Relax, Browns Fans. It’s One Game

To be sure, no one in northeast Ohio thought the Cleveland Browns would lose by 30 points in week one of the 2019 NFL schedule.

After all kinds of optimism, including here, over the weekend, the Tennessee Titans pounded the Browns 43-13 at First Energy Stadium.

We are hearing the squeals of panic from both fans and media alike after the performance, with many focusing on the 20 penalties (two were declined) called on the brown and orange, saying it is a sign of the undisciplined ways of Freddie Kitchens.

We heard Kitchens say pretty much at every halftime during the pre-season complaining about the amount of penalties on his team, so we are pretty sure he doesn’t condone them.

Our thought at the time was that it was reserves committing the fouls, because let’s face it, the Browns didn’t play a lot of starters in the games that don’t count.

And we also doubt Kitchens told Greg Robinson to kick someone or Myles Garrett to slap someone in the face.

On the other hand, if the Browns are penalized 10 or more times next Monday night against the Jets, then an eyebrow should be raised. Until that happens, let’s consider that the flags in the opener were a blip on the radar, or perhaps the result of one of the NFL’s terrible officiating crews.

We are frequent critics of the league’s officials, mostly because they are terribly inconsistent and selective. Perhaps the crew on Sunday interpreted the way the Browns did some things (not the kicking or slapping) as penalties and another crew won’t.

Remember, the same crew ignored a play clock violation for two or three seconds on Titans’ punt. Who knows what they were watching then?

That said, there were definitely some issues with the opening game.

It seemed that Kitchens got caught up in playing with his new toys, and ignored one of the biggest reasons for the Browns’ success in the second half of last season.

Nick Chubb carried the ball just 17 times for 75 yards, but just six times in the first half. Only one of those carries was for negative yards, and two of the totes went for 10 and 9 yards.

The offensive line was a problem too. Cameron Wake ran around RT Chris Hubbard several times, and when Robinson was ejected, it put the offensive line in shambles.

If your offensive line is an issue, doesn’t running the ball successfully take some pressure off the unit?

But let’s not forget this was a 15-13 game with two minutes to go in the third quarter. It’s not like they were blown out from the get go. The screen pass to Derrick Henry for 75 yards after Cleveland made it a two point game was the back breaker.

The Browns got impatient after that. Baker Mayfield forced a couple of throws, both were picked off, and the rout was on. Mayfield could’ve used some patience. There was still a quarter to play and it was just a two score game.

Plenty of time to come back.

We get that there was a lot of anticipation going into the season, and it was a kick in the head (no pun intended, Greg Robinson) for not only the fans, but also for the Browns.

Remember this, when the Browns beat the Steelers 51-0 in the season opener in 1989, the Steelers went 9-7 and made the playoffs.

It’s just one game. Again, if we see the same thing next Monday night against the Jets, then it could be a problem.

A Trip To The Playoffs Starts Today.

Today, the Cleveland Browns kickoff the 2019 season, and for the first time in four years there are expectations to live up to.

Fans expect this football team to make the playoffs, something the team hasn’t done since 2004. Cleveland went 5-2 to end the season a year ago, and the last loss, in the final game of the season, ended with Baker Mayfield through an interception with the Browns driving for a go ahead score.

That was the last time we saw this team in a game that counts.

While the Browns didn’t beat any winning teams in that seven game stretch, they did give several a battle early in the season when Hue Jackson was at the helm.

They tied the Steelers in the season opener last year.

The tied the Saints with a little over a minute to go in New Orleans in week two, and a missed extra point could’ve given them a 19-18 lead. The Saints kicked the winning field goal with 21 seconds left.

They played four overtime games in 2018, going 1-2-1, beating the Ravens, their only win over a winning team.

This is a very young football team. As we said a week ago, there are only five players on this roster over 29 years of age, and two of them are backup quarterback Drew Stanton and long snapper Charlie Hughlett.

