The Fault In Our Browns
Browns owner Jimmy Haslam didn’t trust the process!
1.5 years into the long game, a plan expected to take upwards of 3 years to fully bear fruit, and Jimmy Haslam already pulled the plug on it by firing Sashi Brown. Sashi was the Executive Vice President of football operations (Aka that thing usually given to old dudes who were good at coaching once) and the de-facto GM. Sashi was one of the architects of the Browns new goal: to play the long game. Tank a few seasons, expunge the extraneous nonsense, hoard draft picks to increase the chances of grabbing a star, and build from the foundation with cheap young talent. Moneyball. Sacrifice a few years to dismal failure as a foundation was laid. It was never going to be easy, but after so many years of trash play just seeing the Browns have a plan in the first place kind of made it exciting.
Of course Jimmy Haslam is a really bad owner (and a criminal) and may have gotten impatient and sunk the whole thing already. Jimmy Haslam was never going to have the patience for this. Honestly few owners would. But this is still pretty shameful and reeks of impatience and in-fighting. For one thing, Sashi definitely didn’t feel like the problem with the Browns. The problem (besides Jimmy of course), is Hue Jackson. Hue seems power-hungry.
Last year’s results were more or less understandable. This year the Browns have actual talent on that roster. They are winless, will probably stay as such, but they are talented enough to have won a couple of games so far. The coaching has been abysmal. The QB situation is a clear issue, Kizer, Kessler, and Hogan are all pretty terrible. But Hue keeps rotating all of them in and out and seems reluctant to really make one work and find their strengths. Good coaches can get reasonable play out of bad players. Good coaches can reveal the good players for who they can be. Look at how bad Jared Goff was last year. Now with McVay calling the shots, he’s an ace and leading the Rams to the playoffs. Kizer might not be good, but Hue is doing him absolutely no favors. There is enough talent to win a few games this year and it hasn’t happened. Hue seems intent on making the bad QB situation Sashi’s fault.
One of the big criticisms about Sashi is his failure to grab a good QB, namely passing on Carson Wentz and then also possibly DeShaun Watson. I don’t think this criticism is very fair. Turn off the hindsight glasses for a second and remember that both of those guys had questions. Carson was from a small school and played shit competition, there was potential to be what he looks like now but I think few scouts were completely sold on him. Watson had even bigger questions. The Browns, while needing a QB, also needed a shit ton more across the roster, and this was supposed to be a long-term process. I don’t think Sashi should get quite the level of scorn he got for passing on Wentz and Watson no matter how bad it looks now. I mean right now they are in position to draft Rosen, and he has just as many questions as those two did. QBs are so hard to hit on.
Earlier this year Hue Jackson tried to trade an absurd amount for Bengals backup QB and punchable face superstar AJ McCarron. McCarron would probably be an upgrade at QB, but for what they wanted to give up it was nonsense. Plus, it damaged their draft haul and would set back the process. McCarron also isn’t that good. McCarron is probably a dude who is going to fart around for 10 years as a backup who never does anything and then vanish. He wasn’t worth the picks and Sashi apparently vetoed the trade, which appears to have led to this internal power struggle between him and Hue with Hue winning. Imagine getting someone fired because they didn’t want AJ McCarron.
But, Hue has Jimmy’s ear, so Sashi’s gone. New guy John Dorsey cut Kenny Britt already which is a net positive, but who knows how well the Browns will stick to the plan after this first shake up. Here’s what I think happens: the Browns draft a QB this draft, and then the Browns suck again next year, and now Hue has run out of excuses and the guy who should have been canned already finally gets canned as the Browns abandon the process and resume Brownsing, the new QB winning a couple games but ultimately just being a head on the hydra.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Browns deserve no benefit of the doubt until they earn it. Until then, simply assume they will Browns. This week, they Browns’d very hard.
Good lord you Browns fans deserve better.
Part of me wants to give the Browns some credit. Dorsey was never very good with contracts, but he was a great talent evaluator in KC. On top of that, they have six selections in the first three rounds, including what might very well be the #1 pick. Give that kind of ammunition to a guy who knows how to find talent, and you’re sure to have some success, right?
On the other hand, like you said, they deserve no benefit of the doubt until they earn it. They’re masters of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Plus, even if they do manage to get some good players from that bevy of picks, I have no faith in Hue to develop them.
Even if we assume that they’re purposefully tanking, they don’t look like a young team that’s a year of development away from being sneaky good. Last year, even if we had no idea just how good they’d be, you could tell the Eagles had the potential to be good if they put things together. You don’t see that in the Browns.
Worst of all, the supposed QB guru has done jack-all with DeShone Kizer, who may have been immature coming out of Notre Dame, but was also talented as hell, a perfect project for a guy who’s supposed to be a great QB coach. Who knows, Goff was pretty bad his first year, as were Stafford and Cousins, so maybe Kizer turns it around, but he’s been the worst QB in the league under the watch of a guy who was heralded as the QB wizard who could finally give Cleveland a solid signal-caller.
One day the Browns will be good and we’ll all marvel as we see history when they win a Superbowl, just like we did when the Cubs won a World Series last year. Until then, they’re a trainwreck until proven otherwise.
Mirror mirror on the wall, why is my company always under investigation, who is at fault? *Still Jimmy in the mirror*
The Cleveland Browns are an argument for a soccer-style demotion out of the Super Bowl League to a “Second Best” League. The Colts have already commissioned the Championship Banner.
What about a comic on all the dirty hits in the Steelers-Bengals game?
Sashi’s pick gathering set up Dorsey to look like a genius next year. Hue is keeping us in the dumpster so that we get the #1 overall, and Rosen is easily a no-brainer.
