Browns hire Andrew Berry as GM

The Cleveland Browns unveiled the worst kept secret in the NFL as the team announced the hiring of Andrew Berry to a five-year contract.

Berry had previously worked in the Browns front office before moving to the Philadelphia Eagles last season as their vice president of football operations and was regarded as the prohibitive favorite to grab the general manager position as soon as the Paul DePodesta faction moved John Dorsey aside and re-established power in the Cleveland front office.

The 32-year-old Berry was a favorite of Jimmy Haslam when Berry was hired by the Browns as part of the Sashi Brown/Paul DePodesta front office takeover before the 2016 season and is well-liked in league circles, even by those that disagree with his football operational theories.
The Browns interviewed two other candidates and Minnesota's George Paton appeared to have a chance due to his relationship with Kevin Stefanski, but Paton apparently could see either (or both) of these issues occurring as either Berry had the job locked up or Paton could see the dysfunction of the Browns scheme and figured he was going to have a difficult time succeeding.

I do wonder about this and I don't have an answer, but is it possible that the "alignment" that Jimmy Haslam is searching for already off-kilter?
George Paton likely wouldn't have even considered the Browns had Kevin Stefanski not been hired as head coach and could Stefanski have pushed for Paton, lost out to DePodesta's choice in Berry causing alignment problems before the car has been driven off the lot?
I don't have the answer, but considering that just as in the case of hiring Kevin Stefanski as the coach, the hire of Andrew Berry was seemingly decided from the start, so why did Stefanski push for Paton to be interviewed?

I'm not thrilled with this hire, but it didn't take a lot of foresight to see the result of yet another Browns "extensive search" ending with Andrew Berry.
I'm not saying Berry is inept, but he was a key part of 1-31 and even though Berry cannot be blamed entirely for the questionable drafts during his previous tenure, he certainly was involved with some of the worst drafts in the team's history and that covers a lot of ground!
Only five of the twenty-four players drafted in those drafts were on the 2019 Browns and I have a problem handing the keys to the car to people that drafted so poorly.
Boosters of Paul DePodesta state that "DePodesta won't be involved in evaluating personnel", which I'm not sure that I believe, but hiring Andrew Berry with his accomplishments reading " was part of the evaluation team that passed over several franchise quarterbacks, was part of the team that thought Kenny Britt was an elite receiver, drafted Corey Coleman over Michael Thomas, drafted three starters out of twenty-four draft picks, and won one of thirty-two games" seems like yet another Jimmy Haslam/Cleveland Browns need to show that they are the smartest guys in the room when the results to date indicate arguably the inverse.

If you are a reader of history and look back to the American involvement in Vietnam. Lyndon Johnson believed so heavily in the Kennedy cabinet holdovers that were telling him to stay involved, escalate and that victory was around the corner if he just stayed the course.
Those people were called by Johnson as "My Harvard's" and because they had Ivy League educations with Johnson's degree coming from Southwest Texas State Teachers College and Johnson always felt an inferiority complex towards them.
Johnson thought because they were better educated that they knew what they were talking about and were suited for their job and because of that feeling of inferiority, Johnson listened to and retained people that were giving him the wrong advice.
I have a feeling that Jimmy Haslam thinks similarly towards Paul DePodesta and Andrew Berry (and formerly Sashi Brown) because, in his eyes, their education makes them smarter and worth listening to.
One's education doesn't always make one suited for a particular vocation and perhaps the above theory is the most plausible one for why the gentlemen involved in 1-31 are about to get the ball back for a second try.
Hopefully, the Browns will find more success the second time around.

Browns hire Kevin Stefanski

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result.

Jimmy Haslam started the "process" for finding a replacement for Freddie Kitchens as the coach of the Cleveland Browns with words that valued experience as a head coach as a leader etc.

