Is Haslam the New Snyder?

Just when you think the Cleveland Browns are acting as a normal, professional football team, they throw a huge wrench into the mix.

They announced today that Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi are out as CEO and GM, with Ray Farmer replacing the latter as general manager.

The obvious point to be made is owner Jimmy Haslam was so disgusted by the season and seemingly bungled coaching search, that he couldn’t take the Banner/Lombardi combination for one more day.

Still want to tell everyone that these aren’t the same old Browns?

Look, this is not to say we thought Banner and Lombardi were doing a great job, in fact, we feel quite the contrary.

Banner seemed to be a “me-first” guy, a person who really wanted to coach the team as well as run it, and he didn’t seem to be satisfied with any person who wasn’t Joe Banner.

However, remember that the league recommended Banner to Haslam, the owner didn’t seem to seek him out.

Lombardi comes across as someone who still wants to sit on the lap of Bill Belichick, waiting with anticipation for every word that drips off of the Patriots’ coach’s tongue.

It seemed his solution to every problem was to go back to the Belichick tree.

Farmer helped put together a Kansas City team that had a bushel of Pro Bowlers on a 2-14 team in 2012 and made a major leap forward to the playoffs last season. The fact that Miami was very interested in him shows how respected he is throughout the NFL.

So do we assume things are better in Berea because Farmer and team president Alec Scheiner are more likeable to the fans and media alike?

As with the new coach and his staff, we can’t evaluate how the newest new regime will perform until the Cleveland Browns start playing football games that count in September.

The more disturbing aspect of all this is the growing Snyderization of Jimmy Haslam.

We felt all along that it was Haslam who pulled the trigger on Rob Chudzinski after one season in charge. Could it be that part of the reason Banner and Lombardi aren’t employed here anymore is they told the owner he was being impetuous?

Now, Haslam just fired two people he claimed were part of the solution just 18 months ago.

The Browns’ owner is looking more and more like his counterpart in Washington, Redskins’ owner Daniel Snyder.

Does anyone think that organization is well run?

Since 2000, Washington has gone through six coaches and have amassed three playoff appearances, a boatload compared to Cleveland.

He’s brought in college coaches (Steve Spurrier), veteran coaches with histories of winning (Marty Schottenheimer, Joe Gibbs, and Mike Shanahan), and offensive coordinators (Jim Zorn and new coach Jay Gruden).

They’ve gone 86-122 in that span. While that’s better than Cleveland’s record (72 wins) over the same time period, it’s hardly a winning franchise or something to be aspiring to.

If the Browns go 6-10 this season and Haslam keeps Farmer and Mike Pettine in place seeing some progress, then we can ease off on the Daniel Snyder comparisons.

Until that happens, he appears to be another owner who wants success, but either doesn’t know how to get it, or doesn’t have the patience to attain a winning team.

Either way, no matter how they spin it, it just looks like more chaos at Browns’ headquarters.

No Matter Who’s Making Decision, Browns Need to Get It Right

Most people’s assessment of Browns’ CEO Joe Banner and GM Michael Lombardi is they think of themselves as the smartest people in the room.

The team’s search for a new coach isn’t really supporting that argument.

It is clear at this point that when the Browns (most likely owner Jimmy Haslam) decided to fire Rob Chudzinski, they didn’t have a plan to hire his successor. It appears to be a knee-jerk reaction by someone, probably Haslam, after a seven game losing streak to end the season.

Sounds a little bit like what goes on in Washington and their owner Daniel Snyder, a man who is the butt of jokes by people who work in and cover the National Football League.

That’s not what we thought we were getting when Haslam bought the team from the reclusive Randy Lerner.

So, the view here is now Banner and Lombardi have to clean up that mess, which isn’t a great job, but one they are paid pretty handsomely to do.

There isn’t anyone out there that is going to create a buzz with the Cleveland football fan, although that really shouldn’t be a consideration. It’s more important to hire the right man for the job. Remember, no one had really heard of Mike Tomlin when the Steelers chose him, and as Banner would put out, Andy Reid wasn’t greeted with fanfare when he got the job with the Eagles, either.