I ain’t happy that we dumped Sashi, but Dorsey is about as good as we could expect to replace him. Scot McCloughan was my preference, but whatever.
We might accidentally stumble into success like Snyder’s redskins did, but as long as Haslem is here, it won’t happen naturally.
I’ve never seen “Browns’d” used as a verb before, but I like it! We Browns’d SO hard!
Just waiting for Dorsey to parlay all of those stockpiled draft picks into…. Alex Smith.
In the meantime I’m pricing out an “Owen 16” jersey to replace my Couch and Manziel number 2’s…
The first part of the post sounded like what the Astros did, except the Astros actually pulled it off.
I’m simultaneously angry because I think Sashi got fucked, and happy because Dorsey is a massive upgrade from the talent evaluation standpoint.
This is so true
I disagree completely. Hue was dealt a shitty hand and that’s the result. Sure the team has young. talent but where is the veteran leadership in that locker room? The only guy I can think of is Joe Thomas and he got injured, out for the year. Perhaps not so coincidentally, that’s about when the Browns stopped being competitive. Joe Haden got cut and that’s something else Hue Jackson was reportedly upset about with Sashi. Speaking of things that reportedly upset Jackson with Sashi, the McCarron debacle happened on the heels of the 9ers acquiring Jimmy G from the Pats for a second round pick, while the Browns front office was at home. The coaches, on the other hand, were still working. And Kizer might be talented, but if it’s a maturity issue there’s nothing the coaches can do about it. Pretty much every talented quarterback who has busted (e.g. Leaf, Russell) has been due to maturity issues. So yeah. I don’t think Jackson is to blame even if the Browns go winless, although I would be shocked if he kept his job if that happened. Can’t feel too sorry for the guy though, he chose the Browns over the Giants and that was a pretty dumb move.
Well jokes on you, my Madden 18 Browns team is 10-1 under my custom character at quarterback
But that’s probably with you re-loading a save to force a win like 30 times.
*whispers* shut up, no one is supposed to know
Don’t forget it was Hue who traded a #1 and #2 for Carson Palmer, who was literally retired from football. One of his big criticisms in Oakland was his huge ego – he seized on the power vacuum in Oakland after Al Davis died and basically became the de facto GM for that season, leading to the Palmer trade and a baffling finish to the season that led to them blowing the division on the last game of the season and Hue getting canned when McKenzie came in. I thought Hue would work in Cleveland as long as he had a tight power structure around him that limited him to coaching the team. This is the beginning of a really messy, ugly situation.
Of course, if the McCown trade had gone through, it wouldn’t even have been the first time Hue traded every-fucking-thing for a Bengals quarterback.
This dude obviously didn’t pass the cookie experiment when he was little.
At first I thought this was a John Fox comic, but then again you could replace “Browns” with “Bears” and make the color brown a dark blue, and it still makes sense.
It’s a little ridiculous how bad teams are at knowing when to pull the plug, you got a lot of the opposite too. The Jeff Fishers and the Marvin Lewises who owners just don’t know when to pull the plug on. It’s either they yank them too quick or they let them fester on too long when it’s very obvious their plan isn’t working out the way they wanted.
As far as Marvin Lewis goes, since Mike Brown inherited the team, the Bengals have never fired a coach in the middle of a contract. Two have resigned, but that absolves the team of having to pay them for not coaching. For the Bengals it’s not a matter of not knowing when to cut bait, so much as not being willing to pay for it.
But could they get their one win of the year this week? FTP!
Lol no.
I’m going to say it, if the Browns didn’t move to Baltimore they would be what the Patriots are today. They would have Bill Belichick at head coach maybe even Nick Saban at defensive coordinator and they would’ve selected Brady instead of Wynn. They were already heading in that direction until the move and even won a Super Bowl with a similar group and with Bill at the helm and Brady at QB plus Ray Lewis? No question scariest team in NFL history.
I would hate to live in that alternate reality….Mostly because the ravens wouldn’t exist but Tom Brady saving the browns….Just feels wrong.
Just got back from Yahoo Sports comments section trying to defend Eli but you know it things are. Note how Eli bashers seem to come off as unstable…then again chunk of them are Cowboys fans.
Then there’s the 2004 draft day grudge.
Then there’s the Geno Smith white knights…
Dave, let me say this, YOUR obsession with “Sexy Rexy” is soooooooo weird.
You can say it’s really gross man!
Hahahahahahahahahahwhahwhah I get it
In the original Snow White movie, the queen actually said “MAGIC mirror on the wall”. It’s kind of like a “Luke I am your father” where the fake line is more remembered than the actual one.
or “I never said that”—Albert Einstein
I have to wonder if part of this was also Haslam’s ego demanding that he throw his weight around after his attempts to control Tennessee’s athletic department were rebuffed by the fans and others.
Jimmy’s stripes change direction between panel 1 and 2.
That doesn’t rhyme at all…
Here’s the deal, not the real deal Holyfield, but the deal none the less. Kiser is a decent QB, and has had no talent around him to toss it too. With Crowell and Johnson in the backfield they are actually midPar in the running game, holding steady at 16th best. When your top 5 receivers are from 1st to 5th, RB,TE,TE,WR,RB that clearly shows a lack of talent at WR. And the one WR in that list Ricardo is in the top 10 list for most drops. Hell the most targeted player on our roster is johnson(RB), that does not make Kiser bad, that makes are WR core bad, and they are. With Josh back in the lineup that may change but late in the season, they may decide to just tank the rest to get the best picks. We also have a 12th ranked overall Def , which aint bad either. So we the pull of maybe another Pass blocker, and a WR or two, we should look good, a QB is not what is needed. Kiser needs to be developed. So LETS DO THAT!