Pat Riley talks about his shock at LeBron leaving the Heat
March 12, 2015JR Smith enjoying Cleveland “more than anywhere he’s ever been”
March 12, 2015Today marks the one-year anniversary since the Cleveland Browns gave up on Brandon Weeden. I could get snarky and turn this into yet another roast of Weeden, but I think that’s been written (by myself included) enough times already. It would be far too easy to talk about him getting caught under flags or Frisbee-tossing interceptions into the flats of a football field. I’d rather talk about Brandon Weeden and the anniversary of his release like you would an after-action review. You’d like to think we’re growing and learning from our experiences, so what can we all learn from the Browns’ time with Brandon Weeden?
In a lot of ways, I’ve come to view Weeden as a bit of a sympathetic figure. It has a lot to do with the perceptions of those who drafted him, namely Mike Holmgren and Pat Shurmur. Tom Heckert will always receive a passing grade from me for a variety of reasons. I never pinned draft picks that didn’t work out on him. My views on Heckert speak to why I’m somewhat sympathetic to Weeden today. He wasn’t a good draft pick, but the way his career worked out in Cleveland couldn’t have been all his fault.
The Browns were doomed to be failures regardless of Brandon Weeden.
Brandon Weeden wasn’t good and didn’t perform well as a Cleveland Browns quarterback, but to think he was as much to blame as I assigned to him is goofy. Colt McCoy was similarly ineffective working with Greg Little, Josh Cribbs, Ben Watson and Mohamed Massaquoi in 2011. I list those receivers in that order because that’s their ranking in terms of receiving yards for that season. Yuck. And so McCoy was tossed out and the next man came up, but with the same coaches and largely the same personnel save for Josh Gordon as a rookie.
Weeden certainly didn’t help his own cause. He earned a large portion of his five wins and 15 losses as Browns starter all by himself. Whether true or not, there were always rumors that Weeden’s mind was on the golf course rather than as focused as it needed to be on being a starting NFL quarterback. Even that might not be totally fair, but those are the breaks of being a failed NFL starting quarterback.
At the end of it all and removed by a year, I don’t even really buy that anymore. If Weeden’s head was on the golf course, that’s at least partially a cultural issue with a team that drafted him and didn’t help set priorities better. I’m pretty much finished concentrating the blame for an entire football organization on the back of one guy. Even while I wouldn’t take him back, that’s true today for the Cleveland Browns teams that had Weeden under center. Was it Weeden’s fault or Pat Shurmur’s fault or Greg Little’s fault or Mike Holmgren’s fault or Tom Heckert’s fault? Yes.
So how do we apply any of this to the Browns today? I’m not completely sure, but it’s part of the reason I was given pause by the relative disinterest the Browns showed in Brian Hoyer. It’s another case where the Browns ran out a guy who certainly struggled individually, but also as part of a unit that overall seemed to fail down the stretch. That ship has sailed, so I can’t worry too much about it anymore, but the Browns need to build off the things they did well on offense last year regardless of who is playing quarterback.
Even if Brandon Weeden was always going to be shuttled out, the team’s offensive failures can’t be totally blamed on Brandon Weeden as an individual. We’ve seen too much wreckage around Trent Richardson, Pat Shurmur and all the receivers that Weeden counted on to be open and to catch the ball.
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Well, the good news is that Pettine is definitely an Alpha.
I am obviously not sure why they were not interested in Hoyer (who ended up getting about the same money as McCown and is a similar quarterback), but I do think it is a good thing that we now seem to have a seemingly strong leader in place. We need to build a consistent structure so that we can actually make proper determinations.
As you mention, it was more than about the QB, it was the full team. But, how much of drafting is talent evaluation and how much is player development? It is a difficult question, but hopefully we can start to see some players continue to get better under the same team structure as the years go by.
The conclusion of this article (although vague) is that the Browns have been ineffective from top to bottom, so pointing at any one player or circumstance as a failure is never completely accurate. I agree with that completely. So how do we apply that to the Browns today? Here’s how:
The ONLY decision in the expansion era that has yet to blow up in the Browns’ face is hiring Mike Pettine. He’s been around for a **** end to the year and he still smells like roses. The Browns are forever trying and failing to figure out a starting point for their building process. Now they have one. Whatever changes about the Browns – they have a terrible year, the team is sold, Farmer is caught emailing the quarterback in the huddle – they need to use Pettine as the seed for a better and more stable culture.
