The Cleveland Browns interviewed several candidates, and ultimately decided to hire former Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson as their new head coach. This move came after they fired Mike Pettine, who went 3-13 in 2015, which was his second season at the helm. Jackson, who has spent the last two seasons as the Bengals offensive coordinator, has 15 years of NFL experience, with one year as a head coach, when he led the Oakland Raiders to an 8-8 record. Whether or not you agree with Cleveland’s decision, one thing is for certain: the Browns must give their new head coach a fair shot at being successful.
Browns Must Give New Head Coach Hue Jackson a Fair Shot at Being Successful
The Browns front office has been a trainwreck of an organization, and those in the front office have made one bad decision after another. Hue Jackson is the Browns sixth coach, repeat sixth, since 2008 and their eighth since they returned to Cleveland in 1999. The Browns change coaches far too frequently. Rob Chudzinksi was fired after one season, while Eric Mangini and Pat Shurmur each lasted two seasons, as did Pettine. To put it mildly, the Browns organization has been a model of instability and their team’s performance on the field has suffered as a result.
Cleveland has been in desperate need of a quarterback for years, and they have drafted many signal callers over the years, to no avail. Going back to 1999, these are the names of the quarterbacks the Browns have taken in the first round of the NFL draft: Tim Couch (1999), Brady Quinn (2007), Brandon Weeden (2012) and Johnny Manziel (2014). They also drafted Luke McCown in the fourth round of the 2004 draft, Charlie Frye in the third round of the 2005 draft and Colt McCoy in the third round of the 2010 draft. The Browns have known they need a quarterback, but they keep drafting signal callers who don’t pan out and then fire each head coach a season or two into their tenure. They might not do it intentionally, but they stack the deck against their head coaches and then wonder why the team doesn’t win.
The Browns seem to be trying to change how they do things by restructuring their organization, including hiring Sashi Brown as executive vice president of football operations. They haven’t even hired a new general manager yet, so it remains to be seen if their new way of doing things will pay dividends for the Browns.
I get that the NFL, and sports in general, have a “win now” mentality, but Cleveland hasn’t given a head coach a truly fair shot to be successful and that needs to stop now. They need to allow Hue Jackson, who will be working with a general manager who has yet to be hired, enough time to prove whether or not he is capable of leading the Browns to where they want to be, especially within their new organizational structure.
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