The front office asked for permission to hire Denver offensive coordinator Adam Gase early in the process, but Gase decided to not interview for any job until the Broncos are eliminated from the playoffs. Maybe Gase takes the job and the Browns can say they got their man, but supposedly Minnesota wants him too.

The problem that Chudzinski’s firing after one year has caused is it makes other candidates leery of taking the job because of security. Yes, head coaches are highly paid in the professional football, but they are still human beings and they want to have some assurance that they will get more than a year to produce results.

Haslam’s decision isn’t helping attract candidates.

Neither are the rumors that Banner and Lombardi want to limit the new coach’s authority in terms of the roster. We have been advocates in the past of not giving coach’s total control because they favor the players they brought in, even if they aren’t cutting it.

However, the coach needs to feel like he’s part of the process, not that it’s Banner and Lombardi’s show and the coach is a replaceable part.

There is going to be negativity about this ownership/front office until winning starts taking place on Sunday. The main problem with Haslam and his crew is that the Browns went 5-11 in 2012, and finished with a worse record in 2013.

While the roster may be more talented (they are quick to point out five Pro Bowlers), until the progress shows up in the win column, fans are going to be skeptical.

They don’t want to hear about “the process” anymore. Other teams in the NFL turn around on the yearly basis. This year it was the Chiefs, last year it was the Colts.

It’s never the Browns.

There seems to be uncertainty in Berea regarding who is in charge now. Is it Haslam calling the shots on the new coach? Is it Banner?

Fans want to see an open search. Why isn’t Mike Munchak (22-26 with no QB in Tennessee) interviewed? How about Jack Del Rio (68-71 with two playoff appearance in Jacksonville)?

Regardless, fans really can’t judge any hire until the games start in September. That being said, the Browns need to get this hire right.

Are These Browns Any Different?

The Cleveland Browns appear to be headed to another 10 loss season, their sixth consecutive campaign losing in double figures.

Therefore, the question needs to be asked…what is different with the new regime, headed by Jimmy Haslam, Joe Banner, and Michael Lombardi? The results are the same from the last group, headed by Mike Holmgren and Tom Heckert.

These Browns have three possible Pro Bowl players, which would be their most in several years. OT Joe Thomas is perennial, making the all-star team every year he has been in the league. He could be bound for Canton someday.

CB Joe Haden has been outstanding all season long, highlighted by shutting down Cincinnati WR A. J. Green in both meetings between the teams, and he has started to intercept passes this year as well, with four on the season.

Those two have been the best players on the squad the past few years, but this year they are joined by WR Josh Gordon, who may be the NFL’s best wideout who isn’t named Calvin Johnson. He may be the Browns’ best wideout since Paul Warfield wore the orange and brown.

There are several other players who can be considered building blocks for a playoff team, such as C Alex Mack, TE Jordan Cameron, DT Phil Taylor, DEs Ahtyba Rubin and Billy Winn, OLBs Barkevious Mingo, Jabaal Sheard, and Paul Kruger, and ILB D’Qwell Jackson.

All of those players, save for Mingo, were brought in by the prior regimes.

So while Holmgren and Heckert take a lot of criticism for the first round of the 2012 draft (Richardson and Weeden) and deservedly so, they are responsible for putting together the foundation for the future.

Certainly, the prior president and GM also have to be faulted for the hiring of Pat Shurmur, who was a public relations disaster. Rob Chudzinski doesn’t really say anything in his press conferences either (call this the Belichick method), but fans and media can see he has a passion for the city and the game, and the players play like they respect him.

It would have been easy for the team to give a lackluster effort after the Jacksonville game, but the Browns went to New England and fought, and almost knocked off the Patriots.

Chudzinski and his staff do draw negatives with the handling of the quarterback situation, going with Brandon Weeden to start the season when it’s pretty clear he is the least effective of the trio that were on the Opening Day roster.

The front office should be lauded for the Trent Richardson trade, but at the same time should be questioned for not having another decent running back on the roster to replace him, nor did they get another passer after Brian Hoyer was injured.

That left the coaching staff without a running game, putting more pressure on Weeden, Hoyer, and Jason Campbell.

