2018 Browns' Chronicles: Week 8

By Kris Mead

 

The Hue Jackson and, to a lesser extent, the Todd Haley divorce was expected. Jackson was underperforming in all areas, specifically in player development, game management, and of course, the lack of wins. Todd Haley was let go for the similar reasons. However, what ultimately got both Jackson and Haley terminated was the simple fact that there was a constant power struggle and outright disregard for chain of command.

Many are reporting that the firings were in the best interest of the young quarterback – Baker Mayfield. Mayfield is like the child in a divorce proceeding, in which the judge must consider the child’s best interest when deciding custody. I agree with this thought, but I also believe that the entire team could be considered a child and was at risk of regressing, if the parents were not separated in a timely manner.

The Browns have the second youngest team in the NFL and have been in the top two youngest teams in the past three seasons. Like a child learning to speak his parents’ native tongue, it’s vital that these players are provided excellent coaching in their early NFL years. It becomes especially more vital when the Browns spend, not only the first-round draft pick, but the first overall draft pick on the most difficult position to play in the NFL – quarterback. It isn’t any quarterback though; Baker Mayfield has the potential of being the Browns’ answer to their long drought at that position. In turn, it is extremely important that the Browns do not squander this opportunity.

However, it’s ironic that focus has turned to Baker’s success. At the beginning of the season Jackson stated that Tyrod Taylor, the quarterback they traded for in exchange for a third-round pick, was to be the starting quarterback. So Browns’ fans were not initially expecting to see their number one draft choice start. Now that Taylor’s injuries forced Mayfield to start, Cleveland has seen sparks of life coming out of a position that has been typically occupied by mindless morons.  Cleveland’s only priority is (and should be) to prevent anything and anyone from tampering with Mayfield’s talent. Jackson implementing Mayfield casted Jackson’s own demise. Once it became clear that a quarterback with talent is not improving, the blame should be pointed at the man with a 3-36-1 record. Jackson had nowhere to run, and although he tried to use Haley’s offensive play calling as the culprit for the offenses’ failings, due to his lack of credibility, and his failure to manage a football team, there was no choice but for Hue to leave. Haley’s firing was more surprising. Yes, the offense was lacking, but there is also some logic in maintaining some source of consistency on the offensive side of the ball. Mayfield seemed to favor Haley’s play calling more than Hue’s, as Mayfield even hinted in a post-game interview, when Hue suggested he’d integrate himself more into the offense, by stating “we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”

I think Haley was on a short leash (as he should be) due to his own power struggles with Hue. So, ownership suggested that Haley would be the interim head coach, but Haley, acting in his typical egomaniac manner, probably wanted to be named the head coach right then and there. Ownership, seeing that Haley was in no position to negotiate his employment status, let Haley go on the spot. Likely, Haley would have been let go at the end of the season. 

Regardless of what the discussions were like prior to either coach’s dismissal, it was obvious that the Browns were set up to be dysfunctional as soon as John Dorsey was hired. While It’s hard to imagine Dorsey not opting for a quarterback as his first overall draft pick, the only question was which quarterback.  So no matter what, the team’s main focus would have been developing the quarterback. Like the Haslams, Dorsey might have been hoodwinked into thinking that Jackson could develop a young quarterback.  After all, Jackson coached Joe Flacco in his first two years in Baltimore.  Still, that would be complete negligence on Dorsey’s part. Jackson has utterly failed as a head coach, not just royally in Cleveland, but he also struggled in Oakland. To make matters worse, it was thought a good idea to hire an offensive coordinator in combative personality Todd Haley to help solve the issues on offense, because the “offensive guru,” whom the Browns’ hired as head coach, could not fix them for the past two years.

In short let’s recap the Browns hiring in the past year. Haslam hires an extremely talented General Manager in John Dorsey (good hire). For some reason, Dorsey is not permitted to bring in his own head coach, like most general managers do, and must settle with the owner’s guy, who has consistently failed at his duties – Hue Jackson (bad management decision). The other option is that Dorsey has had zero experience in being the guy who hires a head coach. In his only other stint as a general manager, for the Kansas City Chiefs, Dorsey was hired AFTER Andy Reid, the head coach, was hired. So, the Browns hired a GM who is allowed to draft his preferred quarterback but IS NOT ALLOWED, or appears to be not allowed, to hire his preferred head coach who will be responsible for developing said quarterback.  However, Dorsey IS permitted to hire an offensive coordinator, who will only rub the egotistical head coach the wrong way. The hired offensive coordinator is also an egomaniac who believes he is the “ultimate offensive guru.”

The Browns’ owner, Jimmy Haslam, couldn’t have created a more perfect storm for dysfunction to thrive and his young quarterback to suffer. While it was good of Haslam to mitigate any more damage by getting rid of Haley and Jackson, considering he’s largely the source of Cleveland’s management mess, it’s the least the owner could do.  Haslam should pay more attention to his IRS scandal and the new soccer team he owns. Let the only smart guy in the room make decisions – John Dorsey. Maybe Haslam should take the Hippocratic Oath or more specifically, “primum non nocere” or “first do no harm.”

 

2018 Browns' Chronicles: Week 7

By: Kris Mead

As what has been well documented, for those of you who are Browns fans, and most likely assumed, for those of you who are not Browns fans, the Browns once again lost in overtime on a Sunday. This time the Browns succumbed to America’s number one evader of sexual assault – quarterback Jameis Winston and his fellow Buccaneers. This game went similarly to the Browns’ other non-wins – Browns defense played well, offense left a lot of chances on the table, the refs missed a blatant call which could have increased the Browns’ chances of winning, and the Browns turned the ball over which provided the Buccaneers with advantageous field position to kick the game winning field goal. The blog would end now if it wasn’t for Hue Jackson and his post-game press conference!