Pettine being the Alpha is yet to be determined, thus far the only true Alpha in this organization is Haslam.
He’s got his hand in everything and has no problem calling the shots.
From what we can tell of player interviews and reports the team respects Pettine as a leader, but to be a true dominant you must be able to speak to those with power above you with authority and not lose your job.
Examples of course being Pettine to Haslam/Farmer:
“Manziel is not ready, I am not putting him in”
and
“Ray if I ever hear that you have communicated to my sideline during a game again you’ll be answering calls with that phone from the bathroom”…er something along those lines.
Few coaches have this ability ever; Parcells and Belichick obviosly come to mind, and Mike has a long way to go to earn that status.
agree that if there’s one adult in the room, that’s who you build around. But that can only go so far. If the owner is not competent in his ownership duties – determining a vision for the team, setting up the right structure, hiring the right personnel people, resolving conflicts responsibly, funding the team – the head coach will fail.
No pro sports team can prevail over a bad ownership, at least not for long. Policy and Butch fouled things uo because of Al. Savage, Mangini and Holmren because of Randy. Pettine’s hiring seemed like such a no-choice result of Banner’s personality being kryptonite to every other candidate that I hesitate to “credit” Jimmy. Let’s see what happens now.
I don’t know if Pettine will be a successful head coach, but he is definitely an alpha personality. Being alpha does not mean being successful (in my definition of it at least).
Very true. I’m just looking for the successful alpha to run this team. đ
I’m looking too
http://a.dilcdn.com/bl/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2015/02/OMD_Next-Pixar-Movie-6_Toy-Story-2.gif
They learned a lot I just read that they resigned Thad Lewis. Good luck Browns fans, whoever you are!
If there is one thing we can all agree on its that we have lost something when we lost Weeden. While we may not have lost something important to football, we have lost the GIFs, Meme’s, even still frames of the Weedenface. Weedenface was everyman’s face. Taken out of context the Weedenface is the perfect combination of overwhelmed, clueless, and hopeless. Just lost that big account? Weedenface has too. Neighbor calls you out on dumping your dogs poop in his yard? Oh yeah Weedenface has been there! Wife catches you staring at the babysitters chest? Just lost a finger fixing the lawnmower? Embarrassing emails link you to massive breach of US security? Weedenface, Weedenface, Weedenface!
To paraphrase The National: “Can’t face Cleveland all Weedenfaced.”
(God I hope 1 other person listens to the National)
This offseason has really shown me how “out” I am on the Browns. I genuinely don’t care anymore. I root for them but only in the sense that I want the storylines to become more absurd and inane, like a lowerbrow version of Two and a Half Men. Just a weekly shark jumping event. QB goes to rehab? Good. Can he come back and proclaim he saw Ray Bulger’s face in a grilled cheese sandwich and he is now a Branch Ozidian? Even better. GM caught Texting? Can we sizzle that up with some sexting next time? Lets wallow in our cromulence, let their incompetence embiggen our sense of self worth. Seriously its a relief I only enjoy them as comic relief now. Join me brothers
I’m having a little trouble understanding what the purpose is here. Could it be a lack of material with Johnny Manziell relatively quiet and in rehab? Weeden was no worse, or better, than most of the guys who played quarterback for the Browns. When the Browns stop expecting their quarterback to perform miracles with an inferior cast ,they will begin to turn the corner towards a winning program.
“If the owner is not competent in his ownership duties – determining a vision for the team, setting up the right structure, hiring the right personnel people, resolving conflicts responsibly, funding the team – the head coach will fail.”
100% agree. But ownership duties and that of a CEO aren’t necessarily the same thing. The CEO would be charged with exactly what you said above, but it seems as though they’ve done away with the title of CEO since they fired Banner [http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/team/front-office.html], so I’d be pretty interested to know the extent of Alec Scheiner’s responsibilities as President of the organization.
HOWEVAH
You could definitely make the argument that he’s failed thus far as an owner if by firing Banner/Lombardi and blowing up the structure of the FO that it isn’t really clear what his own role is in the day to day operation.
Oh yeah and the Pilot rebate thing and thinking it was a good idea to publicly say you took a homeless man’s advice on who to take in the draft aren’t a good look either.
