A New Chapter for the Browns...Again

The Browns have hired their new coach. He replaces Mike Pettine who had been the Browns coach for two years. Pettine replaced Chud who was given only one year. This means Jackson will be the 4th coach the Browns have had in five years. That ratio is almost as bad as their starting QB ratio.

I didn't know much about Jackson as I was in the "let's hire Chip Kelly or Matt Patricia" camp. I don't think Pettine was a great coach. In fact, he may have barely qualified as an okay coach. He had a lot going against him including being dead last in coaching errors made from the sideline (however that's measured), he's a Rex Ryan guy who I think is among the worst coaches in the league, and he didn't do anything really great. He's a defensive coach and the Browns D went backwards. So when I say I didn't think Pettine should've been fired, it's not because I thought he was a good coach. I think that the Browns are sending the wrong message by firing their coaches every 1-2 years. I'm pretty sure that's what made Chip Kelly not really look at Cleveland as a real landing spot.

The Browns organization is looked at as dysfunctional by people around the league and by media members not located in the state of Ohio. Sadly to this point, I have to agree. Pettine, Farmer, and Haslam have made some good moves but they've also made terrible ones. Farmer was great with free agency but horrible in the draft. Pettine had his hands tied a little on offense but didn't do much on defense, his specialty. Haslam cares about the team unlike the previous owner. He's upgraded the things that fans don't get to see very often such as the facilities, the food, and the overall feel of the Browns. Players who wouldn't have been happy before, like Joe Thomas and Joe Haden, feel that the new administration are doing things the right way. I trust their opinion.

To most outsiders who don't really care about the Browns, it's "Cleveland as usual" to them. There have been some significant changes in the organization, good changes for a change, that the Browns have made though. It starts with Jimmy Haslam who has even admitted he's learning as he goes. The difference with this guy? He cares. He puts money into the team. He puts resources into the players. He loves the fans, he really does. He knows what success looks like, he just hasn't had to build it before. He came from our hated rival, Pittsburgh. Say what you want about Pittsburgh, but they have a solid, well-run organization. The Browns will get there, but they're figuring out how.

Haslam is switching things up. I think switching things up, especially when they're not working, is a good idea. There's just been so much 'switching things up' in Cleveland that the fans start to feel that 'here we go again' feeling. I also agree with how they're switching things up by going the analytics route. Know who else relies somewhat heavily on analytics? The Spurs and the Patriots. Paul DePodesta (the moneyball guy) and Sashi Brown are smart guys who will be looking to use analytics. Whether you agree with going this route or not, what you can admit as a fan is that (1) the way we've been doin things up until now hasn't worked and (2) Haslam is showing initiative and effort. He wants the Browns to win.

Not many fans know this, either, but Haslam made a great move to get the guy, Hue Jackson, that he felt was the best guy available. Jackson was the second coach hired right after Adam Gase in Miami. The Giants and the 49ers both were targeting him. In fact, he had dates to meet with them. The Giants are a well-run organization, so I like it when the Browns do things that well-run organizations like the Giants, Patriots, and Steelers do. There was an owners meeting that took place in Houston on January 12th and 13th. This meeting was the same one where the owners ended up voting to move the Rams back to Los Angeles.

Jimmy Haslam was originally planning on going to that meeting, but instead decided to stay back in Cleveland to work out a deal with arguably the top coordinator candidate, Hue Jackson. Jackson was scheduled to meet with the Giants and the 49ers, but Haslam got it done instead. That speaks highly of an owner. Maybe Jackson isn't the right guy, maybe he is. But this is what former Browns owner Randy Lerner, who didn't really care about the team, didn't do. So even though Haslam is the guy who wanted and got Johnny Manziel (biggest mistake of his tenure) as our franchise QB, I can tell you that he is the right owner for the Browns. He's not afraid to take chances, he has salesmanship, he's smart, he's respected, and he's surrounding himself with people smarter than him. I've always supported Haslam despite his mistakes because he's the type of owner you want if you're a football team and especially if you're a football town.

So that brings us to Hue Jackson. He's an offensive guy coming over from the Bengals, which gives the Browns a nice tool against them. He coached the Raiders for one year before getting fired. While with the Raiders, he led them to an 8-8 record while making them a top-10 NFL offense. I like that, that's impressive. The Browns have players on D which means we need to get the offense rolling.

I didn't want to take a chance on a coordinator not named Matt Patricia from New England. If I had to, though, Jackson may be the guy I'd choose after looking him up. The thing I love most about Jackson? He knows coming in that Johnny Manziel is not the franchise QB of this team. To Pettine's credit, he didn't want Manziel, either, but he was stuck with him. During the draft, Haslam let Pettine and Farmer decide who their first pick was going to be (they took Justin Gilbert) but Haslam made it clear he wanted Manziel. So they traded up to get him.

