Stop the charade: It’s time to fire Hue Jackson

The Cleveland Browns are now 2-4-1 on the season. This comes after the Browns went to another overtime and lost their second overtime game of the season, falling to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 26-23. The Browns are once again playing sloppy, undisciplined football. I talked and yelled to the mountaintops last season about this. But, it is now long overdue. It is time to let go of Hue Jackson as the Browns head coach.

The Browns’ record is 3-35-1 since Hue Jackson took the head-coaching helm of the team. Jackson received a third year due to fact that many in the organization thought that he received a raw deal in how former General Manager Sashi Brown dealt with the acquisition of talent. He didn’t have enough talent on the roster, they said. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam gave Jackson another chance to see if the Jackson could turn the team around. Haslam gave Jackson a general manager in John Dorsey, who was aggressive in acquiring talent. The talent was added to the roster that made this team a competitive one in the NFL. Jackson now had a fair chance, they said.

Well, after seven games what has changed? Besides the fact that Cleveland is a much more talented roster, the overall problems of the team have persisted. And the main reason for these problems falls on the shoulders of Hue Jackson. The Browns suffer from penalties, poor play calling, bad player utilization, lack of discipline and just overall poor coaching. This is on Jackson. The improvement has not been shown in the performance of Jackson as a coach. The talent has improved, but the coaching has not.

What were we really expecting this season from Jackson? Did we actually think that he would somehow become a good coach after two seasons that showed he simply was not? Talent can help hide coaching weaknesses, but so far it has not done that for Jackson. The fact that John Dorsey was forced to work with Jackson this season was a charade. Nothing was going to change with the coaching. The increase in talent actually highlights the coaching problems even more. Once Dorsey came into the organization, it was fait accompli that Jackson was not in the cards for the future of the organization. But, the Browns put up the charade that he could somehow turn his fortunes around because he now had talent.

The Browns need to let Hue Jackson go now. For an organization that wants to build a culture, keeping a lame duck coach does not help build a culture. Jackson can also harm the culture and the maturation of the young Browns’ nucleus. We have already seen some inklings of finger pointing and blaming by Jackson through the media. This is not new, though. Jackson has blamed players and other people in the organization throughout his tenure. The culture of deflecting blame as the team leader is not a good start to the culture building. And, the overall fact that the team is losing at a historic rate can also be destructive to the young players trying to develop in the NFL. So, what is the point?

I don’t see any positives in trying to stay on the ship, keeping Jackson as head coach. Poor coaching is clearly holding down the Browns and that falls on him. Why wait any more weeks when the Browns can cut bait and try to right the ship with new leadership? Facts are facts. Jackson is 3-35-1 as the Browns head coach. No one should survive that record, especially someone who has shown so many glaring weaknesses as a coach. The time is now to fire Jackson.