You had the feeling that as the Browns sifted through candidates with their search committee that was comprised of Jimmy Haslam, he of the Pilot/Flying J scandal, his wife Dee who thought the current Browns uniforms were an upgrade over their classic predecessors, the Haslams son-in-law J.W. Johnson, who has little recommend himself other than he married Jimmy and Dee's daughter. Chris Collins, who runs the Browns salary cap, and finally Mr. Paul DePodesta, he who lives in San Diego for a team located in Cleveland and while DePodesta is best known for his role in the book "Moneyball" with the Oakland Athletics, he's also the man that on the one occasion that he had total power, managed to run the cash-flush Los Angeles Dodgers into last place and low-balled a 25-year-old homegrown player named Adrian Beltre and allowed him to leave via free agency, only to see Beltre play 14 more seasons, finish with over 3,000 hits and hit 477 homers.
Not a football person in the bunch and while you could say that the John Dorsey-led football men had blown their chance, it would have been a nice idea to have at least one traditional football man asking questions in the room.
Clearly, this was a "qualified" committee to decide who would be yet another head coach for the Cleveland Browns and only was missing a manager from a Pilot/Flying J to truly be complete.

And since these are the Cleveland Browns, they hired a first-time head coach with a year and a half working as an offensive coordinator with the selection of Minnesota Vikings assistant Kevin Stefanski.
Stefanski was widely considered as the runner-up to Freddie Kitchens for the job last season and was the choice of Paul DePodesta, who pushed heavily for him only to lose out to Kitchens, who was the preferred coach of John Dorsey.
Stefanski was the offensive coordinator for Minnesota for a portion of the 2018 season and all of this season for the Vikings, who finished the season rated eighth in scoring offense and were noted for a strong ground game with Dalvin Cook and Alexander Mattison as the workhorses (especially Cook) and using Kirk Cousins play-action often.
It does appear for a team that possesses elite-level runners in Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt and with a quarterback that has similar traits as Kirk Cousins in Baker Mayfield that Stefanski could be a good fit with the offensive personnel in place.

The Vikings offense improved in 2019 from the previous season, but my question is this- how much of that was Stefanski and how much could be credited to "Advisor"  Gary Kubiak?
After all, Kubiak is noted as a quarterback guru and has won a Super Bowl as a head coach in Denver before health issues forced him to leave coaching for a term, so you should consider the possibility that the addition of Kubiak should have accounted for at least a portion of the improvement of the Minnesota offense.
Still, Stefanski was involved and deserves a chunk of the credit for the improvement as well, no matter how you wish to slice those kudos up.

Reportedly, in the interview of New England's Josh McDaniels, McDaniels recommended "sweeping organizational change", while such a change would have been a good idea, what do you think the chances of Paul DePodesta selecting the coach and plan that would include DePodesta as part of the organizational cleaning?
Would you recommend picking someone at your company to be hired that would evict you if they were hired? I doubt it, so McDaniels was likely out of the running as soon as he uttered those words.
Honesty might be a virtue, but in this case, it wasn't going to be rewarded.
AND that includes the stipulation that the owners stay out of football matters with said owners sitting right there.
Considering that option and the preferred candidate of Paul DePodesta being involved as the other option, it was easy to see who was going to win the position.

I know this may read like a snarky column on Stefanski and it's not centered on him as much as it is the process that ended with Stefanski sitting in the final chair when the music shut off.
I really liked a candidate or two (Josh McDaniels and Greg Roman),  disliked another (Brian Daboll), and the remaining candidates (Stefanski, Robert Saleh, Jim Schwartz, Eric Bieniemy, and Mike McCarthy, who was hired by Dallas before the conclusion of the process) were coaches that weren't going to excite me or send me screaming into the night if they were hired.
For me personally, this seems like yet another unexciting Browns hire that saw plenty of Jimmy Haslam wind blowing about what they were looking for and settling for another C-lister that no one else was interviewing (Stefanski was scheduled to interview with Carolina, but the Panthers hired Matt Ruhle before that interview took place), no different than Rob Chudzinski, Mike Pettine or Freddie Kitchens before Stefanski.

That is why I started this post as I did- another untested candidate that few (if any) were interested in as their head coach that seems to have the job because of a shared educational background with Paul DePodesta.
The Browns have this need to be the smartest person in the room, a need to make sure that everyone else knows this, and to travel a different path from others despite a lack of success from that path.
I'm not against numbers evaluations- numbers are a large part of what makes sports fun.
Comparing one player's statistics against another, what is the likelihood of this or that taking place considering the history- that is some of the attraction of following sports.
However, there can be too much analysis and importance placed on those numbers and not enough of on the scouting aspect and there lies my concern.

