Releasing Veterans is Just Business in NFL

We sometimes need to be reminded that professional sports are a business.

The Cleveland Browns reminded everyone of that this week when they released longtime linebacker D’Qwell Jackson rather that pay him a roster bonus that would have had him get over $9 million for the 2014 season.

Jackson has been a solid citizen and a great representative of the Browns since being drafted by Cleveland in 2006. He fought back after missing a year and a half with a torn pectoral muscle and resumed his place as a team leader and a solid player on the field.

However, he was due to be paid as an elite player in 2014, and quite frankly, Jackson is not a Pro Bowl type player.

If there was no salary cap, the Browns could take care of a good soldier, a player who wore the Cleveland uniform with pride and distinction.

And we understand the Browns have a ton of room under the cap right now, but if you are going to pay someone at the rate elite players are getting, they have to perform at that level.

Right now, D’Qwell Jackson is just not an impact player.

And now there are rumors that defensive lineman Ahtyba Rubin could be the next player to draw his release from the team.

The argument is the same. Rubin is a solid player, but he won’t be making the Pro Bowl any time soon, and he is due to be paid like someone who is an All Pro.

If the release of Jackson and Rubin help the Browns keep Alex Mack, a two-time Pro Bowl selection and T.J. Ward, who went to Hawaii for the first time in 2013, both of whom are free agents, then it is well worth it.

Obviously, new GM Ray Farmer, with a fresh set of eyes, wants to upgrade the talent on the Browns, and if you have to get rid of two solid players to keep two real good ones, plus keep cap room to add more good ones, then it really is an easy decision.

Northeastern Ohio sports fans are very loyal, particularly to players who have been here for a while. That’s why there is affinity for the Indians of the late 90’s, and the Browns of the late 80’s.

From a practical standpoint, it is not as though Jackson and Rubin have played during the glory days of the franchise. They’ve been on mediocre football teams, ones that have consistently lost ten or more games for the last six seasons.

Why wouldn’t the team look to replace them with younger, less expensive players that have a bigger upside? That’s being a smart general manager.

As we always say here…the only thing worse than being a bad football team is being a bad, old football team.

The Browns are one of the youngest teams in the NFL, but that shouldn’t preclude management from trying to replace players who are no longer getting better because of age with younger guys.

You can blame the Browns for insensitivity, but the player’s union should share the brunt as well because they have priced average veteran players out of jobs.

If Rubin is indeed released, there is no question that both he and Jackson will catch on with other teams, but at much lower salaries than they would have received from Cleveland.

This is a lesson on sports with salary caps in the 21^st Century. It stinks for good guys like D’Qwell Jackson and Ahtyba Rubin, but that is the reality.

The Manziel for Browns Debate

With the NFL Draft Combine going full mode right now, once again attention has drifted away from the turmoil in the Browns’ front office to who should they take with the 4th overall pick in the draft in May.

And of course, this brings up Texas A & M quarterback and former Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel. Certainly, he would bring excitement to what has become a moribund franchise, but would that translate into victories and playoff spots.

Browns’ fans don’t want relevance, as one Cleveland sports talker always espouses, they want wins. No one will be happy if there is plenty of buzz about the Browns and they finish 5-11 once again.

Our question to people who are begging for the Browns to take Manziel is would they bet a year’s pay that he will succeed in the NFL? Because that’s what Cleveland GM Ray Farmer has to do. If he’s not the answer, then Farmer has to explain his pick to owner Jimmy Haslam.

On Friday, the discussion centered on size, both Manziel’s height and the size of his hands. He didn’t receive good marks on the first set of measurements, coming in at under six feet (5’11-3/4″), but he had the biggest hands out of the top three passers entering the draft, larger than Teddy Bridgewater and Blake Bortles.

However, do these two things help Manziel with probably the most important job an NFL quarterback has, the ability to read defenses and put his team into plays that will succeed against the opposition.

Johnny Football’s supporters will point out that he is taller than the Super Bowl winning quarterback, Seattle’s Russell Wilson. However, critics (such as us) will point out that Wilson is not really an elite NFL passer, and while he did pilot the winning team, the Seahawks’ defense and running game had more to do with the victory.

If you made a list of the top ten quarterbacks in the league today, Wilson wouldn’t be on it. That supports our theory that GM Ray Farmer and his scouting staff should draft the best player available with the fourth selection, not the best QB left on the board.

Veteran scouts also seem torn on the Texas A & M quarterback. While many love his ability to make plays, others say he is quick to leave the pocket and leaves plays on the field. Others feel he’s a solid top ten pick, and conversely some scouts think he’s the biggest risk among the possible early selections.