I probably will never be as confident in my opinion of a player. Manziel was overrated in college. He showed horrible judgement on and off the field. He lied to his team. He didn't show up for team activities. He went to rehab and was caught drinking multiple times since, which makes me think he did it as a PR move. His arm isn't built for the AFC North. He'd do better down south. Manziel, to me, is a joke. He's entitled. He's a trust fund kid. He represents everything that Cleveland isn't.

At least with Hue Jackson, he looks like he fits the bill of a Cleveland guy. He's actually born and raised a California kid. So whether or not Jackson does a good job, as long as he does an okay job, I think the Browns need to give him a minimum of three or four years. Not because he deserves it, not because this team needs that long to rebuild, but because it will look bad if he gets anything less. We won't be able to attract the elite head coaches or up-and-coming coordinators. We need to show the league that we'll take care of our not only our players but our coaches.

All that being said, I think there's a good chance Jackson does a really good job. This team has pro bowlers on both sides of the ball. We have a top O-line. We have a great D-line and a really good secondary. Injuries haven't helped, but defensively, I think we're fine. We need to add some pieces on offense though. The Josh Gordon situation might be interesting. I agree with Tom Reed in that Hue Jackson could bring back in and stabilize Josh Gordon. He's got a good shot. I don't think a team needs great WR. I'm looking at Seattle, Carolina, New England, and Kansas City. They don't have great WR's. However, I think having a Josh Gordon is really a game changer, especially for a team who doesn't have an elite QB.

With the second pick in the draft, I hope Jackson decides to take Paxton Lynch and not Jared Goff. He might like Goff since they're both California kids. I think Lynch will be the better QB. I may even take Carson Wentz from North Dakota State. Actually, here's my order of QB's I'd take:

• Paxton Lynch, Memphis
• Carson Wentz, North Dakota State
• Kevin Hogan, Stanford
• Jared Goff, Cal
• Dak Prescott, Miss. State

I actually wouldn't take any of the top Big Ten QB's in Connor Cook from MSU, Christian Hackenberg from PSU, or Cardale Jones from OSU. I don't like Jake Coker from Alabama, either. If we don't take one in the earlier rounds, Brandon Doughty from Western Kentucky will likely be available starting round 5.

Let me say that just because you do well in college doesn't mean it always translates to the NFL. The list is really long of guys who were good, really good, or even great in college but didn't pan out in the NFL. RG3 (Heisman winner), Tim Tebow (Heisman winner), Jamarcus Russell, Brandon Weeden, Ryan Leaf, Johnny Manziel (Heisman winner), AJ McCarron, Aaron Murray, and Ohio State's own Troy Smith (Heisman winner). To succeed in the NFL requires a slightly different skill set with an ability to elevate to the next level.

Whoever the Browns get, I think we have an intelligent staff to lead us on making these decisions. I'm excited for this year of Browns football! Go Browns!!

The Browns in 2016

Due to my busier-than-normal schedule and my lack of interest in Johnny Manziel, I didn't follow the Browns as much from week-to-week as I have in previous years. I have kept up on them, and now with all the recent changes, I wanted to share my insights with probably the four of you who read these things!

At the beginning of this past season, I didn't think things would derail as quickly as they did. We had acquired Josh McCown to start at QB which I thought was a good idea to fill a year or two until we found a real franchise QB. We had just gotten Dwayne Bowe who was under-utilized in Kansas City. We had gotten Alex Mack back from injury and drafted a promising OL in Cameron Erving in the first round to solidify the front line. Most of the guys who were injured at the end of last year were in good shape and everything was going well. Until the season started, really.

Dwayne Bowe sat out most of it, recording only 5 catches for 52 yards. Isaiah Crowell only had one 100+ yard game with most of them closer to 30 yards. In fact, none of the RB's averaged over 3.8 yards a carry.

Then McCown got hurt, as he apparently always does, handing the reigns to Johnny Manziel. "There went the season," I thought. He dealt with injuries and off-the-field issues, as he was predicted to do, and Austin Davis came in to provide some relief. But none of these guys are franchise QB's.

So with everything that happened this year, the owner Jimmy Haslam has decided to fire both the GM Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine. Now I've never been a Pettine homer...I thought he did a below-average job as a coach. He was dead-last in blown coaching calls, he's a Rex Ryan coach who I think is a horrible head coach, and he didn't seem to be able to control the room. Farmer was slightly lower on my list. I feel that aside from Joel Bitonio, he has butchered the draft. He did really well his first season with signing free agents, but his second season was just okay. To me, these firings weren't really necessary.

That is the second big strike I have against Jimmy Haslam. I think he is miles above our last owner, and I feel like he needs some room to grow. He even admitted he is still learning how to do this. He came from the Pittsburgh Steelers ownership group as a minority owner. It's a successful organization, so I trust that he will eventually get this ship righted. I don't think firing coaches every two years is the way to do it.