The Browns are rumored to be connected to former Sashi Brown/Paul DePodesta assistant Andrew Berry as the new general manager.
If this proves to be true, that means that two-thirds of the people that brought you these two drafts in 2016 and 2017 are back and running the show in Cleveland.
The 2016 draft, which featured the trading down and avoiding DeShaun Watson, taking Corey Coleman instead of Michael Thomas with the traded down pick, and has only two remaining players on the 2019 team (4th rounder Joe Schobert and 5th rounder Rashard Higgins) is beyond awful and the 2017 version is better with first overall pick Myles Garrett and 3rd round starter Larry Ogunjobi, the only other remaining player is disappointing first-rounder David Njoku and the Browns traded up for him and chose Jabrill Peppers in the first round to boot!

In all honesty, I'm far more concerned about the re-emergence of DePodesta and Berry running personnel than I am about Kevin Stefanski.
Every first-time head coach is a risk.
Every one.
No one is a sure thing and more fail than succeed, so while Kevin Stefanski would not have been my selection, I cannot say that I am certain that he will be the next head coaching failure in Cleveland.
What I can say is look at the statistics (ironic, huh?) of the two teams and drafts that DePodesta/Berry (and Sashi Brown) were involved with.
1-31, three starters out of two drafts.
I realize crummy coaching from Hue Jackson comes into play a few times and I also realize that there is an argument from some that John Dorsey's draft pick bounty was because of the moves by the same front office clique.
However, what about the draft and personnel decisions from their time would make you feel remotely comfortable with allowing them to make those transactions again?
DePodesta is one of the people that didn't think Carson Wentz was a top 20 quarterback, didn't attempt to trade up for Patrick Mahomes and literally traded out of position rather than select DeShaun Watson.

Imagine this scenario even if you don't imagine any other hypotheticals- IF the Browns do everything under that regime exactly the same other than not trading down and simply take DeShaun Watson, look at the ripple effect that would have.
Yes, the Browns would not have Denzel Ward, which would be a loss, but not an insurmountable one, but having Watson would mean that that they wouldn't have had to draft a quarterback in 2018, which means no Baker Mayfield and therefore no doubts about the position entering 2020.
Without needing a quarterback, it could have been the Browns adding picks in the 2018 draft through teams that wanted to trade up (the Jets and Bills traded up in that draft into the top seven to pick quarterbacks) and it's possible, the Browns may have still been able to take Denzel Ward, the one lost player through not making that trade, anyway.

Those are my concerns.
The seemingly "fixed" process of Kevin Stefanski being the choice all along, despite words that promised an open search for an established winner, from a committee that seems to have a lack of knowledge about football beyond the numbers and a decidedly biased process along with a track record of evaluating personnel by the people in charge makes me very concerned about that portion of the organization.

I'm not mad. I'm not glad.
I'm just meh with a side helping of worry.

Back later with the other big news of the weekend as the Devils fired their general manager Ray Shero.

John Dorsey out with Browns

The Cleveland Browns ridiculous reality show that could be known as "That's SO Haslam" continued on a Tuesday afternoon that saw general manager John Dorsey relieved of his duties after being told of a re-designed organization structure that would limit Dorsey's influence to the personnel department.

I just cannot believe that the Browns are dumping John Dorsey, who I believe was far from perfect in all of his decisions- most notably his decision to select Freddie Kitchens as the head coach after the 2018 season and another call that some are better with than I in drafting Baker Mayfield first overall in the 2018 draft.
However, Dorsey's decisions have been better than his predecessors under the reign of terror led by the pair of Jimmy and Dee Haslam, and then even the most devout admirer of analytics would have to admit the roster that Dorsey will be leaving to his successor is far superior to that left to him by the Sashi Brown/Paul DePodesta/Andrew Berry regime.

Dorsey apparently has lost a power struggle for the ear of Jimmy Haslam to Paul DePodesta and if Dorsey is not going to be the person making the decision on the next coach, I can somewhat understand the choice to let Dorsey walk away.
The general manager and coach are going to need to work hand and glove with each other and if Dorsey isn't on board with a hire, the parting of the ways is for the best.