The thing about a young football team is it will get better with experience. Baker Mayfield should be better, Nick Chubb should be better, Denzel Ward should be better, and Myles Garrett should be better.

But that wasn’t good enough for GM John Dorsey. He wanted more help for his two franchise cornerstones, first overall picks Garrett and Mayfield.

He accelerated the progress by trading for Odell Beckham Jr. and Olivier Vernon, an elite wide receiver to help Mayfield and another pass rusher to aid Garrett. He also signed DT Sheldon Richardson as a free agent.

Remember what former Browns GM Ernie Accorsi said were the two most important positions in football. The quarterback and people who can get to the quarterback.

Mayfield and Garrett. Mayfield and Garrett. Mayfield and Garrett.

Dorsey also understands this is a passing league now, and so in addition to the pass rushers, he loves secondary people.

Ward was his first defensive draft pick, and if he can stay healthy (he had two concussions a year ago), he looks like he can be the shutdown cover corner good teams need.

That’s why he took CB Greedy Williams as his first pick (second round) in the 2019 draft. Williams was heralded for his ability to pick off passes in college, and the brass hopes eventually he will team with Ward to have a pair of corners to rival the 80’s duo of Hanford Dixon and Frank Minniefield.

Yes, the Browns have a new coach, and yes, that coach was only a coordinator for seven games last season.

We don’t know how Freddie Kitchens will do in terms of clock management, etc. (the things media and fans focus on), but we do think the players respect him and like playing for him.

He seems like to right guy to lead this football team.

Everyone may be singing a different tune in about a month, but optimism reigns as the Browns take the field this afternoon, and it should.

Barring injuries, the talent is there. Now it’s time to put the talent into use.

Browns Fans On The Edge Of Their Seats Waiting For Sunday

On Sunday, the Cleveland Browns will open perhaps their most anticipated season opener since they returned to the NFL in 1999 when they take on the Tennessee Titans.

Normally, we would analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each team, but that goes out the window because of the new way teams view the pre-season.

Baker Mayfield played two quarters in the third game vs. Tampa and one series in the first game against Washington. That’s it.

Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry haven’t even taken the field yet, and to our recollection Nick Chubb played in only the first game too.

If the offensive line can hold up, and without question it is a weaker unit without Kevin Zeitler, because Austin Corbett couldn’t grab a hold of the job, the offense should be dynamic with playmakers all over the place.

You can tell coach Freddie Kitchens and GM John Dorsey are concerned about the line because Dorsey swung two trades since Friday, getting Wyatt Teller from Buffalo and Justin McCray from Green Bay. Both play guard, the same spot Zeitler played.

Probably the biggest question will be how much Kitchens wants to run the football. We feel he will continue to use Chubb and try to balance the run and the pass, despite the presence of Beckham, Landry, Hollywood Higgins, and David Njoku.

The running game will help the offensive line, and if successful, will keep teams from pressuring the guy who orchestrates the offense, second year quarterback Baker Mayfield.

If it is true the biggest jump for a player comes in his second year, Cleveland football fans will be in for a treat. Mayfield will be the best passer the Browns have had since Bernie Kosar was at the helm in the mid 80’s.

The defensive front could be dominated, and if the Browns can get leads and teams will be forced to play catch up, the sack totals could be astronomical.

We have watched the Browns since the mid 1960’s, and never have they had a dominating pass rush. Myles Garrett has a chance to be the franchise’s all time sack leader within five years.

That tells you something about Garrett’s ability, and also the lack of an elite pass rusher for the Browns since sacks were kept as a statistic.

The most controversial cut by Kitchens and Dorsey turned out to be the punter. Britton Colquitt was let go in favor of the “Scottish Hammer”, Jamie Gillen.

We weren’t surprised by the move, because it will save the Browns dollars on the salary cap next season, when they will probably need the space.

Think about it, how many times have you ever heard of a punt costing a team a game? You might hear how punt coverage was a factor, but not the kick itself.

