Cleveland Browns: Hue Jackson through seven games

In a vacuum, Hue Jackson’s coaching through seven games this year has a few improvements but leaves a lot to be desired and the Cleveland Browns can’t wait for him to figure it out.

In year three of his tenure as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Hue Jackson has done little to suggest that bringing him back for another season wasn’t destined to fail. Jackson has evolved in a few areas and improved, but hurt himself by not following through. Some of the issues that hurt Jackson are understandable, even predictable given his situation. But overall, he continues to make it really difficult to defend him as a head coach, regardless of the talent on the roster.

For the first month of the season, it was a mortal lock that the worst hire Hue could have ever made was Amos Jones as his special teams coach. After Chris Tabor left for greener pastures, Hue had to find a replacement and given his limited options, he had to hire infamous Amos. The past three weeks, the special teams have improved and the past two games in particular, the group was no longer a unit that killed the team’s chances.

Meanwhile, the hire of Todd Haley as his offensive coordinator, a move that was almost universally lauded, has been awful and worse than that of infamous Amos. Haley’s reputation guiding offenses, despite being fired by the Pittsburgh Steelers, was deemed a gamechanger for the Browns. He would be solely focused on the offense allowing Jackson to be able to overlook the entire franchise.

The problem is that Haley’s offense is awful. From a schematic standpoint, it’s even worse than Jackson’s was last year with DeShone Kizer at quarterback. The only improvement is coming entirely from the fact that Baker Mayfield is at quarterback as opposed to Kizer.

Mayfield doesn’t turn the ball over as often or in as many critical situations. Duke Johnson went from leading receiver and playmaker to being frustrated, feeling almost ignored on offense with a weekly point from his head coach about how they need to get him more involved on offense.

So, while Hue suggesting he’d be more involved with the offense looks bad from an organizational standpoint in how things are going, it’s reasonable. Jackson can see the writing on the wall, clearly feeling the pressure on him to produce this year.

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After missing opportunities and losing in overtime early in the season, Hue looked genuinely crushed, seeming to know that he missed his chance to secure his future. Now as failures build up like this past week, it’s becoming clear where this thing is going, so desperation is understandable and if he’s going to go down, he might as well go down where he feels he’s at his best.

Jackson should simply fire Todd Haley. It may not look great, but talking about being more involved in the offense, then backtracking a bit and assuring everyone that Haley was still calling plays isn’t a good look. There is no good option, so it’s making the best of a bad one.

The Browns have added Tyrod Taylor, Jarvis Landry, Carlos Hyde (since traded) and drafted Baker Mayfield, Nick Chubb and Antonio Callaway. That offense is averaging five yards per play on offense, which is 29th in the league. In their last three games, all with Mayfield as the starter, the Browns are averaging 4.9 yards per play. Bouncing between DeShone Kizer, Cody Kessler, and Kevin Hogan, the offense in 2017 averaged 4.9 yards per play. Haley has done nothing to grow an offense with a far better quarterback.

There are a couple areas where Hue has evolved a bit, but lack of conviction ultimately cost him. First, the Browns have been far more aggressive utilizing two-point conversions. For a team that lost a game in no small part to a kicker, albeit an injured one, taking the kicker out of the position to possibly lose them the game is smart. Don’t be in that position.

So when the team went on the road to play the Oakland Raiders, the Browns went for a pair of two-point conversions, getting one of the two. Lack of conviction late in the game when the Browns scored a touchdown and were up seven, opting to kick the extra point allowed the Raiders an opportunity to tie. Going for two and failing, the Raiders would be in a position to tie or maybe go for the win on a two-point conversion. Had the Browns gone for two and succeeded, it’s a two-score game and, short of a miracle, they win.

The other area is going for more fourth downs. It’s an aggressive approach that math consistently backs up as well as potentially helps to instill confidence in the team, saying they believe in the offense to make the play while also being able to say to the defense that if they don’t, they know they have a strong defense. Unfortunately, this is another area impacted by inconsistency and lack of conviction.

The Raiders game had a situation where the Browns were in a fourth-and-inches situation late in the game on their end of the field. A questionable spot put them in this position and rather than going for it, the Browns opted to punt. This is an extremely defensible choice by Jackson and it takes a ton of guts to go for that on your own side of the field. If it doesn’t work, it’s incredibly easy for people to criticize. But the bottom line is, had the Browns gone for it and picked up the first down, they win.

