faces on QB pressure, getting off the field and preventing big plays would indicate the defensive rookies aren’t improving either….
I saw Peter King calling out Gabriel as an example of letting young talent walk.
Raises a question to me, how do you build synergy on a roster?
Passing game: WR is dependent upon QB who is dependent upon OL all predicated on having a running game to keep defenses “honest”.
Running game: RB is dependent upon OL and predicated on having a credible passing game to pull defenders out of the box (see above).
This isn’t basketball, you cannot sign a Lebron and instantly compete. You actually need to be average or better at all phases of the game to field a competitive team.
I agree that this is what they are doing. I don’t agree that this is how it should be done, in the NFL, and especially with this team.
their defensive rankings wouldn’t point to that either … i have watched every play of every game this year … the offense started the year with more talent & experience than the defense , the rush offense started off especially well … but the offense has been regressing every single week.
i have seen less mental lapses by the defense in recent weeks … the effort & desire is there , but the talent / experience is not.
the odds of fielding a competitive with 18 rookies on the roster & a good portion of them playing now , are not good … not to mention a rookie HC & a rookie FO.
They have zero talent playing at Safety and OLB. Thomas is the only starting lineman left from last year. Chalk one up to giving Nassib time to develop. That still leaves you completely exposed in the secondary (including run support) and the entire offense. The best and only answers the FO had for this was Coleman, Drango, Schobert, Nassib, Moore and Kindred. That’s the result of the “process” derived from the “plan”.
exactly !! … we get 3 freakin’ wins WITH mack , schwartz , gipson benjamin , kruger , dansby , whitner , gabriel & a host of others .
what’s worse … last year’s team or this year’s ?? the record will say this year … but with the supposed talent , salary & experience of last year’s team , i would say they were more disappointing than this year’s team.
R-E-L-A-X … sure , i’d like us to have a few wins right now , but we don’t … we are basically an expansion franchise right now & it wasn’t going to get fixed in 1 off-season.
i will keep reminding everyone that Jimmy Johnson went 1-15 in his first season in Dallas … Chuck Noll went 1-13 in his first season … Tom Landry went 0-11-1 his first season & Bill Walsh went 2-14 to begin his career … STICK WITH THE PLAN !!!!
Are we winning yet? Nope? Back I go. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19696c030eb0d5391528d00510d075485af48efd0ed4f38b85a046e8281ffb44.gif
I don’t think it is the ONLY way to do things, but I do think it is the best way to do things (in the long run, it sucks right now)
You draft a whole slew of young players and let them play together while taking the lumps in the short term.
At what point do those lumps translate into learnings and improvements? Is that an offseason activity? 🙂
Ask Oakland
It’s not the coaching. Hue Jackson is likely a fine coach. I don’t think it’s right to evaluate him on what we’ve seen so far. The problem is there’s nothing to build with yet. The Johnson Cowboys were able to trade away Walker for a ton of picks and they hit on most of those. Based on the 2016 draft, I’m not sure how much I think our front office is going to do the same.
I read an interesting article on why that might not work. The NFL doesn’t really have a developmental league. So, the young players have to play right away and learn on the big stage and no one’s really tried that with an entire team before.
For me, it’s not about needing one win, it’s about hope and signs that someone knows how to build up rather than tear down. I happily followed the ’91 Indians (105 losses) because Belle, Baerga and others had unmistakable talent and the farm system was loaded. Browns fans tend to quickly anoint draftees as promising long before they play that way, deny objective signs that the player isn’t very good and then act embittered when the player fails. We’re heading to game 13. I get lectured by some that Coleman and Ogbah are clearly going to be excellent. Coleman hasn’t yet taken a short pass and zipped past everyone to the house, as advertised. No Qbs or centers are finding and pointing at Ogbah in fear.
Maybe there are good reasons for that. Maybe their days are coming. But my concern is that HBT had 6 picks in the top 100, and not one gives an opposing coach the slightest concern. Meanwhile, they clearly erred in believing and then proclaiming (stupidly, to a reporter) that Wentz would not be a top 20 QB. Yeah, go show me Wentz’s recent game stats and ratings, but them tell me: will he be a top 20 QB?
So I’m looking for hope, not wins. The hope is that HBT knows how to evaluate talent. Maybe they do. Maybe they’ll get better. But they’ve talked the Haslams into the ultimate smartest-guy-in-the-room structure, flush all the players and have a career cap guy, baseball guy and 28 year old rebuild it without someone who’s done it before. I don’t think cynicism is unwarranted here. No one on this site will be happier than me if it all works. Here’s what I know 13 games in: if no opponent is not pointing at ANY of the selections, it’s maybe not fatal, but it’s certainly not promising either.
While I’m not advocating for change in the front office, what would we really lose if it happened? That’s one advantage of this total tear down: there’s no plan to screw up. There’s no commitment to a QB taken in the first round, no high priced free agents that a new GM might not like, no coherent team identity to be abandoned…. The plan for year one was simply: get younger, acquire draft picks. If Haslam doesn’t think the HBT can do more than that and execute the really important stuff (draft talent), then he should most definitely make changes. Doing so wouldn’t negate the “achievements” of year one.
I can’t remember who originally made the point during one of our previous regimes, but I’ve been repeating it all season: tearing down a roster is easy; building one up is hard.
