Cleveland Browns

Browns can end all the jokes with a big-name head coach

Published Jan. 5, 2016 10:26 a.m. ET

foxsports

By Craig Lyndall

As usual the jokes about the Cleveland Browns write themselves. The punchlines aren’t particularly funny – at least to most Browns fans – but they are being written throughout the league right now since Jimmy Haslam named Sashi Brown as having the last word on the team’s 53-man roster.

There are a million variations on “So let me get this straight. The Browns named a lawyer to be the head of their roster?” floating ’round Twitter right now. That sentiment is not unfounded, mind you, but it’s far too early to look at what the Browns have done and call it an abject failure. First, you need to at least try to understand what it is they’re attempting as it seems they’re positioning themselves to attract a big name coach — think Kelly, Gruden, Payton. Whether or not they can land one, however, remains to be seen, but given the current structure, it appears that is the aim.

The naming of Sashi Brown feels like what the 49ers had going with Paraag Marathe. Marathe now finds himself on the outside looking in, but there was a time when he was one of the most exciting names in professional sports. He was at the Sloan MIT conference a few years back – the same one where I saw Alec Scheiner speak – and he looked like a wizard in terms of collecting assets and helping design a roster that was poised to compete for a decade. Of course, everything went south, including the departure of Jim Harbaugh, the retirement of younger, talented players, and the implosion of Colin Kaepernick. Despite how it ended, there’s little doubt that Marathe had some good fundamentals in terms of strategy in positioning the organization for the present and future. While the ending in San Francisco doesn’t give anyone hope for what the Browns are trying to do because the Niners were one of the Browns’ three wins in 2015, I don’t think it’s doomed based on structure alone.

The appointment of Sashi Brown to Executive Vice President seems like it’s purposely creating a vacuum for a personnel-minded head coach. This idea that Brown is going to do what Ray Farmer was doing in terms of organizing the scouting or even providing intel on player abilities seems incorrect. I can’t co-sign for what the Browns are doing, especially in terms of timing and announcing that Sashi Brown would control the 53-man roster, but I think I understand what they’re going for. Brown is supposed to be the adult and expert in the room making sure that the team is thinking strategically in both the short and longer terms. He’s supposed to keep the football people in check in terms of the cap, draft, wants, needs, and financial and contractual realities, while taking on the big-picture realities that come with being a perpetual laughingstock amongst peers and home and opposing fans. Sashi Brown is supposed to keep the team trying to compete now without allowing someone to trade the universe for RG3 or Carson Palmer.

While it marginalizes the GM position, it leaves room for a coach who wants to have a strong hand in deciding that he likes corners who are over six-feet tall, like Pete Carroll for example. It leaves room for a coach that knows he can plug any running back in, but desperately needs an athletic pass-catching tight-end. These are just examples, but that old cliché about the chef getting to pick the groceries feels like it’s in play for the next Cleveland Browns head coach. No longer will a head coach be forced to utilize an uninspired Dwayne Bowe or an out-of-position Johnson Bademosi. If Haslam and Brown’s plan works as intended, then no more square pegs will be given to a coach with only round holes in his game plan.

But who are these types of coaches? Bill Belichick is one. Pete Carroll is another. I would consider Andy Reid of that mold. Chip Kelly is too, though. Of the available candidates for the vacant Browns head coaching position, I don’t know if this points to Jon Gruden (who probably won’t leave ESPN). I don’t know if it points to Sean Payton (who could be available, but might or might not want to take this bait). I don’t know if it points to one of the more established college coaches that constantly attempt to remove their names from consideration like Nick Saban. I just feel that it’s aimed at a big-time candidate, and I think that’s how the success of the structure should and will be judged.

And that’s my conclusion for now: I don’t have a conclusion. I get the punchlines and why they are being written, but I think the story is about a quarter of the way over. In order to figure out if there’s a punchline in the end — some retread, last-ditch candidate after everyone of note forcibly removes their name from consideration — we need to see who the Browns get to be their next head coach. That seems to be what the Browns are aiming for with all their moves. That alone isn’t an unwise place to position your team. We’ll see what kind of target they hit when they complete the process.

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