Think about how many more wins this team would have had Hoyer or Campbell started the year and the Browns had even an average running game.

Ultimately, the Banner/Lombardi group will be judged on this season’s draft, which they have spent time accumulating picks for. The fear is they will force a quarterback pick too high (see, Ponder and Gabbert) and will pass on players who can impact the team in 2014.

If they wait for the passer to come to them, perhaps with the Colts’ pick, and instead upgrade the football team at several spots, they will be remembered as the group that turned this franchise around.

Bill Parcells once said you are what your record says it is. And right now, Joe Banner and Michael Lombardi are just like everyone else who sat in their chairs.

Do Browns Need to Run the Ball?

The running game has certainly been de-emphasized in today’s NFL.

It used to be a tenet about good teams that they had to be able to run the ball and also be able to stop the run.

Earlier this week, Browns’ All Pro OT Joe Thomas scoffed about his team’s lack of a running game, saying something to the effect that it really isn’t important anymore.

Is he correct?

We looked at the top 10 rushing teams in the league this year and found more teams that are winning than losing.

The top two rushing teams to this point are Washington, who led the league last season and are currently sitting at 3-6 on the season after last night’s loss to Minnesota, and Philadelphia who are 4-5 on the 2013 campaign.

That certainly supports Thomas’ opinion that the ground game isn’t a prerequisite for winning.

However, looking at the rest of the top ten shows the following teams: Seattle (8-1), San Francisco (6-2), Green Bay (5-3), New England (7-2), New York Jets (5-4), and Kansas City (9-0).

Notice that several of those squads also have Pro Bowl caliber quarterbacks in Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick, a possible future Hall of Famer in Aaron Rodgers, and a definite enshrinee in Canton in Tom Brady.

The other two teams among the leaders are Buffalo (3-6) and Oakland (3-5). Thus, six of the ten having winning records.

Conversely, the worst running teams in the NFL shows only two teams with a winning record: New Orleans (6-2) and Dallas (5-4).

Atlanta (2-6) is the worst team in the NFL on the ground, followed by the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars at 0-8.

The Giants (2-6), the Ravens (3-5) and Pittsburgh (2-6) round out the top five.

So, what we can conclude is that you have a better chance of being successful if you can run the ball, which when you think about it, isn’t really a change in conventional wisdom.

That brings us to Thomas’ team, the Cleveland Browns, who rank 25^th in the NFL in rushing.

A closer look shows that coach Rob Chudzinski and offensive coordinator have had to be very creative in getting some of the yards on the ground the Browns have accumulated.

The trick/gadget plays used by Turner have accounted for 15% of Cleveland’s running game. That would include reverses by WRs Josh Gordon and Travis Benjamin, plays out of the wildcat formation by MarQueis Gray, and the fake punt by Josh Aubrey that went for 34 yards.

Taking away those eight plays would lower the Browns’ average yards per carry by a half yard (3.7 to 3.2), and the latter figure would rank third worst in the National Football League.

The flaw in Thomas’ logic is that if you are a good team, a winning team, you have to be able to run the football to protect leads. In reality, the Browns were lucky to be able to burn over six minutes off the clock last Sunday in the victory over Baltimore.

As the weather conditions at home get more severe, the ability to run the football will become more and more important.

That’s why the front office needs to do something during the bye week to improve this aspect of the game.

If the Browns want to be a winning team, perhaps one that can make the playoffs, they have to be able to run the ball, particularly late in games.

A majority of the good teams in the NFL can do just that.

Browns Version of “What If?”

Monday, September 9th–

After years of losing the season opener, the Cleveland Browns finally got it right, defeating the Miami Dolphins in the opener 24-17.

Since the other three teams in the AFC North all lost, new coach Rob Chudzinski’s team has an early advantage in the division and have an opportunity to put a severe dent in the Ravens hopes with a win next week against Baltimore.

Hometown starter Brian Hoyer led an efficient attack, hitting on 26 of 42 passes for 289 yards and two touchdown throws, one each to Jordan Cameron and the other to Trent RIchardson.