Hiring a coach and a GM should be the exact opposite of looking for a franchise QB. The coach and GM should be given three years minimum to turn a team around. They shouldn't have to worry after year one if their job is secure or not. Cleveland ESPECIALLY needs this for their next coach or we won't get one good enough to stick around here. We'll be getting coordinators who may or may not be good head coaches who have no other opportunities to coach an NFL team. So head coaches and GM's need at least three years, and I think in Cleveland it needs to be a guaranteed four years.

Quarterback on the other hand shouldn't be that long. We need to find a guy we can trust to become at least a starter if not a good starter in the NFL. I've heard people over the past few years really talk up Johnny Manziel. I don't consider myself a QB whisperer. The only ones I would have bet my next paycheck on were Andrew Luck (that he'd be really good), Tim Tebow (that he'd be really bad), and Johnny Manziel (that he'd be really bad) at the time of going from college to the NFL. I had no idea Russell Wilson would be this good or that JaMarcus Russell would be a bust. Quarterback isn't an easy position to predict. Players like Manziel were just obvious to me, but some of the top analysts even now think that Manziel will turn out to be good. I don't. I think he'd do better with a team like the Cowboys or the Texans, but I don't think he'll be really good.

To me, QB is just too important a position to give to someone who has off-the-field problems in high school and college. Maturity, discipline, intelligence, and good judgement are the things great QB's need. You have to have at least something there, and I don't feel Manziel has any of those. He was an overrated QB in college who could run and make plays thanks to a great O-line and WR corp. He's not an NFL-caliber QB.

That being said, the past is the past. Now people are starting to come around on the CRAZY idea that Johnny Football might not be the answer. So if that's the case, which I hope people realize it is, then we need a QB still, a head coach, and a GM. It sounds like Haslam already has delegated many of the GM duties to his innovative strategists Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta. It's an interesting move...it's getting away from traditional thinking and taking a more "Moneyball" approach. That's appropriate since DePodesta is the guy Jonah Hill played in the movie "Moneyball" and played football and baseball at Harvard. He's a bright guy.

I don't think there's a magic answer out there, but the name I like the most is the one who most recently interviewed in Matt Patricia. He's another smart guy, comes from the successful New England Patriots, and will be able to integrate the analytics the Browns plan on using this upcoming season. This is a different direction the Browns are going in, and so far I haven't seen anybody else who would fit the head coaching position as well as Patricia considering the tactics the Browns are now using.

Haslam cares. That's the biggest thing to me. An owner needs to be passionate about his team. For too long, the Cleveland Browns had an owner who didn't care. Much to Clevelanders dismay, Art Modell actually DID care. He did a lot of good for a long time. The reason he moved to Baltimore was because he saw both the Cavs and the Indians get new stadiums and the Browns wouldn't. I'm not excusing him for what he did, or I wouldn't be a Clevelander. I'm just saying that when an owner cares, you can see it, and the team eventually does well. The Browns did well under Modell at the end and they will do well eventually under Haslam. He cares, he knows he makes mistakes and he fixes them, and he's a smart guy who is surrounding himself with smarter guys than him. Those are all positives for the Browns.

Some other positives: we have Joe Thomas who doesn't want to leave this crazy organization. We have several pro bowlers despite what ESPN Cleveland commentators think: Joe Thomas, Tashaun Gipson, Joe Haden, Donte Whitner, and Alex Mack. Karlos Dansby is a pro bowl level talent as well. The team knows how hungry the city is for the Browns to do well. The organization isn't afraid to make bold moves if it feels it needs to.

So with that said, at this point, I hope the Patriots lose horribly in the playoffs which forces Patricia to lean towards taking the job. I would love if it Chip Kelly came over to coach. He's not your average coach and he has his issues, but coaching effectively is not one of them. I think he'll end up in Tennessee though. If neither get hired, we just need a guy who can match the system the Browns are putting in place.

No matter who they hire as coach, and GM will be kind of a downgraded job thanks to Brown and DePodesta, we still need a QB. I don't think he's a sure lock, but my favorite is Paxton Lynch out of Memphis. He's recently been moved up on McShay's big board, but I think he's the best option for Cleveland. It's not Jared Goff from Cal who throws too many unnecessary picks and has an average arm. It's not Connor Cook from Michigan State who lacks the consistency and leadership demanded of an NFL QB. I don't know who else the Browns will consider, but Lynch is my pick. Keep McCown, keep Davis, get Lynch, ship out Manziel for maybe a 5th round pick. Or give up a 5th round pick to get him out.