Our thought is Farmer should take the best player on the board, because none of the holy trio (Bridgewater, Bortles, or Manziel) are Andrew Luck or even Robert Griffin III. The Browns have to get a player who can impact winning in 2014 with the choice, not someone who may have to be replaced a year from now.

Teams that overdraft QBs are usually still looking for replacements, just ask Jacksonville who selected Blaine Gabbert early and Minnesota, who did the same with Christian Ponder.

And it is not like the only need the Browns have is at that position. They still need a talent infusion for the entire roster, even with six Pro Bowlers. They still need another wide receiver, offensive line help, a running back, inside linebackers, and safety help, particularly if T. J. Ward leaves via free agency.

Manziel might be the sexy pick, but sexiness doesn’t win football games in the NFL.

Hold Off on Evaluating Pettine Until Games Start

The search is finally over.

On Thursday, the Browns sent the white smoke out of the chimney and named Bills defensive coordinator Mike Pettine as their new head coach.

Was Pettine a “hot” coordinator? No.

Was Pettine the first name on their wish list? No.

Should the front office be criticized for how they conducted the search process? Yes.

With all of those questions answered, those fans blasting the new hire because he wasn’t the Browns’ top choice and he wasn’t the coordinator for a playoff team are way off base.

We really don’t know what kind of head coach Pettine will be until the games start for real in September. That’s not a cop-out, it’s just he has to be judged by how prepared his team is to play, his adjustments within games, and whether or not he wins or loses. Any thoughts about how those issues will play out are strictly opinion.

And most of those ideas will be based on the critics’ thoughts about Jimmy Haslam, Joe Banner, and Michael Lombardi. And that’s simply not fair.

It has been written before how both Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh, two head coaches on rival teams in the AFC North, were in the same boat as Pettine when he was hired.

Tomlin was the defensive coordinator for one season in Minnesota (2006) when he got the gig in Pittsburgh, and the Vikings finished 6-10 that season. Harbaugh was the secondary coach for one season in Philadelphia after being the special teams coach when Ozzie Newsome hired him in Baltimore.

We all can agree they’ve been successful NFL head coaches.

This isn’t to say Pettine will win because he has a similar background to these men, but it is meant to emphasize no one know what kind of coach Pettine will be until games start.

The thing we will watch is how the new coach of the Browns bases his style of play on the personnel the team has. He talked about how important the quarterback position is in the NFL, which Banner and Lombardi have drummed into our consciousness since they arrived. And we all know those two want to draft a QB with the fourth pick in the draft.

But what if that player isn’t ready?

The Browns can’t afford to punt another season away. So, if Pettine were to coach like he doesn’t have an elite passer and decides the best way to put wins on the board is strong defense and a solid running game, that’s the kind of guy we want to see.

No more trying to put square pegs in a round hole. After all, that is the essence of coaching.

What Pettine and the front office should be thinking is that the name of the game is wins and losses, not style points or a certain way to play the game. Every Browns fans will tell you the team can be the most boring team in the league as long as they win on Sundays.

Pettine’s background with the Ravens and the Jets has him with teams who like to run the football. This is something the Browns didn’t emphasize all season, particularly after the front office traded Trent Richardson.

And with Rob Chudzinski’s firing after one year, Pettine has a little leverage. Here’s hoping he insists on getting quality replacements for injured players and to end the constant turning over of the bottom of the roster, which caused special teams’ gaffes.

Mike Pettine seems like a leader, at least in his press conference. Still, no one knows what kind of coach he is or he will be until the games start being played for real.

Fans cannot and should not judge him until then.

Difficulty in Finding Coach Should Scare Haslam

It is no secret to Cleveland football fans that the Browns’ coaching search has taken on its own life.

What is crazy is that there are only 32 head coaching jobs in the NFL, yet several assistant coaches do not want to take one of them, if it happens to be in Cleveland, that is.

First, New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel removed his name from consideration. Now Denver offensive coach, Adam Gase, just 35 years old, told the Browns he was not interested in taking the big step to head coaching in Cleveland.

You would think making a move from assistant to running your own show would be enough to entice an ambitious person to take the job. Obviously, there is something wrong in Berea.

At least Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi got the chance to talk to McDaniel. You could say that may the reason he turned down the gig. But Gase declined to be considered without talking to anyone currently in the organization.

It wouldn’t be hard to connect the dots and assume Gase did talk to former Browns’ GM Tom Heckert, who now works for the Broncos.

In a vacuum, coaching the Browns should be a great opportunity. After all, what is the downside?