Here's the problem.
The Haslams are rumored to want Andrew Berry to return from the Eagles as the GM and who knows what coach the DePodesta/Berry partnership would want.
Canton native and New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is reported to be the latest shiny toy for the Haslams, but it didn't seem that McDaniels and Dorsey would be a fit and McDaniels would likely want someone from the Bill Belichick tree to work with him on personnel.
Currently, there are two dueling schools of thought being reported from two veterans of Cleveland media.
The Plain Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot is reporting that the Browns are all in on landing McDaniels and whomever he wants in personnel, while Tony Grossi is stating that McDaniels is unlikely to take the job because he doesn't want to work with DePodesta, who doesn't live in Cleveland and works out of his California home base.
Who knows who to believe at this particular point?

Another rumor has the Browns retaining Eliot Wolf and promoting Wolf to GM and hiring former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy as pairing the former Green Bay duo.
McCarthy would have the cache' of being a former Super Bowl-winning coach and claims he has revitalized himself in his one year away from the game by embracing several segments that he ignored in the past.
McCarthy's brand of West Coast offense seemed to be getting stale in his latter years with the Pack, so if he is the choice the Browns have to hope those new innovations are involved with McCarthy as there is no Aaron Rodgers in Cleveland waiting for him.

The Browns are going to also have to find a coach that is going to be a believer in Baker Mayfield as any new coach will likely have Mayfield for the next season or two to help him regain his rookie form.
Mayfield spent much of this season behaving immaturely both on and off the field, watched his performance slump badly and was constantly having his ego massaged by both John Dorsey and Freddie Kitchens, so whoever takes the job will have no choice other than working with Mayfield to teach him to be a professional in all aspects of the game and perhaps ride him as he has never been ridden before.
If a coach doesn't believe in Mayfield and he has been a polarizing figure since the evaluations for the draft, that coach may not want to take this job.

John Dorsey wasn't perfect and the 2018 draft looks a lot worse now than it did a year ago.
First rounders Baker Mayfield and Denzel Ward each were disappointments,
second-rounder Austin Corbett and fifth-rounder Genard Avery were both traded in the middle of the season, third-rounder Chad Thomas has only been average as a rotational lineman and fourth-rounder Antonio Callaway was released after several issues.
Only the selection of Nick Chubb in the second round with a pick that was essentially bought by Sashi Brown for absorbing the one year of Brock Osweiler's contract stands out as a great 2018 Dorsey pick at this time.

Dorsey traded first and third-rounders in the 2019 draft to land Odell Beckham, who was disappointing, but still played through injury and below-average quarterback play to reach 1,000 yards, but second-rounder Greedy Williams showed promise through an erratic rookie season and fifth-rounder Mack Wilson might be on his way to being a star, so that's not bad for not having two of your first three picks.
Dorsey also has added picks for the next two drafts with extra picks in the third, sixth and seventh rounds in 2020 and traded for picks in the fourth, fifth, and seventh rounds in the 2021 draft as well.
John Dorsey made his mistakes and some were large ones but deserved more time.

For now, I think that this is a poor move, but if the Browns can hire a quality coach and if it would turn out to be that the new coach and Dorsey wasn't a good fit, I'd be willing to change my mind.

The possible Lazarus-like rise of DePodesta after his involvement with the Sashi Brown/Andrew Berry 2016 and 2017 drafts that have added one impact player in Myles Garrett, two starters on defense in Joe Schobert and Larry Ogunjobi, disappointing tight end David Njoku (after trading into the first round to draft him) and Rashard Higgins, who apparently did something really bad to Freddie Kitchens, who refused to play him, out of 24 players picked, concerns me.
The lack of draft production, the release of Joe Haden, who was overpaid, but on a team with loads of cap space, and decisions such as trading a pick that could have been DeShaun Watson and in a draft that saw them draft Myles Garrett first ( I was and still am on board there) with Watson and Patrick Mahomes in it, saw their preferred choice as Mitch Trubisky, all adds up to me wanting nothing to do with these guys, let alone hitch the wagon to them again.

And the final problem of all- Jimmy and Dee Haslam.
I'm sure you have noticed that the Browns have never landed even a hot coordinator type since the Tennessee twosome have owned the Browns and Cleveland usually settles for the second and third-tier candidates mainly because the top available coaches have options and when you have options, why would you pick working for the Haslams?
The Browns didn't have to outbid anyone for Rob Chudzinski, Mike Pettine, or Freddie Kitchens because no one else was interested in them.
There were a few interested in Hue Jackson, but the main opposition for Jackson was his employer at the time in Cincinnati, who wanted to keep Jackson as the coach in waiting.
If you had choices, why would you work for the Haslams?
Jimmy Haslam agrees with everyone that he speaks with, backs the last person that he talks to before he is forced to make a decision, has zero patience, and changes his mind at the drop of a hat.
As for Dee Haslam, she thought the current uniforms (that will hopefully return to the classic look after serving the minimum amount of time, for 2020) were a great idea and looked sharp. so unless you can tell me something else that she has contributed, that's about all that I have.