The Browns hired a very successful special teams coach in Mike Prieffer, and if he thinks Gillen can handle the job, we will side with him.

This is still a very young football team. The only players over 30 years old are S Morgan Burnett and back up QB Drew Stanton.

The only guys at 29 are G Eric Kush, CB T. J. Carrie, and long snapper Charlie Hughlett. That’s it.

It has the potential to be a very interesting fall for football fans in Cleveland. And since it has been a long time waiting, the anticipation is real.

Only Preseason, But Still Overreaction.

The pre-season in the NFL has become an out and out joke, but that hasn’t stopped fans from overreacting to the Cleveland Browns’ first loss in games that don’t count, last Friday at Tampa Bay.

One of the reasons it shouldn’t be taken too seriously is the intentions of the head coach’s toward these games.

For example, and we have no inside information here, let’s say Freddie Kitchens prepared his team one way and told his friend, Bruce Arians, now the head coach of the Buccaneers, to run some stuff the Browns haven’t seen in order to see how the players would react.

Maybe they agreed to do this to each other’s teams to gauge how the two teams would respond to some adversity.

We just don’t know.

Remember, there were some who were upset in the first game against the Redskins, when the Browns opened the game in the no huddle, hurry up offense.

We speculated then that Kitchens told Washington coach Jay Gruden he was going to do this, and offensive coordinator Todd Monken confirmed it a couple of days later.

This doesn’t mean the Browns don’t have issues on the offensive line or in the kicking game. It does mean the issues aren’t greater than they were before kickoff last Friday night.

It isn’t like it was 10 years ago, when the third pre-season game was the dress rehearsal game. Back then, the starters played pretty much the whole first quarter of the first game, about a half of the second, and three quarters of the third.

That’s not the case anymore.

Baker Mayfield played one series in the opener against Washington. He didn’t play at all in the second contest at Indianapolis. Most of the starters did the same.

Heck, Odell Beckham Jr. nor Jarvis Landry has stepped foot on the field of play through three exhibition (yes, we know the NFL doesn’t like them called that) games.

The preseason has become a series of glorified scrimmages, and many teams, including the Browns, have gone to organized practices against other teams where the action and hitting can be controlled.

Remember 2017 when the Browns went 0-16? They were 4-0 in the preseason. Hue Jackson was trying to win those games.

We heard Kitchens say if they are keeping score then he wants to win, but our guess is he’d be a lot more upset about a loss on September 8th than he is about the Tampa game.

Someone is going to win Thursday night in the game against Detroit, but it is likely no one of any importance to the 2019 Cleveland Browns will play in that game, and the same can be said of most NFL teams.

It’s time for the NFL to cut back to two games, and start playing them off-site, so season ticket holders don’t have to pay full price for them. Or, if you want to play a home game, give season ticket holders an option to buy them at a reduced price, and if they don’t sell them to the public at a lower price.

Maybe someone who can’t afford to go normally can get to see an NFL game in person.

As for the results, don’t get to concerned, because again, we don’t know what the opposing teams are trying to accomplish.

There will be plenty of time for concern when the regular season starts next week.

Pressure To Win Should Be Welcoming To Browns

Losing isn’t any fun, but it also doesn’t bring any pressure. That’s what the Cleveland Browns have dealt with for much of the last 25 years.

This year is different. This year the Browns are expected to contend for a playoff spot if not win the AFC North.

It all starts next week when training camp commences in Berea.

GM John Dorsey has put together a solid roster, and winning five of the last seven games the prior season puts expectations at a higher level than they’ve been since Cleveland came off a 10-6 season in 2007.

The 2008 squad, coached by Romeo Crennel, started the season losing their first three games, but rebounded to 4-6 after a Monday night win over Buffalo.

They lost their last six games as the offense fell apart, scoring no more than 10 points in any of those games, and were actually shutout in the final two games, losing 14-0 to Cincinnati with Ken Dorsey at quarterback, and dropping a 31-0 decision to Pittsburgh with Bruce Gradkowski at the controls.

