Someone had to pay

Didn't take long for the Browns to start house cleaning after being unceremoniously booted out of the National Football League playoffs a few days ago.

Say so long and don't let the door . . . on the way out to offensive-coordinator-in name-only Alex Van Pelt, running backs coach Stump Mitchell and tight ends coach T. C. McCartney. Notice they're all on the offensive side of the football.

Team spokesmen referred to the changes as "moving parts", which leaves room for interpretation, suggesting the individuals no longer with the team were at least partially responsible for the rapid exit from the postseason.

Let's not forget they were also responsible for winning 11 games. They must have done something right to pile up all those victories. Working with four quarterbacks in one season is challenging to begin with. You can't say they didn't meet that challenge.

The moves, in light of the success the Browns achieved this past season despite an injury list that would have crushed other teams, immediately reminded me of the cruising industry. Dismissing Van Pelt, Mitchell and McCartney is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. 

It won't make any difference who the Browns hire to replace them. The entire offense -- and its philosophy -- resides between the ears of head coach Kevin Stefanski. It will not change because Stefanski is stubborn enough to keep trying the same things, this time around with different faces.

He can change the faces all he wants, but the results will not be any different. The great Albert Einstein once said: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

That's Stefanski, who unsurprisingly will continue to call the plays for the offense in 2023 that piled up 11 victories in spite of losing the best running back in the National Football League in the second game of the season.

He also lost his starting quarterback shortly after and coached a sizable chunk of the season with backups at both offensive tackles. The starting offensive line played just one game together as a unit: The season opener.

Not even the magic of offensive line coach Bill Callahan could provide the necessary ingredients to unlock the one aspect of the game that badly needed to be unlocked. The running game suffered. While Kareem Hunt, Jerome Ford and Pierre Strong Jr. provided a semblance of strong relief at times, Chubb's absence was felt more as the season unfolded.

When Joe Flacco came aboard midway through the season and began shredding opposing defenses with his play-fake and bootleg wizardry, the offense hummed. But opposing defenses soon found out the Cleveland ground game wasn't that special after all and stopped buying the play fakes. 

In the second half of the season, Stefanski basically coached with at least one hand tied behind his back. But it was Van Pelt, Mitchell and McCartney who ultimately paid the price. Wrong place, wrong time. Someone had to pay.

Was the blame misplaced? There are more than a few who believe that was the case. But there are also those who firmly think the season would have turned out differently had injuries not played such a major role in how things eventuated.