Winless Browns begin purge
Akron Beacon Journal
The Browns fired head of football operations Sashi Brown on Thursday but will keep coach Hue Jackson for the 2018 season, owner Jimmy Haslam announced in a statement.
Brown was given final say on all roster decisions when Haslam and his wife and coowner, Dee, promoted him after the 2015 season from executive vice president/general counsel to executive vice president of football operations. With Brown, Jackson and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta in charge, the team has gone 1-27 and passed on chances to pick quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson in the past two drafts.
Hours after Brown was let go, the Browns hired former Kansas City executive John Dorsey as their new general manager. Dorsey, who was fired by the Chiefs in June after four seasons, was partially credited with the club’s renaissance.
The futures of DePodesta, vice president of player personnel Andrew Berry and other members of the front office are uncertain. As for Jackson, Haslam said he’s safe despite the Browns sitting at 0-12 this season after going 1-15 last year in the coach’s first year on the job.
“We have great appreciation and gratitude for Sashi’s commitment and leadership to our organization but believe transitioning to someone with strong experience and success in drafting and building consistently winning football teams is critical to the future of the Cleveland Browns,” Haslam said in the statement.
“Hue Jackson will remain our coach and will return for the 2018 season but we feel it is necessary to take significant steps to strengthen our personnel department.”
The Browns have 13 picks inApril’s draft and are in position to own two top-10 choices, including the No. 1 overall selection. The Haslams have firedfour heads of football personnel and three coaches since they took control as ownersin 2012.
Jackson has repeatedly said this season the Browns need to play a perfect game to win, a direct shot at the talent level of the roster assembled by Brown. The Haslams sided with Jackson and made him the victor of his power strugglewith Brown.
Without a traditional playing or scouting background, Brown, along with DePodesta, the former Major League Baseball executive of Moneyball fame, relied heavily on analyticsand launched an aggressive youth movement to tear down the roster in hopes of rebuilding it for sustained success. The Browns discarded valuable veteran players and, as part of a mission to stockpile picks, repeatedly traded down in the past two drafts, most notably when they could have picked Wentz, a Most Valuable Player candidate, second overall in 2016 or Watson, who set several rookie records before a season-ending knee injury last month, 12th overall in 2017. The franchise drafted 24 players during Brown’s reign and came away with more whiffs than hits.
Brown also failed to finalize a trade for Cincinnati Bengals backup quarterback AJ McCarron five weeks ago. The Browns and Bengals agreed to the deal, which would have sent secondand third-round choices to Cincinnati for McCarron — but the NFL didn’t receive the necessary paperwork from the Browns before the 4 p.m. trade deadline. The botched deal created more dysfunction between Brown and Jackson, who coached McCarron in Cincinnati and wanted him in Cleveland.