From there, the Browns have been largely irrelevant as a franchise.

After the 2016 and 2017 seasons produced just one win combined, things could only go up, right?

Following those two disastrous campaigns, the organization drafted what should be franchise cornerstones in Myles Garrett and Baker Mayfield, a pass rusher and a quarterback, arguably the two most important positions on the field.

Add in the acquisition of All Pro wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and suddenly the Browns have a national buzz around them. But can they live up to the hype?

New coach Freddie Kitchens, never a head coach before, understands the expectations and repeatedly says the players have to know they haven’t accomplished anything to this point, and he is there to remind them if they start believing it.

Yes, the Browns went 5-2 to end the season, but they didn’t beat any teams with an above .500 record in that stretch. In fact, there only win over a playoff team last season came over the Ravens, and Hue Jackson was the head coach!

Fans shouldn’t expect the division to be a cakewalk either. After all, the Browns didn’t beat the Steelers last year, and the Ravens still have one of the game’s best coaches in John Harbaugh, even if they have a QB who can’t pass.

The reasons for optimism are real though. Mayfield showed signs he can be one of the sport’s premier signal callers, and as everyone should know by now, if you have that quarterback, you have a chance in every game you play.

On Thursday, the pressure to succeed starts for the first time in over ten years. The Browns are supposed to be good. A playoff berth is expected by the fan base, although playoff contention should be a more realistic goal.

Kitchens knows it, Dorsey knows it, and Mayfield and the rest of the roster knows it.

They know, barring injuries, that a 6-10 record will be viewed as failure. There can be no excuses.

That’s the new challenge for the Cleveland Browns. Gutting the roster is easy, the first chore is to acquire talent, and next thing on the checklist is to convert the talent to victories on the field.

Finally, the Browns have the pressure to be an NFL playoff team.

Dorsey And Kitchens Reeling In Expectations

Yesterday, Browns’ GM John Dorsey said he didn’t like the hype surrounding the 2019 edition of the team.

After second round draft pick Greedy Williams proclaimed the Browns were going to the Super Bowl after they drafted him, head coach Freddie Kitchens told people he was going to talk to the rookie and explain that his team wasn’t going to behave like that.

Really, both Dorsey and Kitchens were telling everyone, fans included, not to get carried away.

And they are right.

We get it. The Browns have been a doormat for so long, people are excited that finally there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Since Bernie Kosar was released in 1993, Cleveland football fans have waited for a franchise quarterback, and it appears they picked one last year in Baker Mayfield.

Mayfield’s a natural born leader, and he can play the position as well, throwing for an NFL tying record of 27 touchdown passes, as well as displaying uncanny accuracy.

On the other hand, he’s started all of 13 games, and the only playoff team he guided the team to a win against was the Baltimore Ravens. And the score of that game was 12-9 in overtime.

This isn’t to doubt Mayfield. We believe he will develop into one of the top passers in the NFL and it could be as early as next season. But those are the facts.

Without question, the Browns have added a lot of talent from last year’s roster, which did make a quantum leap to 7-9 from 0-16 in 2017.

Dorsey acquired an elite wide receiver in Odell Beckham Jr., a very good pass rusher in Olivier Vernon, and a solid defensive tackle in Sheldon Richardson. Those were the biggest additions in the free agent/trade market.

And the expectation is the rookie Williams will team with Denzel Ward to give the Browns a pair of shutdown cornerbacks, which is a great thing to have in today’s pass happy NFL.

We like Kitchens too, and he did a great job with the offense in the second half of last season, but he’s never been a head coach at the NFL level, so he is another unproven commodity.

We do like that he did things the players were comfortable with and putting the players in positions where they can succeed is one of the basic rules of coaching.

But how does he handle losing two games in a row, or three out of four. Does he keep the team together and maintain the players’ faith in him.