That’s right. Although Hue has driven me crazy over the past two plus years with his lifeless presence on the sideline, his constant look of a lonely fifth grader who just has had his lunch money stolen for the eighteenth time, and his indecision during every facet of a football game, I can confidently and graciously thank Hue for providing me with blog material to entertain my readers. Hue, in the post-game press conference, told the nation that he will be getting more involved with the offensive decision making and play calling.

I’m not gonna continue to watch something I know how to do keep being that way. That’s just the truth. That’s nothing against anybody in our building, that’s just what I do and I need to be a little bit more involved . . . Being a head coach and an offensive guy who has done this, I feel like I have every right to jump in there and see if I can help. And assist. And see if I can get this thing where it needs to be. We need to be better on offense, and if that’s my specialty, I need to be involved more and I will be.

I take Hue’s statement as an insult to every Cleveland Browns fan who has any sort of memory capacity. Hue’s comment makes it seem as though he hasn’t been calling the offensive plays in Cleveland for the past two years. In fact, his offensive play calling allowed the Browns to earn one win in thirty-two games. That’s how good it was! Hue’s an offensive guy and he has “done this” before, in that he has called offensive plays that produced the most lackluster two-year span for any team in the NFL, ever. Furthermore, and I have to believe that it was the new general manager, John Dorsey, who instructed Hue to hire an offensive coordinator for the 2018 season, Dorsey probably did this because he, like the rest of us reasonable people, saw how absolutely dismal Hue’s offensive play calling and management was in the previous two seasons. Actually, if I were Hue, I wouldn’t even be thinking of getting involved with the offense, as I would still be in shock for somehow keeping my job after sucking so terribly for so long. 

To better assess whether Hue’s “offensive expertise” would better help the Browns, I compared the last year’s offensive stats from week one thru week 7 against the same time period this year. In short, the Browns have improved in every offensive statistical category, albeit not astronomically. Now, there are several outside variables for why this improvement could have happened – better players, easier schedule (although we actually played a lot of the same teams in the same period), and weather – outside of change in the “offensive guru.”

 

Rushing Yards Per Game

2017 Average Rushing Yards Per Game: 92.3

2018 Average Rushing Yards Per Game: 135

Passing Yards Per Game

2017 Average Passing Yards Per Game: 212.6

2018 Average Passing Yards Per Game: 222.4

 

 

Turnovers Per Game

            2017 Average Turnover Per Game: 2.7

2018 Average Turnover Per Game: 1.4

 

 

 

Points Per Game

2017 Average Points Per Game: 14.7

2018 Average Points Per Game:  21.6

 

 

Hue made this passive aggressive comment mainly towards his offensive coordinator, Todd Haley, but also to his boss, Dorsey, because he is a man who is seeing the light. The one statistic that wasn’t listed but is markedly the most important statistic in every league sport, is the amount of wins a team has earned. Hue has mustered, so far, a remarkable record of three wins, 35 losses, and one tie. The only remarkable part of that record is the fact that somehow Hue has not been handed a pink slip. However, it appears that, finally, even lifeless Hue understands that his funeral is coming, and he is trying to make his last, futile, appeal.

 

Reading Hue’s quote shows all the signs of a man on death row, trying to fight the prison guards’ grips, as he is dragged toward the electric chair chamber.  Most notably, Hue never wanted to hire an offensive coordinator, but rather it was most likely part of his plea deal with John Dorsey. Hue would be able to keep his job as a head coach, as long as he stopped, essentially, “coaching.” So Dorsey allowed Hue to “hire” his “own” offensive coordinator, but it probably went more like Dorsey hiring Haley and Hue announcing, in the press conference, that he decided to hire an offensive coordinator. Hue gives this away when he states, “I’m not gonna continue to watch something I know how to do keep being that way. That’s just the truth. That’s nothing against anybody in our building . . ..” Hue probably has been told to leave the offense alone and let Haley do his thing.  Hue knows he has been told this because he quickly tries to protect himself by making sure that he isn’t pointing blame or frustration at “anybody in our building.” Hue, face it, you are pointing blame at, not only Todd Haley, but your own boss and soon to be executioner – John Dorsey.  Further, Hue takes another swipe at Dorsey by saying, “Being a head coach and an offensive guy who has done this, I feel like I have every right to jump in there and see if I can help.” Again it is conceivable to imagine that Dorsey, in the offseason, instructed Hue not to coach the offense. Hue took this as his power being depleted, and it was, and so this quote basically is claiming that because Hue is still the head coach, he has some sort of implicit powers that cannot be taken away – “I feel like I have every right to jump in there . . .”. Hue also suggests that he was hired specifically for his offensive prowess and because he has “done this” before. However, and as stated earlier, all Browns fans have seen Hue coach offense before, and as the stats show, it wasn’t pretty.

 

Hue’s rant won’t save him, and it probably just made matters worse within the organization because now the Browns have a man who isn’t playing by the rules. This statement has caused there to be a schism of power within the locker room. Will players choose the general manager’s man, Todd Haley, or will they get behind their wavering, if isolated, head coach – Hue Jackson?  Whichever way they go won’t save Hue, unless they somehow make the playoffs. Dorsey most likely did not want to fire Hue in the middle of the season, preferring to take a whole year to find “his guy.” In the meantime, he made Hue a lame duck coach and instilled Todd Haley, a somewhat competent if almost as dumb offensive coordinator, to make offensive decision making. Hue’s death sentence has not been dismissed, and if anything, his complaining may have just moved up his execution date.