Cleveland Browns: The case for another season of Hue Jackson

The Cleveland Browns opted to retain Hue Jackson for a third season despite a 1-31 record in two seasons and it could end up being a smart play for the long term.

Despite doing everything he possibly could to lose the job, Jimmy Haslam decided to keep Hue Jackson for yet another season as the head coach of his football team. Haslam even went as far as saying, “when we win, Hue Jackson will be their hero,” which is nothing short of lunacy. Nevertheless, Haslam might not be as dumb as he sounds and there’s at least the possibility that this has vision that can work out for the Browns.

The best thing that both new general manager John Dorsey and Haslam could say about Jackson is that his players played hard for him. This is a weird compliment to make as it could be that they really are playing hard for Jackson. It also could be a testament to their overall professionalism, internal motivations and simply trying to survive. Or it’s simply about doing everything humanly possible to avoid 0-16 and everything that comes with it.

What makes it such a bizarre compliment is that if players don’t play hard, they get criticized or possibly cut. So if the Browns went out there and dogged it, critics would undoubtedly argue that Jackson lost the team while simultaneously suggesting the Browns should get rid of those players. So how much credit for Jackson really deserve?

What Dorsey and Haslam couldn’t say is that Jackson managed games well. He didn’t, losing multiple games because of his own critical errors in key spots. It’s not due to his ability to recruit and evaluate coaching talent. After his first season, he flushed the entire defensive side while replacing a few offensive coaches. This year, Jackson is going back for almost everyone he didn’t fire the first time.

It’s not about his ability to develop the quarterback position. The quarterback who has improved the most under Jackson’s watch is Kevin Hogan and he’s not likely to be back next season. It’s not his ability with the media. There’s never been anyone worse in Cleveland between terrible explanations and consistently throwing players under the bus, which was revealed after the season to be every bit the problem any rational person would expect.

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Hue Jackson can occasionally call plays to scheme players open, but he didn’t fit his offense to his team’s talent. His quarterback couldn’t execute it and his usage of players like David Njoku and Duke Johnson was nothing short of baffling.

So what is it that Jackson is good at? The answer pretty much comes down to the fact that a third year of Jackson proves to people around the league that Haslam can stick with a coach for three years. Incredibly, Haslam is doing this with Jackson despite the fact he’s the worst head coach in NFL history, let alone the worst one he’s hired. What a time to plant one’s flag.

Nevertheless, those who put the blame of Jackson’s blunders on the analytics approach or Sashi Brown will have to eat it when Jackson has another terrible season, proving once and for all he’s the problem.

During the season, the Browns took time to find a ‘football guy’ to be their general manager. They hired Dorsey. But as Benjamin Allbright reported during the season, the Browns brass had investigating head coaching candidates as well.

Maybe Haslam was simply too stubborn to fire Jackson, but as bad of an owner as he’s been, it seems just as likely that the feedback they received was that the job wasn’t attractive; that he wasn’t an attractive owner. Under Haslam’s stewardship (in fairness, the Lerners as well), the Browns have been a place where head coaching careers go to die.

After having to settle for what people would routinely called the team’s eighth choice with the likes of Mike Pettine (despite winning seven games in his first season), Haslam appears to be trying to ensure that when he fires Jackson, he’ll have the ability to get a really good coaching candidate.

Part of that is keeping Jackson for a third year. The other part was, at least in Haslam’s mind and those he reaches out to, ditching the analytics approach (because new things are scary, even when they’re right) and go back into the old boys club to fill the front office.

To his credit, Dorsey has made that decision look smart by adding Alonzo Highsmith as his Vice President of Football Operations and then adding Eliot Wolf as his assistant general manager. Along with keeping Andrew Berry, who was the main talent evaluator Sashi Brown relied upon, Dorsey also retained Ken Kovash, who was in charge of everything analytics, moving him to work directly under Paul DePodesta in their strategy department. It remains to be seen how this will play out and how permanent it ends up being when it comes to free agency and the draft, but it looks impressive on paper.

CLEVELAND, OH – DECEMBER 10: New General Manager John Dorsey of the Cleveland Browns is seen with owner Jimmy Haslam before the game against the Green Bay Packers at FirstEnergy Stadium on December 10, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)

Combined with what Sashi Brown did the past two seasons in terms of adding draft picks, putting them in fantastic salary cap position and adding talent, if this group can cash in on the immense haul of draft assets they’ve acquired, this team will be significantly more talented and as a result attractive. The key will be addressing the quarterback position.

That’s part of what got Dorsey here in the first place, as he pointed out, himself in his introductory press conference.

"“Any personnel guy worth his weight would be excited. I’m not going to lie to you.”“I think Sashi did a nice job of creating some draft picks and creating some cap space here, but I’m excited. To me, this is an opportunity that not many personnel guys in my position would pass up.”"