The past few games, the Cleveland Browns have done a lot to make an already attractive coaching vacancy look that much more appealing.
In six of their past eight quarters, the Cleveland Browns have been dominant, notching back to back wins, playing their best football of the season and potential head coaching candidates are going to take notice. Beyond the result of the games which certainly don’t hurt, players are stepping up and showing what should already be a promising market for the organization to hire the head coach they want — particularly their young core.
The Browns have a lot going for them when looking ahead to the coaching market in what will be — stop if you’ve heard this before — the most important head coaching hire in franchise history. Having what looks like a franchise quarterback, franchise defensive end, an elite middle linebacker, a talented secondary and a few playmakers on offense in addition to a great core up front on the offensive line, the Browns are an attractive opportunity for a head coach.
Since Hue Jackson and Todd Haley were fired, the team has looked significantly better and there’s little doubt how much of a hindrance it was.
For coaches, it was easy to see the potential in Cleveland, but now they get to see results. Results and a real foundation, which gives them peace of mind in the even they get the job. It’s not a matter of well, if this guy develops and this player rounds back into form and they can add a piece here, they aren’t being forced to imagine what could be. There’s some concrete results showing what is.
This means the Browns won’t have to lead a sales pitch to candidates with the idea that the next coach will have the opportunity to turn this franchise around and become a legend. That’s pretty much baked in to whoever gets the job. Instead, it’s about delivering on the pressure to make it happen.
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It won’t be the incredibly weak argument about being able to pay out a ton of money or the fact there are only 32 jobs in the NFL. This one is now extremely attractive and rather than chasing after candidates hoping to be taken seriously, they can sit back and good candidates are going to coming to them and hoping they can beat out the field to get the job.
It’s a position the Browns have not been in since before the team moved. Sure, when the Browns came back, there was a little bit of juice as an expansion team, but Chris Palmer wasn’t wowing anyone. Butch Davis was the biggest hire this team has made since 1999. Those days are done.
There are issues that need to be worked out in terms of ownership’s ability to avoid fouling things up, but with the amount of talent here and the framework to be extremely successful, good candidates will put up with a lot to get this job.
For starters, no one is should be able to dictate terms to the Browns. When the Browns were considering Hue Jackson, he was demanding personnel input. That was ultimately the reason the Philadelphia Eagles removed him from their consideration and went to Doug Pederson, a far less exciting candidate at the time, who was willing to fit in to their organizational structure.
The Browns, meanwhile, led by Jimmy Haslam, felt compelled to give up everything Hue wanted to get their man. And they got him. Three wins in 40 games later, the hope is that with John Dorsey in place as well as the amount of talent, that won’t happen this time.
If for some reason a candidate that tries to dictate terms, the Browns can simply move on from them and go with another great option that is a better fit like the Eagles did. They can set out what they want in a head coach and find the best option that’s willing to accept that and be better for it.
None of this guarantees the Browns will be successful, but so much needs to be eliminating the avenues that led to failure in the past and finding the best match as opposed to trying to go out and catch the hottest prospect that is willing to give them the time of day. That will be a key part of Dorsey’s influence in the process. He needs to be able to change the mindset of the hiring process and let it play out. The Haslams tended to operate as headhunters and always approached it as trying to make a sale as opposed to getting it right.
Not only did this happen with Hue Jackson, it also happened with Mike Pettine. When the Browns were in discussions with Pettine, he told the Browns that he wanted to be able to tell the Buffalo Bills and his assistant coaches what was going to happen, setting up an artificial deadline. Not an outrageous move by Pettine, but it wasn’t one the Haslams had to budge on. They did, offering him the head coaching job, which he accepted.
The Haslams must understand that the Cleveland Browns are an attractive coaching job and as much as they may want to get their preferred choice, they have to be patient and avoid looking desperate.
In the past, the Browns were one of the worst jobs in the league and it was more understandable as to why they acted the way they did, but now as one of the more attractive vacancies in the league, be patient, be open minded to candidates which might really surprise and impress them. If Dorsey can get them to do it or simply do it for them, their odds of making the right hire will increase significantly. The Browns can then pair a really young, talented locker room with a coaching staff that deserves the opportunity to coach them.