Monday, September 16th–

The Browns’ new regime is off to a flying start and the members of the Dawg Pound have to have thoughts of playoffs dancing in their heads as Cleveland won its second straight game, ruining the Ravens’ opener with a 16-14 win to raise their record to 2-0.

Brian Hoyer had another strong outing, throwing for 286 yards on 24 completions in 33 attempts, including a strike to TE Jordan Cameron for a touchdown. Cameron caught 8 passes for 131 yards as Hoyer repeatedly found him to keep the chains moving.

The Cleveland offensive line provided good protection for the second straight week as Hoyer was sacked just twice by the Baltimore defense.

Of course, this is fiction, but you have to wonder what the Browns record would be if the coaching staff had opted for either of the other quarterbacks on the roster instead of starting the season with Brandon Weeden.

Through the performances of both Hoyer and Jason Campbell in their appearances this year, it is obvious that Chudzinski and offensive coordinator Norv Turner gave four starts to the team’s third best signal caller.

Let’s face it, the offensive looks much better with either Hoyer or Campbell at the controls, and it is in all phases of the game.

Last Sunday, the fear was the Cleveland passer being sacked repeatedly by a Chiefs’ rush that led the NFL in sacks, averaging five per contest.

Campbell went down for a loss just once.

Why? Because he reads the defense quickly and gets rid of the football. Hoyer’s style was similar when he started against the Vikings and Bengals. The offensive line looked much better than when Weeden was in the game, mostly because of the latter’s habit of waiting and waiting before throwing the football.

All of the quarterbacks have played under the handicap of virtually no running game, as only in the Buffalo game has a Cleveland running back gained over 75 yards.

Browns’ passers have thrown nine interceptions for the season, with Weeden throwing six of those. To be fair, Hoyer threw three in his first start, which he won, and Weeden has played the majority of the games, starting four and playing most of the Thursday night win against Buffalo.

Hoyer and Campbell have more accurate too, hitting for a combined 58.8% of their passes, compared to Weeden’s 52.8%.

Not to degrade the new coach, but you have to wonder why they started the season with Weeden? Is it because he was a first round draft pick? Was it his big arm?

You would have to think the offense runs much smoother with Hoyer or Campbell in practice as well.

Maybe it was the desire to see what Weeden could do under a new coaching staff, just as Chudzinski alluded to earlier this season. If that’s the case, how many wins did the staff cost this team.

What if the Browns had started Hoyer or Campbell right from the start? Would they be 5-3? Or 6-2?

The difference is so dramatic, it makes you pause and wonder.

Browns Overcame Horrid First Half to Come Close

It is too bad the Cleveland Browns thought today’s game with Kansas City started at 1 PM Central Time.

We mean, that had to be the reason for the horrific performance until halfway through the second quarter at Arrowhead Stadium in a game the Browns ultimately lost 23-17 to fall to 3-5 on the season.

That first quarter and a half was perhaps the worst football a Cleveland team has played since they returned to the NFL in 1999.

They couldn’t stop Kansas City on the ground and through the air. The offense couldn’t even get a first down, let alone a touchdown.

And then it all changed.

Jason Campbell hit a pass to TE Jordan Cameron for a first down, and then hit WR Josh Gordon on a flea flicker for a TD. And just like that, the Browns were back in the game.

The Chiefs answered with a scoring pass to Dexter McCluster, but that was about it for the Kansas City offense for the day, as they managed just three points for the balance of the game, and that was because the Browns turned the ball over on downs with a little over two minutes left.

We have written about halftime adjustments before, but today coordinator Ray Horton put pressure on Alex Smith and played man-to-man on the outside with his cornerbacks and shutdown the KC attack.

Smith was sacked five times in the second half, all by different players as Horton brought pressure from different spots. The Chiefs, who converted eight of their first 10 third down opportunities, converted just two of their last nine in that situation.

Campbell was very good in his first start, hitting 22 of 36 throws for 293 yards and two touchdown passes, and overcame four dropped balls by WR Davone Bess, including one on a fourth down that would have given Cleveland a chance to tie or perhaps win the game.

