Red Right 88

Jimmy Haslam finally resolves his biggest mistake

It may have taken longer than we would have liked, but Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam finally made a move on Tuesday to fix the biggest mistake of his tenure with the team.

In relieving CEO Joe Banner of his duties and replacing general manager Mike Lombardi with Ray Farmer on the football side, Haslam sent a clear message that it is time to stop hoarding salary cap money and draft picks and start putting the Browns back on the right path.

“The purpose of these moves is to unify our team with one, unequivocal goal: Provide our fans with the winning organization they have long deserved,” Haslam said in announcing the moves.

That quote right there should fill Browns fans with hope that a better day is coming.

Read more…

Browns fighting never-ending perception battle

When Jimmy Haslam bought the Cleveland Browns and brought Joe Banner to town to run the organization, the duo talked about how they were going into this with eyes wide open.

We were a bit skeptical at the time if that was true or not, because you really have to be here to understand the scrutiny placed on the Browns – Cleveland’s only sports team that is a topic of conversation 365 days a year.

But if Haslam, Banner and the rest of the crew in Berea didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into, the past month certainly has driven the point home. Ever since the Browns decided to fire head coach Rob Chudzinski after just one season on the job the franchise has been criticized in a way that we haven’t seen since the Bill Belichick-era in the early 1990s.

Read more…

How to fix the Cleveland Browns in 10 easy steps

Jonathan Knight, author of several books including Sundays in the Pound and Kardiac Kids, spoke Wednesday evening at the Hudson Library and Historical Society.

During an entertaining hour-long presentation, Knight, who started a newsletter about the Cleveland Browns when he was 8 years old, pointed out that while the Browns are very good at reminding everyone that they were once a winning franchise, team officials don’t look to the past when building the current team, resulting in the poor product that fans witness week after week and year after year.

“This presentation is going to be like The DaVinci Code,” Knight said. “If you look into the nooks and crannies of Browns history, we can find clues that tell us what the team is doing wrong and why they are failing.”

Knight then laid out his 10 (mostly) tongue-in-cheek steps to fix the Browns (everything in quote marks is from Knight):

Read more…

On the Browns and final roster control

The Cleveland Browns finally ended their latest coaching search, one that was both lengthy and, at times, laborious, with the hiring Mike Pettine on Thursday.

Throughout the entire process there was much discussion, debate and hand-wringing over the current state of the team and the direction the franchise is heading. One topic that we heard repeatedly was the notion that no coach would want to work for the Browns because they would have to “give up” control of the roster to CEO Joe Banner and General Manager Mike Lombardi.

Pettine was asked about having final say over the roster during his introductory news conference and his non-answer that the details are “still being worked out” only helped to stoke the fire over who’s in control in Berea.

When Banner was first hired by the Browns, this is what he told The Plain Dealer when asked about who will have final say on the team’s 53-man roster:

“We’ll determine that officially when we see who’s in those roles. My bias is for the coach to make those decisions. Now, we may end up with somebody in personnel who’s so good that I tweak that, but going in, my bias is that the coach will have the most say on the 53-man roster and the 45 who dress for games.”

That sounds to us like Banner would like to have the coach be the main voice when it comes to the final roster, but he’s not comfortable allowing that to happen until the head coach earns his trust. (Of course, firing your coach every year contributes heavily to any trust issues, so …)

So that got us to thinking about whether this whole issue about final say over the roster is a big deal or, as it happens too often in Cleveland, much ado about nothing? How do other teams in the NFL do this, especially the successful ones?

Read more…

Searching for answers in the latest Browns coaching search

The Cleveland Browns have now gone – gasp! – 24 days and counting without a head coach.

In the that time, the playoffs have gone along and we are now down to two teams. The college bowl season wrapped up and … that’s about it, really.

The Browns haven’t won or lost a game, haven’t drafted a player or signed one in free agency; basically they have been operating like every other team that is not in the playoffs. They are just currently doing it without a coaching staff, which, apparently, means the world is coming to an end in Berea. (Or at least more so than usual.)

We commented on Twitter earlier today that Cleveland is the only place where being methodical is seen as a sign of incompetence and weakness. When the team fired head coach Rob Chudzinski after the season-ending loss to Pittsburgh, owner Jimmy Haslam and CEO Joe Banner promised fans that they would take their time on this search and, so far, they have been true to their word. Yet people are freaking out left and right because the Browns haven’t hired anyone.

It’s time to take a stiff drink, Browns fans, calm down, and let’s see if we can try to figure out where the Browns are right now and just how panicked everyone should really be.

Read more…