If you don’t turn it around, you are just another coach in a long line of other guys who have failed to win in Cleveland since the franchise returned to the NFL in 1999. Many media people call the Browns’ organization dysfunctional anyway so there is no problem if you can’t win here.

On the other hand, if you do make the Browns a winner and return them to a position where playoff appearances are the norm, you will be heralded the same way coaches like Bill Parcells and Joe Gibbs are.

And if you perform the thought to be impossible and win a couple of Super Bowls with Cleveland, then you can get your acceptance speech ready for the day you are enshrined in Canton.

Instead, the Browns are having difficulty getting anyone who wants to interview for the job, let alone take it.

From afar, you would have to think someone should be checking on the interview technique used by Banner or whoever is involved in the process, to see why candidates seem to be turned off.

Besides that, owner Jimmy Haslam needs to examine why his franchise has such a negative vibe around the league. If it is because of the men he hired to run things here, then perhaps a change needs to be made sooner than later.

Or maybe Haslam should be more involved in the process and make it clear that the new coach reports to him directly. The counterpoint to that is perhaps it is Haslam’s impetuousness that cost Rob Chudzinski his job.

Whoever the Browns eventually hire, no one can judge him fairly until the team takes the field and plays a few games. After all, two coaches in the AFC North didn’t have overwhelming resumes when they were hired: Mike Tomlin with the Steelers and John Harbaugh with the Ravens.

Still, if Haslam needs to look at his organization after this process is completed because the Browns are considered toxic. And whether it is or not, perception is reality.

All three of the people running this team are to blame. No one should be escaping unscathed. The real problem is that the people who are suffering the most are the fans. They just keep watching losing football.

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.

A Coach’s Life Isn’t Fair, Just Ask Chud the Scapegoat

It turns out that Rob Chudzinski received just one year to try to turn around the Cleveland Browns, getting fired last night after a 4-12 season.

Did Chudzinski do a great job coaching this season? No, but he deserved another season to see if he would do better with a quality draft and therefore a better roster. Instead, he became the sacrificial lamb for a front office sensing more anger in an already disgruntled fan base.

The former head coach did make mistakes, most notably in his judgment of QB Brandon Weeden. Although Weeden did play well in the first two exhibition contests, it was clear early on that the football team didn’t respond to him.

However, isn’t the bigger miscalculation by Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi, who didn’t get another quarterback after the season ending injury to Brian Hoyer with the Browns having a 3-2 record. When Weeden struggled in games against Detroit and Green Bay after being put back in the lineup, the coaching staff had no other alternative than Jason Campbell.

And after Campbell became the starter, it made Weeden the only alternative going forward. That’s not on the coach, that’s on the personnel department.

We have been critical of the Browns’ ignorance of the running game, but what choice did they have after Banner and Lombardi dealt Trent Richardson to the Colts for a first round pick in 2014. Yes, it was a good deal (Joe and Mike can pat themselves on the back), but it left the squad without a legitimate running threat.

It would seem to be another case of the personnel people letting the coaching staff down.

Another thing that let Chudzinski down was the defense. After the Browns’ lost to the Steelers in Cleveland to drop to 4-6 on the year, they lost three games in which they scored a total of 85 points. That’s an average of 28 points per game.

However, Ray Horton’s unit allowed 97 points in those games against Jacksonville, New England, and Chicago. And the first two of those games were fourth quarter collapses by the defense.

Had the Browns won two of those games, they would have ended the year at 6-10. Would Chudzinski have been fired then?

Yes, your record is what it says it is, but the former coach was offensive minded and somehow he pasted together a plan (with Norv Turner) to put up 28 points with no running game and a veteran journeyman quarterback.

But he loses his job because the owner and front office want better results?

Supposedly, the team made the decision after the Jets’ game, which came one week after the Browns scored 31 points against Chicago. That means yesterday’s game didn’t figure in the decision.

So, the coach has one bad game and the decision is made to jettison the coach.

Many in the media are complimenting Haslam on a “bold” move. But, it says here he comes off looking like Jerry Jones or Daniel Snyder, an impetuous owner who makes knee jerk reactions. The bold move would have been to see what Chudzinski could do with a year of head coaching experience under his belt.

Nobody wanted Haslam to be like the reclusive Randy Lerner, but with this move he comes off as a meddler.

Firing the coach puts the pressure squarely on the owner and his hand-picked people (Banner and Lombardi) to win and win now. That’s something that has been needed in Berea, but we’re not sure they had to relieve the head coach of his duties to establish it.

Browns’ Defense Can’t Handle a Lead (Again!)

