Hue Jackson, before the 2017 season, promised to jump in Lake Erie if the Browns didn’t win more than 1 game again. Obviously joking that the Browns wouldn’t be as bad as 1-15 again. Then…they were worse. Bless Cleveland fans, they called him on it.

And to his credit, Hue finally jumped in a couple weeks ago. He made a thing out of it, raising money for his own charity to combat human trafficking. I’m happy to see he actually did it, but it’s not like he promised to do something crazy. Jumping in the lake was a pretty easy bet to fulfill and frankly, and easy way to earn back some good PR with the fans.

Eh. So what. Doesn’t make him a better coach. I have low hopes for the Browns this year. I doubt they are 0-16 or 1-15 bad, but I don’t see more than 4 wins. Not with Jackson as the coach. I think the next step to turn this team good is to find the next good coach. I’ve lost complete faith in Jackson.

Maybe Hue’s been right this whole time. Maybe the problem was DeShone Kizer. Maybe Sashi was getting him crap players he couldn’t use in his rebuilding efforts. Maybe every other player he threw under a bus deserved it. But I doubt it. Watching him seemingly misuse Kizer and then blame him openly left a sour taste in my mouth. He can be mad at Kizer all he wants but to publicly do it is kinda messed up. What kind of message does that send to your players? This guy, who doesn’t seem to be designing or using the offense around his player’s strengths, is then blaming the players for their mistakes. Forcing square pegs into round holes and dishing out gossip like a snitch tends to not work out in the end. Just ask ol’ greasy. (Ben McAdoo)

I’ve long believed that the 3rd year is a major year for any new coach. First year coach deserves all the benefit of the doubt as they clean up the previous regime’s messes and install their own brand. Second year is fair enough. Things should be starting to gel, but not much more success is terribly necessary, if the team seems headed in the right directions the wins aren’t as important. The third year is the kicker. If your team doesn’t show a marked improvement in the win column and overall, then there is a problem. I think Hue deserves to lose his job if the Browns win less than 5 games this year. They won’t compete for the division. They won’t compete for the playoffs. But there is enough in Cleveland to win some games against mediocre competition and maybe steal one or two from good competition. Gus Bradley won 3 games in his worst year with the Jags, and Gus Bradley sucked ass, and that team he inherited was in just as bad a shape as this one was. Hue doesn’t deserve any more benefit of the doubt. He got his GM. He got his QB. Now he has to prove he’s not a pile of trash.

I doubt he does. I predict him gone in week 14 after the Browns have earned 2 early wins and look horrible for 6 weeks straight.