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.