Don’t Ever Forget That The Cleveland Browns Are Still The Cleveland Browns

The Cavaliers were, for a beautiful and ever-so-brief moment, the laughing stock of the Cleveland sports landscape. At 0-6, the Cavs fired Tyronn Lue on Sunday morning to the chagrin of veterans on the team, indicating a full-scale rebuild was about to take place featuring a rocky ride to the bottom as they eventually figure to unload most of those vet pieces. All the while, the supposed interim coach refuses to acknowledge that title until he gets a long-term contract.

That lasted for barely a day before the Cleveland Browns thrust themselves back into the conversation, pushing the Cavs aside by firing not one but two coaches, and promoting Gregg Williams, best known for his role as the defensive coordinator during the Saints Bountygate scandal, to interim head coach. This came a day after the Browns slipped to 2-5-1 on the young season in a 33-18 loss to the Steelers in which their best play was the entire Steelers special teams unit not understanding the rules of a safety kick in the NFL.

Before we get too deep into the weeds on the situation in Cleveland, we should start with this: It was time for Hue Jackson to go. The head coach of the Browns was 3-36-1 over two and a half seasons and it was evident for some time that, while the roster was absolutely not up to snuff to be a competitive football team, neither was the coaching, from the game plan and preparation, to in-game adjustments, to roster and clock management. Beyond that, Jackson wasn’t general manager John Dorsey’s guy, and it would’ve taken a miraculous effort for him to have ended up coaching the team in 2019, because general managers always want to bring in their own guy unless they enter a situation with an entrenched, highly successful coach, which Jackson certainly is not.

It’s understandable why the Browns didn’t want to fire Jackson this offseason. He had dealt with two miserable years on miserable teams that were not built to win, and to fire him right as the roster was finally getting to the point of being competitive would’ve felt like they were never giving him a chance. But it was clear to anyone that watched Hard Knocks this fall what was coming.

Jackson was still a bit lost in being a head coach, needing Tyrod Taylor to tell him some best practices for holding players not hustling accountable in the film room by showing them loafing across the field in front of their teammates. He refused to allow top pick Baker Mayfield to take so much as a snap with the first team offense, insisting the job was Taylor’s no matter what and Mayfield was his backup, not realizing that if Taylor were to be injured (as happened in Week 3) Mayfield would have never had reps with the first teamers with whom he’d suddenly be playing.

And then there was the very clearly fractured relationship with offensive coordinator Todd Haley, shown fully in a team meeting on Hard Knocks in which Haley questions having guys resting during camp while he’s trying to install the offense and Jackson explaining that he’s the head coach and “I get to drive the bus.”

This led to conspiracies from Browns fans that Haley was purposefully tanking in hopes that Jackson would get fired and he, the lone staffer with prior experience as a head coach, would get the interim job and then break out his best stuff. However, on Monday, Haley was also fired amid reports he’d gone somewhat rogue with play-calling, doing what he wanted rather than listening to any input from Jackson. That doesn’t confirm the conspiracy, but it indicates that Haley was, at the least, calling plays in spite of Jackson, and whether that was to intentionally make the team look bad and get Jackson fired or not remains unknown. If it was true, it blew up spectacularly in his face.

Now, the Browns are left with the aforementioned Williams, Freddie Kitchens as the new offensive coordinator, possibly Williams’ son as the new defensive coordinator, and Maserati-driving, belly-bouncing Bob Wylie with the offensive line. Williams is best known for his aggression, both in how he talks to players and calls plays. It will be, at nothing else, a spectacular departure from the quiet Jackson, who one player apparently compared to Michael Scott from The Office.

https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/1056953649866379265

Side note: That quote makes this video from earlier this season 100 times funnier.

How Williams’ demeanor translates to how both sides of the ball plays will be fascinating and, because this is the Browns, likely a disaster. Myles Garrett, the best player on the team, openly questioned the defensive game plan from Sunday. The man that created that game plan will now lead the team for the remainder of the season.

There may be some light at the end of the tunnel for the Browns, depending on your feelings towards Dorsey. To this point, all we have to go off of are a few very good looking draft picks and other moves on which that the jury is still out, most notably the Jarvis Landry contract. Dorsey making the move now seems prudent, as he didn’t want Mayfield to have to spend a full season in the middle of a tug of war between Haley and Jackson. As such, he removed both parts of that equation.

Still, this offseason will prove to be his most important, because for the second time in as many years, he’s being tasked with doing what has been impossible in Cleveland since 1999. Last summer, it was drafting a franchise quarterback, and the jury is still out there, although Mayfield has at least shown some promise. Now, it’s hiring a competent coaching staff that can develop said quarterback and put the rest of the team in a position to grow and become a playoff contender.

If he hits, he’ll go down in Cleveland sports lore. If he doesn’t, it’ll just be Cleveland Browns football as usual, maintaining their crown as the worst organization in American pro sports.