Agree with your overall point too. Hope, not wins, is what I expected this season. I’ve heard at various times that Nassib, Ogbah, Coleman, etc. finally had their break-out game, that they were ready to game changers like promised. Then, back to being invisible.
In short, all this intellectualizing gets tedious. Stop the new age business metric speak. Find good players. That’s it.
If the owner cans Banner after just one year, Farmer after just two, and then Sashi after just one, what potentially promising front office person with any other career options would come here? I understand your concept, but the axe falling now is Donald Sterling stuff, puts the skull and crossbones over Berea and may scare away talent for decades. No, they cannot this year, even if Sashi is clueless.
okay , HARV … the HBT may not’ve knocked your socks off with their last draft , but the thing that should give you hope is i don’t feel like we drafted a Weeden , Trent Richardson , Gilbert , Manziel or Erving … do you ??
hahahahaha. Love it, Tiger. I’m following your lead and deferring my eval of Mike Lombardi until the end of this season … we’ll see what Mingo does when he fills out. Farmer gets a couple more years: Johnny is maybe 2 more rehab programs, 3 relocations and 4″ of verticality from special-hood. Ok, this Cam Erving needs maybe a tad more seasoning, but we’ll pull him out of the oven late 2018 and see what’s doing. This chillaxing is nice.
the HBT has nothing to do with Lombardi , Mingo , Farmer , Manziel or Erving … they are all gone except for Erving , but the HBT is stuck with cleaning up the others messes. and there’s no flippin’ way the HBT will sign Erving to a new contract … in fact , i hope they just plain release him after this season.
yes , there is a cutting-off point of my obnoxiously positive attitude.
no idea. But “not a complete bust” is not a good player either. If you’re asking that we count our blessings that the worst possible GM is gone, you’ll have to convince me of Sashi’s bona fides for this job. Here’s a crazy idea: let’s judge him by the performance of his draftees, while keeping an eye on those he passed up at those positions.
I meant your always advising us to relax and wait 4 years before judging.
… true , but nobody has lasted that long since 1999.
fair enough … and when do we judge those draftees & those passed on ? after 12 games , 1 season , 2 seasons ??
Never change your outlook, Tiger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4
Tiger, tiger, burning bright
An optimist by day or night,
What inept roster move or draft pick
Could sway your sunny pleasantry?
he’s incorrigible, in the best way
I agree to an extent. People with options wouldn’t want to come here. Haslam’s schizophrenic managing style didn’t scare Hue away though. So I still think there would be plenty of applicants willing to step into what is one of the 32 available NFL GM positions in the world. Worst case, you work maybe 12 months and then get two years of paid vacation on Jimmy’s dime.
Honestly though, I was thinking less a full house cleaning and more a “restructuring”, taking some of the football decisions out of the hands of the HBT and putting them into a “real” GM.
“For me…it’s about hope and signs that someone knows how to build up rather than tear down…Browns fans tend to quickly anoint draftees as promising long before they play that way…”
Similarly, many fans are just as quick to label a player a bust if he isn’t an all pro out of the gate. At this time last year the predominant sentiment was that Shelton was a bust. This year it’s a different story. Very few rookies step on the field year one and impress. Perhaps already determining that they’ve selected nothing but JAGs is a bit premature.
We all knew this “process” was going to take more than one off season/season to undo all the damage that was done over the past five years. They cleaned house, tore the structure down to the studs and they haven’t even poured the foundation yet and everyone seems upset that they can’t move into their new house. We’re essentially fielding an expansion team that’s going to need at least three years of solid drafting before anything “good” happens.
Seriously, what did everyone think 0 or 1 or 2 wins was going to look like?
IMO, you usually can sense whether a guy has a chance to be impact after his rookie year, and most players you’ll know by year two. Obvious exceptions are the “knowledge” positions: QB, center and CB. But RBs generally don’t get shiftier, LBs don’t get meaner or faster, receivers don’t suddenly grow better hands after year 2. At its core it’s a game of physical domination. Experience helps but rarely shoots a player up 3 levels from nondescript to excellent.
“You actually need to be average or better at all phases of the game to field a competitive team.”
Seems obvious, no?
Bad o-line leads to concussed QBs? Who would have thought?
An inability to throw deep hurts the run game? Do you have metrics to prove this?
Bad backfield makes it harder to rush the passer? Get out of town!
No pass rush makes it harder to cover guys? What voodoo is this?
But I graduated from the OAC and not the Ivy League.
This is why some of us were so vocal about letting FAs walk while not signing any veteran players. For all Mangini’s faults as a personnel guy, he understood how important it is to reach a basic level of on-field competency.
First off, I’m impressed that you both can continue caring about the Browns.
The back-and-forth of your clear-eyed analysis and his unerring panglossian view has been a fun subtext to the season…maybe the only fun subtext to the season.
Oakland was pretty darn close. We need to supplement with veterans in needful spots (see Osemele), but it can work. Just because other teams don’t do development, doesn’t mean we cannot. It has to be an organization mission though.
Worst case, we are in the same spot in a few years and trying something new that is actually old because I think we have tried everything at least once (for a couple years).
I am personally afraid of the GIF that RGB has saved for the answer to such a question