Ray Farmer promoted, Michael Lombardi fired, Joe Banner steps down
Cleveland Browns chief executive officer Joe Banner during a press conference at the team
The Cleveland Browns decision to fire head coach Rob Chudzinski after just one season on the job was met with a vast amount of criticism, and it was one of the most head-scratching coaching moves in recent memory. Their decision certainly didn’t do their reputation any favors, but they were still somehow able to hire Mike Pettine as their head coach, bring on Kyle Shanahan as an offensive coordinator, and snag Dowell Loggains (a capable offensive coordinator with the Tennessee Titans) as their quarterbacks coach. So despite the dysfunction surrounding the organization and the heavy criticism levied by both the fans and media, the Browns were still able to hire a competent staff.
More changes have come for the Browns this offseason, and they are as surprising as it gets and point to some huge ownership problems from Jimmy Haslam. All it takes is one bad owner to screw things up, and not even backing from Peyton Manning could help Haslam out in the future. Unless if there’s more to the story (there very well could be), Haslam’s stock is falling faster than Stephen Ross’s stock fell earlier this offseason.
The Browns have announced that they have fired GM Michael Lombardi and promoted assistant GM Ray Farmer to take his place, and they also announced that CEO Joe Banner has stepped down. That’s a massive shake-up, and the removal of Banner will cause huge waves. Honestly, Banner no longer holding the role of CEO is the most surprising move, because Lombardi has always seemed like an incompetent GM. Meanwhile, Farmer received calls from a few organizations, and he surprised some of us by turning down the Miami Dolphins GM job. Maybe he knew this was coming, and Farmer has a huge chance to show the NFL what he can do. Without a franchise QB, we know what Farmer’s biggest task on the job is.
The move isn’t the problem, but the timing is more than just alarming.