Cleveland Browns: Trade deadline debacle a tipping point

The debacle at the trade deadline for the Cleveland Browns makes it clear that the organization as its currently constituted cannot continue.

The Cleveland Browns trade deadline fiasco involving A.J. McCarron is a defining moment for an organization that was trying to prove that it had a plan and was operating according to it. Whether a product of pressure from the owner, simple desperation, out right incompetence or some combination of everything, the Browns came to the conclusion that McCarron was worth multiple draft picks and somehow was the answer to this team’s woes. That alone makes it impossible to trust this organization to continue forward.

It’s impossible to believe that Hue Jackson wasn’t the driving force behind anything McCarron. He coached him in Cincinnati and it’s the only possible answer to how the Browns would offer more for him than the San Francisco 49ers did for Jimmy Garoppolo.

That also makes it impossible to believe that this is the first time Jackson was heavily involved in the quarterback decision process. In other words, Jackson didn’t want Carson Wentz, didn’t want Deshaun Watson and did want DeShone Kizer. Certainly the front office is part of that decision-making process and owns their part of the blame for those evaluations, but clearly Jackson was heavily involved, if not the deciding factor.

This whole thing started when the earth moved at Robert Griffin III’s workout for Jackson, who they signed. That was a perfectly reasonable signing, but helps illustrate how Jackson has done when it comes to evaluating the quarterback position. He’s been terrible. Griffin, Jared Goff who he was all in on, Kizer and now McCarron compared to Wentz and Watson.

McCarron is sitting behind Andy Dalton for the Cincinnati Bengals. The Browns shouldn’t want Dalton, let alone McCarron. Neither does anything to truly help a team elevate past their current situation. It’s throwing assets away to make no meaningful difference. Dalton plays exactly as well as his supporting cast enables and McCarron has never played up to even the level of Dalton.

Despite all of this, the argument could have been made that the Browns were improving, even if their record wasn’t, and that this whole process concluded with a quarterback selection in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft. And that’s what still should happen, but this catastrophe kills the idea that this organization is working according to a cohesive plan.

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The first thing that has to happen is determining exactly what happened. Anyone who was in favor of this trade for McCarron should be removed, effective immediately. Second, whether it was pure incompetence or some lone hero or troop of patriots who actively made sure this trade didn’t happen, the fact is the Browns are better for this trade not going through. There isn’t a situation that isn’t better for having those draft assets for next year as opposed to having McCarron on this team.

If Haslam was involved, it shows that he hasn’t learned from his “rookie mistakes” or the Manziel disaster and will be subjected to another extremely embarrassing teachable moment. He has to stop meddling and let the organization work.

If any part of this organization is salvageable, the only way to even attempt to win back public trust, other than winning, is to have a revealing and certainly humiliating press conference that lays out exactly what happened, where and why it went wrong, what’s been done to eliminate the problem and how this doesn’t happen again, which most certainly comes with an announcement of someone’s ouster.

For many, the 0-8 record is enough reason to think the organization is incompetent. For those that can see the improvement of the team and were willing to believe there could be a light at the end of the tunnel with the 2018 NFL Draft, they need a thorough explanation of the events and where this goes from here.

If the Browns were forced to clean house, they could still find themselves in an extremely positive situation. A young, improving defense that is the best this team has had since the team came back to Cleveland and a ton of draft assets allowing a new organization to choose a quarterback, add talent around him to improve the offense and proceed from there. While not necessarily the most attractive option, it’s a viable one.

The only thing that is clear is that the organization as it currently stands cannot continue. Hue Jackson should be fired immediately. His game management and tactics on the field have been mediocre at best, but adding in his disastrous quarterback evaluating and this latest mess trying to acquire A.J. McCarron, he’s got to go. The rest of the coaching staff can be evaluated independent of Jackson, having Gregg Williams as the interim coach.

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If the front office was complicit in this move and simply failed to execute the trade, they also need to go. And if Haslam was involved, he deserves all the criticism he gets and must figure out a way that he can effectively own the organization without being the source of its downfall. If he picked sides, was a source of the division, or simply tried to enable a power play by one side over the other, he is the biggest problem this organization has to overcome and they’ll struggle as long as that continues.

As bad as the Cleveland Browns have been in terms of their record the past season and a half at 1-23, it’s not difficult to make a case for their improvement and how this team makes a big leap forward next season. But when there’s a situation like the one that played out on Tuesday, decisive action must be taken in order to preserve the long term outlook and get rid of anyone who would stand in its way both now and after the season. Otherwise, it’s just the same ol’ Browns.

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