We feel Kitchens will handle it fine, but until it happens, it is up for question.

The biggest thing the GM and the coach are guarding against is a sense of accomplishment. Despite all of the excitement around the area and the country, the Browns are still a team that has made one playoff appearance since 1994.

The fans should be excited. This promises to be the beginning of a renaissance for a once proud franchise, one of the NFL’s flagships up until the franchise was moved.

On the other hand, for the players, this is a squad with something to prove. They’ve done nothing. No playoff wins for 25 years.

Dorsey and Kitchens want to remind them it takes a lot of work to become a playoff team. And that’s what they should do.

Deal For Beckham Ushers In New Browns’ Era?

In 1970, the Cleveland Browns had a problem. Sure, they won the NFL title just six years earlier, and went to the championship game in ’65, ’68, and ’69, but after Bill Nelsen’s knees were starting to fail him, and the Browns needed someone to turn the reins over to.

They made a decision that would haunt them for several years, when they traded All Pro receiver Paul Warfield, who averaged over 20 yards per reception the previous four years to the Miami Dolphins for the 3rd overall pick in the draft, which they used to take Purdue QB Mike Phipps.

Warfield became an important piece to two Super Bowl titles for the Dolphins, made five Pro Bowls and two All Pro teams with Miami, and eventually went to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Phipps played seven years in Cleveland, going 24-25-2 as a starter, but did guide the Browns to the playoffs in 1972, throwing five interceptions in a loss to, you guessed it, the Dolphins.

That was the only playoff appearance for the Browns, an NFL power from 1950 to 1970, until the Kardiac Kids season in 1980, with Brian Sipe at the helm.

Now, the Browns have their quarterback in Baker Mayfield, and made the reverse Warfield trade Tuesday night, getting WR Odell Beckham Jr. from the Giants for a first round and third round pick in next month’s NFL Draft and former first round pick Jabrill Peppers.

You can make an excellent case that Beckham is the Warfield of today.

His first three years in the league, he averaged 96 catches for 1374 yards and 12 touchdowns. He missed much of 2017 with an injury, but played 12 games last season, catching 77 passes for 1052 yards.

Remember, that his QB, Eli Manning, is on the downside of his career, while Mayfield is ascending.

We heard the rumors that it would take two first round picks to get the wide receiver, so in our opinion, getting him for just one, is a big win for John Dorsey and the Browns.

We will not minimize the loss of Peppers, who played very well in the second half of last season, but remember, his big supporter, former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams has departed, and new coordinator Steve Wilks may want something different from his strong safety.

Besides, don’t forget Derrick Kindred is still on the roster, and he was a starter when Peppers was playing free safety during his rookie season.

And the third round pick Dorsey moved wasn’t even the Browns’ choice, it was New England’s, as a result of the Danny Shelton trade.

Look at the weapons at Mayfield’s disposal when training camp starts in July. He has a solid running game in Nick Chubb and Duke Johnson, and that’s not even taking Kareem Hunt into account, because he will likely be suspended to start the season.

He’ll have Beckham, who is a threat to take any play to the house, with Jarvis Landry and Rashard Higgins at wide receiver, and David Njoku, who we feel is a budding star, at tight end.

The defensive line has been bolstered with the trade for Olivier Vernon, and the free agent signing of Sheldon Richardson. The linebackers and secondary could still use some depth, but the Browns still have a lot of picks in the draft too.

Make no mistake, the Browns have entered into “win now” mode. Anything short of a playoff berth in 2019 should be viewed as a disappointment, not just to Dorsey and coach Freddie Kitchens, but to the fans as well.

You can’t help but be excited.

Browns Fans Watching The Game Today With Hope.

Today is Super Bowl LIII, and there is no need to remind you that the Cleveland Browns are one of the few teams in the NFL who have never played in the game.

Only four franchises have never won their conference championships in the Super Bowl era, and two of them, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans, are expansion teams, both coming into the league after 28 championship games had been played.