The veteran reminded fans once again of Brandon Weeden’s weakness of holding on to the football way to long. Campbell was decisive with his throws, and because of that, he was sacked just once by the team that leads the AFC in that category.

As for Bess, not only did he dropped four passes, he also fumbled a punt which would have given the offense the ball at around midfield after the defense backed up Kansas City.

That was a momentum changing play to say the least.

We will have to again ask why the front office cannot go out and get another running back to help out, as it was evident once again that the Browns can’t run the ball.

Willis McGahee had nine carries for 28 yards, but had half those yards on one carry. Chris Ogbonnaya had 12 yards on three carries, all of them on one run.

The Browns simply have too many running plays which result in no yards or in negative yards. There has to be someone available who can do better than that.

If this was Gordon’s last game as a Brown, he went out with a bang, grabbing five passes for 132 yards. In the three games he played with someone other than Weeden at the helm, he has caught 19 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns. He caught 13 passes in games Weeden played.

Cameron also played another strong game with four receptions for 81 yards.

There should be no question that Campbell is the starter going forward, and you have to think it may be time to cut ties with Weeden, as it is pretty obvious at this point that the offense problems begin and end with him.

WIth a home game against the Ravens next week, the Browns have reason to hope they can go into the bye week at 4-5 and a chance.

They just need to start playing when the opening kickoff occurs.

Browns Win and Lose On Same Night

The Cleveland Browns have seemed to be in a state of chaos for the last 15 years.

Just as they seemed to find a diamond in the rough at quarterback in local boy Brian Hoyer, who led them to two consecutive victories, something happens to end the era of good feeling for Browns’ supporters.

Hoyer went down with a knee injury late in the first quarter and is out for the season, and coach Rob Chudzinski is forced to go back to Brandon Weeden, who wasn’t very popular with the faithful when he went into the game.

However, the contrast was very telling. Seeing Hoyer play at the beginning of the game served a stark contrast to the former first round pick.

Quite simply, Hoyer makes quicker decisions and gets rid of the ball faster, which makes the offensive line look better.

Here’s hoping Weeden can learn from the Cleveland native and can translate those things into his game. He admitted he must do that after the 37-24 win, which raises the Browns’ record to 3-2 on the season.

Weeden made some good throws last night, particularly two long bombs to Greg Little and Josh Gordon, with the latter grabbing a 37-yard touchdown strike after the throw to Little just two plays earlier.

One thing that helped Weeden was that the Browns didn’t abandon the running game at any point in the contest. Willis McGahee carried the ball 26 times last night. In the second year man’s first two starts this season, Cleveland ran the ball less than 20 times in the entire game.

Weeden will need to improve if the Browns are going to continue to win football games. He has to develop an internal alarm clock in his head that tells him to get rid of the football after three seconds.

Everyone will talk about the quarterback situation, but the real story of last night was Travis Benjamin, who set a franchise record for most punt return yardage, including a 79-yard return to give the Browns a 17-10 advantage.

Benjamin also had a 57-yard return, which set up a Billy Cundiff field goal earlier.

Once again, the defense did the job. Yes, Buffalo had 155 yards rushing, becoming the first team to reach the century mark against them this season, but 54 of those came on a touchdown run by C. J. Spiller. The balance of the 101 yards came on 30 attempts.

Yes, we know that counts, but what it does mean is that for a majority of the game, Buffalo could not run the football.

The pressure was also there, with Ray Horton’s defense getting four more sacks, and from four different players, most notably rookie DE Armonty Bryant, who recorded his first NFL sack.

And the defense also put the game away on S T.J. Ward’s interception return for a touchdown.

Cleveland gave up 24 points, but the first seven were a result of a horrible pass interference call on Joe Haden on the Bills’ first play of the game.

We have said it before; the NFL simply has to change the penalty for this infraction to 15 yards. On the play in question, there was just as much contact initiated by the receiver. Why penalize only the defense?

The Browns, winners of three straight, have some extra time off before the Lions visit a week from Sunday.

The season is back in the hands of Brandon Weeden, and he must show a lot of improvement if Chudzinski’s boys are to continue their winning streak.