Further, when it comes to fourth down, there are too many occasions where it feels like the Browns only decided to go for it after not getting the first down or end zone on third down. Rather than planning ahead and saying on third down or before the series started that the plan is to go for it, play calling is impacted.

If it’s third-and-5, not needing to get all five yards in one play opens up the playbook. The third down play can potentially set up the fourth down play. In a number of situations, but notably this past week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they don’t get the line to gain on third, then appear to decide the last second to go for it. That’s poor planning.

CLEVELAND, OH – SEPTEMBER 20: Avery Williamson #54 of the New York Jets sacks Tyrod Taylor #5 of the Cleveland Browns during the second quarter at FirstEnergy Stadium on September 20, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

Speaking of poor planning, the way they handled Baker Mayfield may have had good intentions, but it completely backfired. Jackson put all of his chips behind Tyrod Taylor in training camp and preseason. He gave him every first team rep, said over and over to the media, that Taylor was the starter and needed all the first team reps that he could get.

Hue declared Tyrod the unquestioned starting quarterback in March and admitted that he wanted Tyrod last year (per 247 Sports):

"“I am very excited that (Taylor) is here,” Jackson said. “A year ago, we did have some overtures back and forth about him then, as well. Obviously, last year was last year. He played for them and led them to the playoffs. For him to be here now is very exciting to me and also for our offensive staff. We sat with our personnel group and watched all of the quarterbacks. We made a decision we thought was best for the Cleveland Browns and Tyrod Taylor was best for the Cleveland Browns. He is our starting quarterback. Very excited about it.”"

After all of that, Taylor lasted three and a half games. An entire training camp and preseason spent on a quarterback that became a forgotten man in under a month and cost the Browns a third round pick.

So the Browns actual starting quarterback got about a dozen first team reps through all of camp and the preseason. Now, the offense is in disarray and part of that is because they didn’t practice together. Some of the drops are a direct result of this, especially when Mayfield throws a significantly faster ball than Taylor does.

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While there wasn’t a good answer to the problem, the lack of planning when it came to the Desmond Harrison decision was catastrophic. Not Hue’s fault is the fact that Harrison was injured for about half of training camp. What is Jackson’s fault is jerking Joel Bitonio around, having him go to left tackle after giving up on Shon Coleman, then moving Bitonio back to left guard and having Harrison come in and start at left tackle as an undrafted free agent with virtually no preparation.

Harrison is doing all he can, but he was undrafted in no small part to his lack of functional strength. His movement skills are something to hold onto and see if they can develop, but he’s completely out of his league as a starter. And even as a swing tackle, that would be a massive get for the Browns. The fact that he’s incapable in his current situation is unfortunate.

There really isn’t a better answer to the problem right now either, but how this was handled was amateurish and another indication of how things are often done with Hue Jackson in charge. He crushed one of his assistant coaches in public only to completely backtrack and go with what Bob Wiley said in the first place, which is that Joel Bitonio was plan Z at tackle.

Challenges have again been a problem this year and there have been at least two occasions where Jackson challenged plays that he couldn’t possibly win. This past week was another good example. On a play ruled incomplete where the ball was ripped out of a receivers’ hands, Hue tried to get it overturned to a fumble, but there was no clear recovery. So if the referee overturned the ball, the Bucs would have gotten the ball where the reception and fumble happened, allowing them to gain yardage; obviously a worse outcome.

Jackson has challenged multiple spots this year as well. Even when those are won, which is rare, the payoff is rarely worth the risk. This is an area that shouldn’t be difficult with practice, but it’s not clear that he even knows the rules on this and it’s just throwing timeouts away. He’s not calling plays. He’s supposed to be in a better position to effectively manage the clock and the overall game. It hasn’t happened.

Last, but maybe the most important is accountability. Hue is quick to remind everyone he’s the head coach until it comes time to take the blame. Outside of the thorough beating put on the Browns by the Los Angeles Chargers where Jackson owned it, he has consistently found ways to try to blame everyone else.

This year, he’s blamed players on any number of occasions and without directly saying it, he put blame on Todd Haley this past week. Even in year three, Hue struggles to own his shortcoming and the players are significantly more accountable than he is.

The complexion of this team would look much different if the Cleveland Browns were able to pull off wins in more of these overtime games, have a winning record currently, but the problems remain. Hue Jackson may be improving in some areas, but it’s year three (his fourth as a head coach overall) and if that’s all the evolving he’s capable of doing, it’s too little, too late. Overall, the mismanagement, the poor planning and the inability to hire a good coaching staff are areas that haven’t improved and the Browns don’t have time to wait around hoping they do.