Why on Earth would anyone want to work with this bunch?
Jimmy Haslam owned a small part of the Steelers, the most patient organization in the game, and you would have thought that he would have learned something and instead, the Cleveland Browns are the Bizzaro World Steelers opposite in every way- especially in the win column.
The Haslams have run through six coaches, including inherited Pat Shurmur and 2018 interim coach Gregg Williams and six front office heads- inherited Tom Heckert, Joe Banner/Mike Lombardi, Ray Farmer, Sashi Brown, and now John Dorsey.
The one qualified person that they have hired has been shown the door after only two seasons, why would anyone want to work for these people?
Until either someone qualified is willing to take their money and is then fortunate enough to turn things around fast enough to keep Pilot Jimmy and Flying Dee's fingers off the red button, we may never know just what it will take to make these people winners.

I'll wrap up with one thought- Ron Rivera would rather work for Daniel Snyder than work for the Haslams.
Think about that.

Browns hit rock bottom-lose to Bengals 33-23

The Cleveland Browns officially hit rock bottom in Cincinnati in the final game of the season as the Browns visit to the Queen City ended in a 33-23 loss to a Bengals team that had won only one game previously all season.

Baker Mayfield was harassed all day by the Cincinnati pass rush as he was sacked six times to go with three touchdowns and three interceptions.
Mayfield completed only 12 passes on the afternoon but finished with 279 yards and all three touchdowns were longer throws of 20, 46, and 56 yards.
The Browns finish at an extremely disappointing 6-10 and finish third in the AFC North.

Brownie Bits

1)  As I was writing the entry blurb, the Browns announced that they have fired Freddie Kitchens.
Kitchens was a risky pick and even though I wasn't entirely sold, I wasn't totally against it either.
The only proven head coach that was available last season was Bruce Arians, who I think wanted the Browns job, but the Browns/Haslam's weren't interested, so if you didn't want Arians anyone was going to be a risk.
I'll be writing more on this tomorrow, but this had to be done.

2) The Bengals pass rush was the difference in this game as they just didn't allow Baker Mayfield to have time to throw.
On the rare occasions that Mayfield had time, he was successful but those attempts were few and far between and even when he got the ball away it rarely was without being hurried.

3) My "favorite" rush from the Bengals came when Carl Lawson moved around Chris Hubbard without even being touched.
Do you realize how few times in the NFL that a front seven rusher ( a blitzing DB can do this on occasion) does this to a tackle?
Not beating him with a speed rush, or being deflected, just plain moving around the tackle for the sack without the tackle even touching him.
Pathetic.

4) The Browns run defense was pretty crummy as well as Joe Mixon ran for 162 yards and two touchdowns for an average of 6.2 yards a carry.
Mixon is a very good back but in no way should he be averaging six yards a carry and he ran for well over 100 yards in their first meeting in Cleveland.

5) Baker Mayfield was erratic again, but his scoring throw to Jarvis Landry was an excellent pass and the longball to Damion Ratley was on the money as well.
Mayfield has wasted a season, but I'm not ready to give up on him completely.
It could be as simple as an excellent quarterback coach working on some flaws to turn things around, but I'm just not sure what they still have with Mayfield.

6) But oh, those interceptions.
None of the three were excusable other than the pass rush from the Bengals made Mayfield hurry his throws a bit.
The fallacy of Baker Mayfield entering the league was as an accurate passer, one that didn't throw interceptions, and as a locker room leader.
From what has occurred in the 2019 season, I would think that questions exist in all three of those areas.

7) Odell Beckham's fourth-quarter touchdown catch in the corner of the end zone while being
covered by two defenders and still getting his feet down inbounds was the type of play that the Browns expected to see far more often after trading for him.
Beckham's score was the fourth of the year and about a third of what was hoped for and even though Beckham crossed 1,000 yards for the season in the loss, it was a disappointing year all around.
Give Beckham credit for playing all season with a sports hernia, but fingers crossed that he gets into town for all the off-season camps, workouts, etc. and starts to develop some chemistry with Baker Mayfield because that was severely lacking this season.