For draft picks this year, the Browns have the following:

• 1st round: second pick
• 2nd round: first pick
• 3rd round: second pick
• 4th round: first pick
• 5th round: second pick
• 6th round: first pick
• 7th round: first and second picks

A change from recent years in which the Browns mostly have one pick per round. Lynch will get picked up in the first round if the Browns don't take him, so contrary to Bruce Hooley from ESPN Cleveland, the Browns should take him with the #2 pick.

This is my stance on the Browns: we're never going to get anywhere, no matter who the coach is, until we find a QB. And the QB will have a harder time adjusting if we keep switching out coaches every two years. Find a coach, keep him, get an NFL-caliber QB. It won't matter that we put 4-6 players in the pro bowl. This is the new NFL.

Ending of the Holy War

I went to both BYU and the University of Utah. I've also gone to Westminster College and Western Governors University. For a while I felt I was circling through all the Utah-based universities. So when I talk about BYU and Utah, I don't really have a horse in the race. If I had to choose a side to root for, I'd pick Utah. Why? Their colors are red, closer to my Buckeyes. I went there longer, more important events happened there. But mostly because I find a lot more BYU fans are just annoying. I get it because Ohio State fans can be really annoying, too. That's why I understand why a lot of people hate us.

Utah has decided to cancel the 2016 basketball game against BYU in the upcoming season. The football game is still on the schedule...for now. Utah also was responsible for not renewing the contract for the 2014 and 2015 season football games. Coach Krystkowiak (sorry Ute fans, there's only one true Coach K) and Chris Hill decided to cancel the upcoming basketball game due to the "rough play and escalated emotions" that have recently occurred. BYU fans are pretty up in arms.

I think most people who have followed this rivalry know exactly what's going on but no one wants to admit it. I can: Utah has outgrown BYU. The Utes no longer need or want to play BYU in things. Why? There's a big downside and very little upside. Utah is now in a power 5 conference playing against really good teams in both basketball and especially football. They are starting to feel what the SEC has felt for years. Why do you need a stronger out-of-conference schedule when your conference schedule is so tough? That's why Alabama plays South West Jacksonville State Technical Institute of the Poor every year. They'll play one really good team a year, two max. But it just makes sense that they are saving their tougher games for the ones already on the schedule each year: USC, UCLA, Arizona State, Oregon, and Stanford. They play in arguably the toughest division in college football.

Back when both teams were in the mountain west, fighting for respectability, they needed each other more. They didn't have a choice on playing each other, but if either one would've gone to a non-BCS conference, they probably would've kept their rivalry going. But Utah bolted for the Pac-12 as they should have, and BYU made the move towards independence which made them a lot of money but is still a questionable decision. Even the BYU head coach publicly expressed his desire to align the university with a power 5 conference, which the Cougars really should do. But BYU has stuck to their guns and is counting their ESPN money.

Utah's recruits have now seen an immediate upgrade. Given their success in the conference, despite not having won their division yet, the recruiting will continue to be at a higher level than it has been. BYU's recruiting is still where it was before, getting 2 and 3-star players with an occasional 4-star guy in there. They should be really excited that a 5-star player like Mangum is there to take the reigns.

I said this when Utah was first moving to the conference because all the Ute fans thought they would just go into the then third-best BCS conference and run the tables, especially with Oregon and Stanford in the other division and USC having a down period: Utah doesn't know the grind of the week-to-week playing a really good to great team like the SEC, Big Ten, and Big 12 conferences all have grown accustomed. They, like BYU, were used to playing a really good TCU team somewhere in their schedule and then having their rivalry game, which was a good game, at the end of the year. They didn't have to worry about facing LSU, then Alabama, then Auburn (all who won the national title) with crossover games at Georgia and Florida. They didn't have to worry about Michigan, then Michigan State, then Wisconsin, then take a bye week and prepare for Ohio State. Coach Whittingham even said that in a press conference. It was something to the effect of "now we have to really prepare every week for the teams we face." What a slap in the face to the Mountain West Conference! But even moreso, it told the story that BYU has yet to go through: playing in a power 5 conference gives you the benefit of the doubt because it's a lot harder than you think.

So BYU fans, don't be discouraged by Utah's dismissal of the rivalry. It was never as big as you thought it was. I had a friend who was born and raised in Utah go to Michigan for a few years and came back to Utah. She told me how she thought the BYU-Utah rivalry was so much bigger than Michigan-Ohio State and she couldn't understand why the Holy War didn't get nearly as much credit. That's ridiculous. Because if Michigan and Ohio State suddenly found themselves in different conferences, they wouldn't stop playing each other. USC and Notre Dame never stop playing each other despite the distance and the different conferences. Same with Clemson and South Carolina. Auburn and Alabama wouldn't, either. It's a real rivalry. The Holy War, as we've come to find out, may have been more one-sided than people have wanted to admit. Especially some of those annoying BYU fans.