Yes, the Browns are technically an expansion team as well, rejoining the NFL in 1999, but played in five conference title games in the Super Bowl era before they were ripped from the city and moved to Baltimore.

So, it leaves just the Detroit Lions and the Browns as teams around when the Super Bowl started and have never been there.

Actually, the Lions have only been to one NFC Conference title game, in 1991, losing to the Redskins.

The Browns lost to the Colts in ’68, the Vikings in ’69, and the famous three losses to Denver in the late 80’s.

This year’s Browns give you hope that it won’t be too long before Cleveland can get to the Super Bowl for the first time. They appear to have their quarterback in place at long last in Baker Mayfield, and in going from zero wins to seven this season, the future certainly looks bright.

However, let’s slow down on talk that the Browns can be in Super Bowl LIV next season. Yes, the second half of the season was impressive, and we aren’t even going to bring up the argument that the team didn’t beat anyone good.

They lost to a Ravens squad that everyone was deathly afraid of in week 17 (we weren’t, because of their “gimmick” offense), but had a chance to win on the game’s last possession.

They also lost to another media darling team, the Texans, when Mayfield threw three first half interceptions, and then had a dazzling second half.

The reason we say this is because the Browns haven’t even made the playoffs since 2002.

We understand that it can happen. Heck, the Eagles went from not making the playoffs for three straight seasons to winning the Super Bowl last year.

When the Rams won in 1999, it was their first playoff appearance in ten seasons. So, it can happen. When the Patriots won their first title, they were coming off a 5-11 season.

Still, the Browns have a lot of improvement to make in this off-season. The defense ranked as one of the worst in the league, and even though they have an elite pass rusher and a shutdown corner, there are still improvements that need to be made.

And they have to build depth. Playoff teams withstand injuries, so there must be a “next man up” mentality. It helps if that guy can play professional football at an acceptable level.

Fortunately, John Dorsey has demonstrated he can find these players. And with 11 draft picks and a ton of salary cap space, he will have to opportunity to fill the holes on the roster.

We are also quite satisfied that he knows where these holes are, and that is half the battle.

The biggest thing is having Mayfield though. After a brief period (2001 and 2003) where quarterbacks like Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson won the big game, for the most part, the winning signal callers are at the top of the heap among QB’s.

Only Joe Flacco and Nick Foles would not be considered Hall of Famer type players among winners in the last 15 years.

We’ll bet Dorsey has learned that once you have the franchise quarterback, you build around him, and not rely on him to erase all of the other roster problems.

For the first time in a long time, Cleveland fans can watch the Super Bowl with hope.

Kitchens Gets The Gig!

The Cleveland Browns’ coaching search didn’t last all that long, and they stayed in house elevating Freddie Kitchens from offensive coordinator to the 17th full time head coach in team history.

Certainly, the performance of the offense in the second half of the season, after Hue Jackson was let go, was a factor in Kitchens getting the gig. And his connection with Baker Mayfield didn’t hurt either.

However, the biggest factor may have occurred when the former Alabama quarterback was given the reins to the offense when Jackson departed.

Kitchens made the players part of the process. By accounts, he went to the guys who have to go out on the field and execute what they liked to run and what they felt could be effective.

And then he started using those plays, and they worked. That got him the respect of the offensive players. It’s called leadership.

Good leaders aren’t tyrants. They include their subordinates in the process, only putting their foot down when they have to.

One of factors we believe makes a successful coach is taking what you have and getting the most out of your talent. And it helps if you can go to those guys and take into consideration what they feel they are good at, and not trying to fit the proverbial square peg into a round hole.

And it’s not like Kitchens is some inexperienced young guy either. He’s been a coach for a long time. He spent six years in the college ranks, and has been coaching in the NFL since 2006, with his longest tenure being in Arizona.

We feel some have dismissed him because he was here in Cleveland last season. Let’s say Kitchens was the offensive coordinator for half a season in Indianapolis and was part of the Colts’ resurgence. We think that would have made him a hotter commodity.