8) Nick Chubb only received thirteen carries for forty-one yards and when Derrick Henry exploded for Tennessee as the Titans played against several of the Houston Texans second-stringers, Henry passed Chubb and won the league rushing championship.
Chubb missed the 1.500-yard mark by six yards and when you consider how Chubb was used (not always well) by Freddie Kitchens it would not be unfair to blame Kitchens for the main reason that Chubb missed winning that title.

9) Austin Siebert missed an extra point for the second week in a row and the rookie kicker from Oklahoma finished the season with more missed extra points (five) than missed field goals (four).
A good rookie season, but the missed extra points need to be cut substantially next season.

10) Jarvis Landry's touchdown catch has to go on the Browns season in review film as he grabbed the ball in between two Bengals defensive backs and then almost strolled into the end zone as the Bengals wiped each other out trying to take down Landry.

11) The Browns gained three spots in the draft after the loss to the Bengals.
Three teams that entered the day at 6-9 with the same record as the Browns (Atlanta, Denver, and New York Jets) all won their final game and moved the Browns up into the draft.
Jacksonville won their final game to finish 6-10, the same as the Browns, but Jacksonville will pick ahead of Cleveland.
The Browns will select tenth in the first round.

12) So now what?
The Browns start with another coach amid rumors that Paul DePodesta is attempting to gain more power in the organization and may have some capital with the Haslams as he was against Freddie Kitchens getting the job, preferring Vikings assistant Kevin Stefanski and was overruled when Hue Jackson was hired over current Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott.
How does that affect John Dorsey's pull in the organization?
Would it only affect Dorsey as far as picking a coach goes? Or does DePodesta want to return to personnel with his vaunted "analytics" after that was essentially a failure for Sashi Brown and DePodesta in their first time around?
I'm hearing a lot of names, some that I prefer to others and I'll be writing about those along with the failings of Freddie Kitchens over the next few days, but I cannot imagine a top candidate coming to work for the Haslam family considering their history.
The Browns are always going to land a lesser candidate than everyone else because coaches are hesitant for work for the Haslams.
Someone is going to have to take a huge leap of faith before that changes...

Browns hire Paul DePodesta???

I was originally going to do a podcast on this development, but the road office was a bit busy this evening, so the time delay turned it into a blog post.

The hole at the top of the Cleveland Browns that I wondered about after the firings of Mike Pettine and Ray Farmer and the resulting placement of Sashi Brown at the head of football operations was filled quickly.

The name was sending shockwaves throughout not just the NFL, but the sports world as the new head of the Cleveland Browns was Paul DePodesta of the New York METS.

Yes, the New York METS-who last I watched in October played baseball.
You know baseball-the little small round white seamed ball.

As opposed to football-the pointed-ended brown ball filled with air, which is what the Browns play.
DePodesta was a football player at Harvard (which is more than Sashi Brown) and is the newest chip thrown into the middle of the table under the heading of Analytics.
DePodesta holds the shiny new title of Chief Strategy Officer, which sounds more like something that should be held on the starship Enterprise and will be one of what the Browns call a four-pronged approach with Sashi Brown, Alec Scheiner, and the eventual head coach...

Now this certainly qualifies as out-of-the-box thinking for the Browns and I can certainly see the logic in avoiding what seems to be the same old decision-making Browns, but I'm still puzzled a bit.
I have real issues with Sashi Brown having the final say on a 53-man roster and I have been an advocate of getting rid of whatever it is that Alec Scheiner does since he screwed up the uniforms so badly, but DePodesta is such a catch that I'm willing to give this a chance.

Can this work?
Well, analytics certainly has its place and shouldn't be ignored, but my biggest concerns are these-
How much do they come into play when evaluating talent (draft especially) and can you get a head coach that buys in totally because a halfway effort isn't going to go well for anyone involved...

This (once again) smacks of the usual Browns thinking that they are the smartest guys in the room and are ahead of the curve.
The management structure that the Browns are using is not one filled with success, but considering what Brown's fans have suffered through, it's worth a try.

After all-can it gets much worse????
The answer is -Yes, it can-It's the Browns