Another Sunday, another loss for the Cleveland Browns, who dropped their sixth straight game in the Meadowlands, 24-13 to the Jets.

Today’s defeat had a typical twist, with WR David Nelson, deemed not good enough to make the Browns in training camp, caught two touchdown passes (6 and 5 yards) to exact revenge on the guys who cut him.

Defensively, once again, Ray Horton’s crew couldn’t stand prosperity. The Browns took a 10-0 lead in the second quarter, and really, at that point in the game were dominating the Jets. The score would’ve been 17-0 because the offense couldn’t score after having a first down inside the NY five yard line.

As soon as Cleveland finally did get in the end zone on a 5-yard run by Edwin Baker, his second rushing touchdown in two weeks with 6:47 to go in the half, the defense allowed QB Geno Smith and the Jets to march right down the field for a touchdown in 13 plays, including four key third down conversions. There was 1:18 left in the second quarter.

The coaching staff decided to keep the ball in the air instead of running the clock and going into the locker room with a 10-7 advantage.

On the first play after the punt, the defense allowed RB Bilal Powell to run up the middle for 39 yards into Cleveland territory and gave Rex Ryan’s team a new lease on life. Three plays later, including an unnecessary roughness penalty on Tashaun Gibson, and the Jets’ Nick Folk kicked a chip shot field goal to tie the game at halftime.

The defense, who had been stout against the run all season long until last week, was gashed again and again, allowing 209 yards on the ground. Considering the plan should have been to make Smith throw the ball considering his 21 interceptions on the season, this was totally unacceptable.

This week when Horton gets his time with the media, he shouldn’t be spouting numbers showing how well his unit is really playing. The past two weeks, they have been battered. And once again, the defense didn’t sack Smith, which more often than not has been the case recently.

Offensively, there was the obligatory dropped passes, including one in the end zone by Greg Little, who should thank the coaching staff every week for their patience, because it’s hard to believe he would get this much of an opportunity with any other team in the NFL.

QB Jason Campbell didn’t have a good day either, but the drops didn’t help. He hit on just 18 of 39 throws for 178 yards and one interception. You would think because Campbell didn’t play well, Rob Chudzinski and Norv Turner might mix in the run more.

Well, you’d be wrong.

Baker carried just 17 times for 64 yards, almost four yards per shot, and in total, Cleveland averaged 5.5 yards per running play.

Even though it’s a passing league, you still have to run the ball in the NFL to win. The front office and coaching staff simply have ignored this part of the game.

WR Josh Cooper subbed for Davonne Bess and played like the organization expected the veteran to play, grabbing four catches for 26 yards.

This is another example of the different agenda the organization has had all year. They traded for Bess, and he was going to get every opportunity to show what he could do.

So, with one game left at Pittsburgh, the Browns are staring at seven straight loss to end the season in the face.

Until everything done in this organization is about winning and winning now, nothing is going to change in Berea. No matter who they take in the draft, Joe Banner has to turn around the attitude, one that he and his staff came into the year with.

Stop looking to next year!

Browns Can’t Close Again on Defense.

It is now official that the Cleveland Browns will lose 10 or more games again in 2013, losing their final home game to the Chicago Bears, 38-31 at First Energy Stadium.

It’s the sixth straight season with double-digit losses, and the tenth in 11 seasons. Since returning to the NFL in 1999, the Browns have lost ten or more contests 12 times.

It’s a losing culture and it won’t change until the entire organization, which includes the front office, coaching staff, and players make a commitment that losing is not tolerable, and end the “next year” mentality that permeates the whole building in Berea.

Teams turn around every year in the NFL. This year, it’s Kansas City that was gone from a 2-14 record a year ago to an 11-3 season to this point. Last year, it was Indianapolis.

Here’s who it has never been: The Cleveland Browns. They have a tradition of being a doormat for 15 years.

To be fair, perhaps the Browns can be the Chiefs next season. KC has several Pro Bowl players on their roster in 2012, more than a team that wins two games should have. Rob Chudzinski’s team could have three or four players going to Hawaii in January.

But based on the last 15 years, forgive us for not holding our breath.

Today’s loss represented another collapse by what many people thought was the strength of the team going into the year, the defense. In fact, there were a lot of people (us included) who felt defensive coordinator Ray Horton would be a prime candidate for a head coaching position this winter.

Now, it would be a long shot with the Browns’ defense allowing almost 26 points per game this season, a figure that ranks in the bottom part of the NFL. Horton likes to recite statistics, but the only real stat that counts is how points you allow.