Since he was here, the excuses were made, like the offense clicked because Cleveland was playing opponents like Atlanta, Cincinnati, and Denver, all of whom ranked in the bottom 11 in terms of yards allowed.

However, the Browns played three other teams in the bottom ten under Hue Jackson, and didn’t move the ball up and down the field.

The Jets and Buccaneers had bad defenses too, yet the Kitchen led offense gained more yards against the Texans and Ravens than the Jackson/Haley one did against those foes.

GM John Dorsey spoke at the end of the season about the new coach being a “leader of men”, and that may be more important than the strategic things a head football coach brings to the table.

That being said, let’s say thank you to Gregg Williams, who galvanized the Browns and guided them to a 5-3 record in the second half of the season. After a three year period totaling four wins, the players needed to know what winning felt like.

Williams provided that.

No one knows if Kitchens will guide the Browns to the playoffs in the future, the same as no one knows how long the players will buy in to his message.

Bill Belichick was a defensive guru. Andy Reid coached the offensive line and tight end before moving to quarterbacks coach. Pete Carroll was a defensive backs coach before becoming a coordinator. John Harbaugh was a special teams coach.

The point is there is no set way to become a great coach in the NFL.

Freddie Kitchens seems like he’s comfortable with who he is, and that’s a big difference from the guy who was here at the beginning of this season.

Browns’ Coaching Search Another Trust In Dorsey Thing

Think about this, Browns’ fans. This year’s edition of the Cleveland Browns almost doubled the win total of the last three seasons…combined!

The 2016 and 2017 seasons were such a nightmare that it is easy to forget the team won three games in Mike Pettine’s last season as head coach. That’s how a team goes from four wins in three seasons to seven in 2018.

It also means no top five draft pick, and with last year’s choice of Baker Mayfield with the first overall selection, it also means, nobody is putting the top college quarterbacks entering the draft under scrutiny.

Heck, the Browns won’t even pick until #17 overall, so fans can leisurely tune in to the draft, they won’t have to turn it on right at the beginning if they so choose.

That no longer matters.

Instead, everyone’s obsession has turned to the coaching search. Who will be leading the Cleveland Browns in 2019.

Will it be Gregg Williams, who did an outstanding job (5-3) after taking over for Hue Jackson. How about Freddie Kitchens who made the Mayfield led offense one of the NFL’s best in the second half of the year?

Whoever it is, we will trust John Dorsey, assuming that the GM is making the choice without any outside interference or influence from owner Jimmy Haslam.

We have heard several national writers say the ultimate decision will be made by Haslam, which frightens us, because by now, we would have thought the owner would realize what he doesn’t know.

He’s too impressionable. He seems to hear the “hot” name out there, and want to go with them rather than the right man for the job.

The momentum built in the second half of the season cannot and should not be ignored. We believe John Dorsey understands that.

He don’t think he will be interested in a candidate who will come in and want to put his “system” in place, especially if it would entail have to swap out some of the players the Browns have on the roster.

After all, Dorsey helped accumulate the talent the Browns currently have and we think he believes in them, otherwise he would have went in a different direction.

That’s not to say the roster is where the GM wants it. He knows they need an upgrade in several areas, and with another good draft and using more salary cap space, he can accomplish that.

He wants a partner in the process, not someone who is going to fight him, something that has happened in Berea over the years when the coach and general manager are not on the same page.

Dorsey was disappointed the Browns didn’t make the playoffs this season, coming off two years with one total victory, so we doubt he wants to take a step back while a new coach put his “stamp” on the franchise. We feel he wants someone who can take the talent already on the roster and blend in the players added in the off-season, and hit the ground running next season.

So, whether it’s Mike McCarthy, Josh McDaniels, or even a college coach like Matt Campbell, we feel Dorsey has earned the right to have the trust of the fans.

He has the best intentions for the Cleveland Browns.