Sunday evening, just hours after their loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cleveland Browns announced the firings of head coach Mike Pettine and general manager Ray Farmer. The firings come after the pair failed to lead the Browns to a winning season in their two year tenure with the team.
The Browns were tied for the worst record in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans with a 3-13 record. The record does mean that the Browns will get the second overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft.
“We’ve made this decision because we don’t believe our football team was positioned well for the future. We are all disappointed with where we are and we take full responsibility.” said Browns owner Jimmy Haslem in a statement following the firings of the two men who ran the Browns for the past two seasons.
In Mike Pettine’s first ever stint as an NFL head coach, the 49 year old lead the Browns to a 10-22 record. This was also Ray Farmer’s first ever stint as the GM of an NFL team.
Following the firings, Pettine said, “I feel like we’ve done a lot of good things, but I’m the first one to tell you — you’ve heard me say it a million times — this is a pass/fail league, and the results aren’t there. Nobody wants to hear it takes time. Nobody wants to hear it’s a process, but that’s the situation that we’re in.”
The firings of Pettine and Farmer may lead to the Browns losing left tackle Joe Thomas, as Thomas said he may reconsider staying with the Browns now with the changes. He said that depending on how the changes go down, it will decide what he will do during the off-season.
“We’ll have to see what happens after this.” said Thomas on what his future says for him.
Thomas currently still has three years remaining on his current contract with the Browns, but could ask for a trade from Cleveland.
Main Photo: BEREA, OH – JANUARY 23: Cleveland Browns new head coach Mike Pettine fields questions from the media during a press conference to announce his hiring at the Browns training facility on January 23, 2014 in Berea, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