What is more disturbing is that 128 of those points have been allowed in the fourth quarter, including 21 today. And while the Bears did score seven points on defense today, the three touchdowns if the final stanza came from Chicago carving up the Cleveland defense.

In the last five games, all defeats, the Browns have allowed 165 points, which averages 33 per game. 40% of those points have come in the fourth quarter, including 37 the past two weeks combined.

The defense isn’t exactly closing out games.

Horton’s crew has been effective against the run all season, but today the Bears ran it right down their collective throats gaining 179 yards on the ground. The dagger came as a result of Michael Bush’s 40 yard TD burst which gave the Bears a 38-24 lead.

The third down efficiency was terrible too, allowing the Bears to convert on 9 of 14 situations. And the Bears ran the same play three times, a fake reverse with a pitch out to Matt Forte, who gained 127 yards in 24 carries, for big yardage every time. There were no adjustments by the defense.

The only bright spot were the two touchdowns scored by the unit, Tashaun Gipson’s 44 yard interception return and T.J. Ward’s 51 yard run with a fumble recovery.

Offensively, someone (either the offensive coaches or the Bears’ defense) took Josh Gordon out of the game, leaving Jason Campbell to his dink and dunk game. Gordon did get in the end zone on a 43-yard pass play in the fourth quarter, but his 100-yard receiving streak ended with just 67 yards.

The bright spot for the offense was the newest member of the team, RB Edwin Baker who gained 38 yards in eight carries and caught four more passes for 46 yards.

The question is why wasn’t he brought in sooner?

After the optimism of last week’s near miss in New England, the reality set back in that this team can’t avoid losing, and the front office doesn’t seem to mind.

Until that ends, the losing cycle may never be escaped.

Browns Find New Way to Lose

You would think that with all the losing the Cleveland Browns have done in the last 15 years that they would have exhausted every possible way to be defeated.

And then you would watch today’s game and think about how they’ve invented a new way to do it.

With almost 12 minutes to go in the game, the Browns led 21-20 and just received the ball back after a Jacksonville punt. The Jaguars were doing nothing, repeat, NOTHING on offense after intermission. It was an opportunity to run clock and move the ball down the field for another score and take control of the contest.

Except that Alex Mack, one of the Browns’ better players, a solid center, snapped the ball over Brandon Weeden’s head and when the quarterback kicked the ball out of the end zone (the right play), the Jags had the lead 22-21.

The resulting free kick was returned 31 yards to the Browns’ 43. A face mask penalty on NT Phil Taylor and one first down later, Josh Scobee kicked a 25 yard field goal and it was a four point advantage, 25-21.

On the Browns’ next offensive play, they regained the lead with a 95-yard completion from Weeden to Josh Gordon, who had another magnificent game, with 3:54 left to give Cleveland a 28-25 lead.

It seemed Rob Chudzinski’s squad might overcome the myriad of mistakes they made and win their fifth game of the year.

However, the Jaguars hit a big play on a 25-yard strike from Chad Henne to Ace Sanders to put them back in business and in Cleveland territory.

The defense stiffened at the 20-yard line and forced a third and nine after Henne was pressured and threw a flat pass over the head of Sanders.

But Joe Haden, the team’s best player, was burned on a double move by former Collinwood High School and Mount Union star Cecil Shorts III for a 20-yard TD catch and the Jags took a 32-28 lead with less than a minute remaining.

The Browns dropped to 4-8 with the loss and yet another 10 loss season appears very likely.

It’s one thing when mediocre, replaceable players are making mistakes to cost a team football games, but now it’s players like Mack, who has made a Pro Bowl, and Haden, who likely will make one this year, making bad plays an inopportune times to cause defeat.

Of course, it may not have come down to those plays if it weren’t for a horrible three-minute stretch at the end of the first half by their quarterback.

With the Browns leading 14-7 at that point, Weeden threw interceptions on consecutive plays, and then fumbled on the penultimate play of the half handing Jacksonville 13 points and a 20-14 advantage at intermission.

Those three turnovers, plus the safety (which is essentially a turnover) cost Cleveland 15 points. These problems are an extension of what occurred the last two games against Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

The Browns’ defense caused just one turnover, and therein is the difference in the game. In the NFL, you simply can’t turn the ball over that many times and win.

As for the season, the names on the front office keep changing, but the record remains the same. Unless something unforeseen happens, another 1o loss season, the sixth consecutive one for the franchise, will happen.

Why should anyone have any confidence in the latest people to sit in the front office.

Three weeks ago, after a win over Baltimore, the future looked bright. Three weeks of turnover and mistake filled football changes everything.

The month of December will feel like an eternity to Browns’ fans all over the country.

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.