I’d say, as a beta man myself, that Hoyer is passive-aggressive and didn’t have the talent to overcome that. They either need a guy to call the shots and demand respect, or out play every other player on the field. And don’t put away the Weeden killing pen yet…. He may be signed back here next year.. (see Thad Lewis)
The purpose is it’s the one year anniversary since Weeden was cut by the Browns and it had me reflective. đ
good post WHO …
hi BIll … the smartest thing haslam did so far was bounce banner & lombardi.
I’m not saying getting rid of the two of them was wrong. I’m saying that IF as a result of their firing led to a FO structure that isn’t 100% clear to all parties involved, you could consider that an ownership failure.
hi PC … and yet even after all the nonsense you mentioned above (and more) the browns showed improvement by going 7-9. i’ll bet you cared when they were at 7-4 last year.
hang in there , man …
… at the end of the day haslam wants to win … yes, he is going to meddle & make mistakes . i think his time spent in pittsburgh will be invaluable going forward.
i am only one of few that think haslam , farmer , scheiner & pettine are the right people to get the job done … but give them AT LEAST 3 years to see if they’ve got it.
We’ll always have the skeet demonstration. Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.
hi Craig … i so wanted to see weeden succeed . i think we all thought holmgren knew what he was doing when he selected him.
what have we learned ?? … the browns are just plain unlucky at drafting QB’s. and it goes way back … kosar was taken in the supplemental draft . you would’ve thought they’d even get lucky just once … just once !!
Of course Haslam wants to win. We’d be dealing with a much, much bigger problem if that weren’t the case.
Again, I’m not saying the right people aren’t already already in place, or the people he jettisoned was or was not the right move. My point is this–he restructured the org chart when he fired Banner and Lombardi. The CEO position seems to have been eliminated. As an owner, he has every right to do that. BUT, if the reorganization resulted in any sort of confusion in the roles and responsibilities of those in the FO, and Haslam is kind of just floating around the building and meddling whenever he feels like (again, his right to do so, but an awful practice), that is a huge problem.
That results in things like Scheiner sitting in with the coaches and watching tape. Not a bad thing on the surface, but likely more of an indicator that he might not be clear exactly what his job actually is.
And THAT is an enormous issue.
my guess is scheiner is in charge of the salary cap, among various other duties . his sitting in on film sessions is not that of big a deal … he was merely an observer , not there to offer any suggestions. he says he is trying to learn everything he can … and while it may be farmer & pettine’s job to evaluate the talent , if i was in charge of the salary cap , i would want to something about every player as well … and then if it comes down to it , then scheiner can speak up & offer advice.
It’s still tough to believe that, in the 2012 draft, the Browns passed over a quarterback in Ryan Tannehill whom some scouts said had the best pocket footwork since Dan Marino. Brandon Weeden seems like a swell guy, but he never stood a chance. With just a hint of interior pressure in the pocket, Weeden becomes erratic. Oklahoma State’s system masked it with quick slants and screens. Still, there were enough instances on tape when Weeden had a downfield look, interior pass rushers moved him off his spot, and he turned erratic. Mike Holmgren and Tom Heckert, if they even watched Weeden’s tape, had the facts in front of their faces.
But the unwashed masses wanted the can’t-miss running back and the big-armed quarterback — you know, because Cleveland has lake effect snow, because “this is AFC North,” and other meaningless cheap talk. Cheap talk won the fans that year. “Ryan Tannehill is a wide receiver; we can’t draft him.” (Never mind that Tannehill was a recruited quarterback.)
If fans (and Browns general managers!) spent more time worrying about football fundamentals, we could talk more about Ryan Tannehill and Teddy Bridgewater and not waste time with Brandon Weeden and Johnny Manziel.
Using that logic, Pettine would benefit by gaining a better understanding of the salary cap, so he should sit in on those meetings as well, no?
I know it’s lame to say “look at what the Patriots do” but look what the Patriots do. Their team motto is DO YOUR JOB. It’s that simple.
You can’t do your job if you’re not sure exactly what your job is. That’s why Schiener is kinda sometimes sitting in on film studies. Because he MIGHT not know where his job ends and another’s begins.
That’s all im saying. If Haslam hasn’t communicated clearly the roles of those in the FO, then he’s failing as an owner.