Cleveland Browns: Avoiding another failed coaching hire

The debacle of a coaching situation with the Cleveland Browns should provide plenty to learn from for the next hire. Sadly, it’s entirely what not to do.

The Hue Jackson era has mercifully come to an end for the Cleveland Browns 10 months too late. There should be a number of lessons learned from this abomination to hopefully prevent another one at the cost at what could be an extremely talented roster that could be a contender sooner than later. Beyond the overwhelming incompetence of Jackson and a job he simply had no business being in position to do, the design of the organization was destined to fail from the start.

The way ownership set this organization up when they hired Hue Jackson and Sashi Brown was a disaster waiting to happen. Rather than hiring one and having them be involved in the other, providing a united front, they were essentially hired separately.

And on the surface, given that Brown at that point had never really run a front office, that could be a defensible way to operate, but going with Hue, who has never hesitated to create division for his own sake, it was the start of disaster.

Rather than having one united voice report to ownership, they had each report independently. And that’s where the divided factions started. Jackson immediately set forth in trying to convince Haslam that he was right and Sashi was wrong. And likely, Brown did his own share of this, but at least in public, was always supportive of Hue and didn’t have the documented track record of stabbing co-workers in the back.

Then, after Brown was fired and John Dorsey was hired, there were still two separate factions. Dorsey and Jackson still reported to ownership independent of each other. Hue was operating on survival at this point and certainly wasn’t Dorsey’s guy.

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No one believes that Hue Jackson hired Todd Haley without heavy pressure. He didn’t want him and didn’t think he needed him. Haley had limited job prospects and it was a match made in hell. Not surprisingly, Hard Knocks shed light on just how bad it was going to be, having two different people believe in two completely different ways of operating.

Jackson would remind everyone, including Haley, he was the head coach when it was time to take credit or make a decision he wanted to make, but when it came time to be accountable, it was always someone else’s fault. Haley quickly figured out Jackson and basically ignored him, doing his own thing, creating a massive conflict within the coaching staff in addition to the one that was there between the coaching staff and the front office.

That’s where the Browns have to change first and foremost when it comes to approaching a new head coach. Dorsey needs the new head coach to succeed and he needs to be involved in that hire. He doesn’t necessarily need to be the only one involved in it, but he has to be a hearty endorser of the move. They need everyone to be on the same page, which hasn’t happened in the past three seasons.

If there was one possible benefit to all of the conflict within the coaching staff and with the front office, it appears to have a produced a galvanized locker room that’s fed up with all of them. Baker Mayfield doesn’t seem remotely unhappy to see Jackson or Haley gone and Myles Garrett seems about ready to be rid of Gregg Williams running him into the ground.

The Browns need a united front from top to bottom. And that starts with ownership. The Haslams, after setting up their organization, need to be more of a cheerleader than an active part of the organization. The first way to do that is to have one voice reporting to them. Clearly, they know almost nothing about how a good organization works, so their collective desire to get involved and try to fix it themselves afterward only takes a bad situation and makes it worse.

Nothing highlights this better than the A.J. McCarron debacle, where reportedly Jimmy Haslam was trying to help Hue Jackson force a terrible trade, running over Sashi Brown, which ultimately led to his dismissal. That’s the single most embarrassing moment of the Browns franchise since the team returned in 1999.

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Whether that singular voice is Dorsey or some liaison hired by ownership to be the go-between from football operations to them is up to them. But they have shown a complete inability to deal with multiple voices and it has to stop, so the team can get that singular voice and be reflected from the top and carry on throughout the organization.

The Browns need not limit the scope of their search for a head coach by predetermining what side of the ball they coach or their age or God forbid, worrying about where they were born. Just find a good coach who can hire a good staff, understands how to manage an organization, even the most basic tactics and wants the job.

Successful coaches come in all shapes and sizes and it’s entirely about being able to do that job. If there are multiple qualified candidates, then they can worry about more specific preferences.

Certainly, with Mayfield in the fold, finding a coach that fits him and is going to be able to maximize his ability is critical. Jackson holding onto the job as long as he did had that sole benefit in that the organization’s direction has largely been determined which should help in a coaching search.

The Browns roster has talent, can sell a coach. Having draft picks and cap space helps as well. This team is primed to be a contender in this four-year window with Mayfield’s rookie deal. That will drive a lot of interest in a field of potential coaching candidates that seems ripe with a lot of good options to take over the job. If the Haslams can buy into the idea that less of them is more, that would only help to make the job more attractive.

Xs and Os are important, but the overall demeanor and expectations set by the head coach are more important. Hue didn’t hold himself or anyone else accountable. A team desperate for leadership had none, is getting it out of the youngest of its players.

Say what you mean and mean what you say needs to be a huge part of the Cleveland Browns. And when it comes to issues holding the team back, the coach needs to either own it or actively work to deal with them – not try to pass the buck on a weekly basis. Hue was a spineless, divisive plague that proved to be the worst coach this franchise has ever had.

The job should not be hired based on splash, how fans or media will buy, sell it or anything else that doesn’t have everything to do with the job and what it requires. Hue Jackson’s hire was applauded as much as the drafting of Johnny Manziel by people who only know what other people tell them. When the rubber meets the road, they need coaches that can coach and players that can play. All the splash and sizzle of those two decisions amounted to nothing when it actually mattered.

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The Cleveland Browns are in a great position to take a massive leap forward heading to next year if they can get this hire right, but it all starts with learning from the mistakes of the past by ownership. The hope is that the coaching staff will take on a similar look as the front office did this past year where John Dorsey is the face, but the staff he was able to assemble is just as important. Maybe it is just that simple. Last year, it was the front office and this year it can be bringing in a great coaching staff.

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