The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Brown’s plan isn’t showing progress
Jimmy Haslam should walk into Sashi Brown’s office first thing in the morning on Oct. 2, stand across the desk from the Brown’s EVP of Football Operations so Brown has to look up at him and say:
“Tell me again how this is supposed to work, because I’m not seeing it. All I’m seeing is way too many empty seats when we play at home and a team that plays like it showed up for a pick-up game an hour before the game starts. And Sashi, you’re the one that put this team together.” The Browns owner has vowed patience. But after being humiliated, 31-7, by the Bengals on Oct. 1 at FirstEnergy Stadium, after watching his team lose for the 19th time in 20 games of the Harvard Brain Trust-Coach Hue Jackson era, teeth marks from too much grinding have to be permanently embedded in that coffee cup that seems attached to his right hand.
The Browns played surprisingly well in the opener against a Steelers team that in retrospect seemed uninterested. They have gone backward in the three succeeding games. After being thoroughly trounced by the previously winless Bengals, Jackson can’t even say the defense played well.
“We got beat soundly in every phase, but we’re going to work,” Jackson said after losing to the Bengals. “I’m not going to let this team go backward. We did today. There’s no question about that. We have some work to do. I think to a man in there, we’ll go back to work. We will put our heads down and get better.”
The same tired refrain comes out of Jackson’s mouth every Sunday.
Had this been two years ago, Jackson would have been the offensive coordinator on the opposite sideline, calling plays into the helmet of Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton designed to go to wide receiver A.J. Green and tight end Tyler Kroft.
Instead, Jackson is the Browns’ head coach, and he’s calling plays for rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer designed to go to a rag-tag group of misfit receivers that probably couldn’t make another NFL roster.
The Browns have five picks in the first two rounds of next year’s draft — which is what Sashi Brown would probably remind Haslam to talk the Browns’ owner down off the ledge. Meanwhile, Jackson is tasked with coaching the only team in the league with three quarterbacks that have never won an NFL game. They are also the youngest team in the league.
Asked whether this rebuilding project being run by Brown, Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta and Vice President of Player Personnel Andrew Berry is working, Jackson would only say:
“I’m not going to comment on that. What I am going to comment on is just today was not a good day for our football team. We need to get better. I just think we have to go in this room and there are some fundamental things that we have to do better across the board. It starts obviously with me, down through our coaches and the rest of our players, and that’s what we have to do better.”
Jackson denied another report by Jason La Canfora of CBS sports claiming there are “fissures” between the coaching staff and personnel department. La Canfora has had an ax to grind with the Browns ever since Haslam fired his friends Joe Banner as CEO and Mike Lombardi as general manager early in 2014.
“I know nothing about any of that stuff,” Jackson said. “People can say what they’re going to say.
“Let’s be honest, that has been the (reported) flavor of this organization for years. That doesn’t exist in our building at all.”
Maybe not, bet Jackson better be careful about two things. The first is DeShone Kizer is going to be ruined mentally and/or physically if the pounding he takes every week continues. We saw that happen to Tim Couch from 1999-2003.
The second thing Jackson better be careful of is this: It would be much easier for Haslam to replace the head coach than change his entire personnel staff, even if the Browns are in this mess because Brown doesn’t know how to pick players.
That’s why it is imperative Jackson heed the advice of his good friend, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis. The two met at midfield to shake hands after the game. Lewis was asked what he told Jackson.
“Don’t let them quit on you,” was Lewis’ message.
That might be easier said than done.