Let's see if this works

The latest purge at 76 Lou Groza Blvd. has ended.

Those responsible for the noxious fumes that emanated throughout last season are gone, joining the long list of those in the Cleveland Browns graveyard of failed front-office executives and coaches.

You remember the names of the latest in whom Browns Nation trusted the revival of this once-great franchise had finally arrived; the return to prominence and respect it enjoyed throughout its first 46 National Football League seasons.

Head coach Charles Frederick (Freddie) Kitchens Jr., whose appointment to the job with no major experience to justify it, gone along with his southern charm and clueless coaching.

General Manager John Dorsey, who swept through the 1-31 mess he inherited and in less than 18 months put together a representative team for the first time in ages, gone. Why? Because he unwisely chose a head coach who wasn’t nearly ready to be a head coach.

Assistant General Manager Eliot Wolf, who left the comfort of Green Bay, Wis., to join Dorsey, gone even though the Browns wanted to retain his services. Call it a difference of football philosophy.

Vice President/Player Personnel Alonzo Highsmith, who also left the comfort of Green Bay to join Dorsey and Wolf, gone. Why? Two reasons: Because Dorsey was cashiered and he, too, saw the game of football differently than the direction  the club wanted to take it.

College Scouting Director Steve Malin, who arrived in Cleveland with Dorsey, Wolf and Highsmith at the same time, gone, Why? A Dorsey appointee.

It was just one year ago the Browns stunned the NFL in the second half of the 2018 season with a rookie quarterback to the point this heretofore-moribund franchise was primed to turn a significant corner.

The architects of that remarkable half-season turnaround were Dorsey, Wolf, Highsmith and to a lesser degree Kitchens. The corner, as it turned out, was never turned. It wasn’t even approached.

And just like that, within a 30-day period at the beginning of 2020, poof, all of them gone. Replaced by yet another stab at getting it right by Jimmy Haslam III, whose failures are dangerously close to becoming legendary.

This time, analytics trumped football. This time, it’s Paul DePodesta’s turn to grab the owner’s ear and get his way. That’s why Kevin Stefanski is now the head coach, Andrew Berry is now the general manager and the chief strategy officer is calling most of the shots.

Not bad for a former baseball man whose owners allow him to be an absentee executive, maintaining residence in the San Diego suburb of La Jolla, Calif., Haslam and his wife, Dee, front this still-dysfunctional franchise, but DePodesta has a huge voice.

From this point forward until they, too, suffer the same fate as the aforementioned, this new front office will be the targets for criticism – and gotta be fair, praise – as the brand spanking new Cleveland Browns get ready to play the final season of this decade.

Think of it, three neophytes are now in charge of his billion-dollar franchise, replacing three football men and all are analytics devotees. Stefanski has never been a head coach; Berry has never been a general manager; and DePodesta has never been the man.

Each man has something to prove.

Stefanski wants to prove he can make a successful transition to head coach after just one season as a coordinator. He risks reaching that goal if he ultimately appoints himself as the playcaller on offense.

Berry, whose three-year stint (2016-18) as vice president/player personnel with the Browns produced terrible college drafts, wants to remove the stigma of those drafts.

And DePodesta no doubt wants to prove a successful baseball man can achieve success in the NFL as well.

At this point, replacing Dorsey, Kitchens, Wolf and Highsmith, all solid football men, with Berry, Stefanski and DePodesta, all in their first rodeo, is at best a gamble. At worst, it’s just another wash, rinse and repeat waiting to happen all over again.

That's what Browns Nation, the NFL's most ardent, loyal and tortured fan base. has to look forward to.

So much for alignment

Well, it sure looks as if Paul DePodesta swings the biggest hammer in the Browns’ Ivory Tower.

The club’s chief strategy officer got his way when Kevin Stefanski was named head coach recently. And now it’s a virtual lock Andrew Berry, another DePodesta choice, will become the new general manager.

It hasn’t happened officially yet, but it will almost assuredly eventuate now that George Paton, Stefanski’s choice for the post, took himself out of the running Friday.

The Minnesota Vikings assistant general manager reportedly had problems with the structure of the club’s power structure. That’s probably because the Browns uniquely require the head coach and CSO report to owner Jimmy Haslam.

Most National Football League teams conventionally require the head coach to report to only the general manager.

Another possibility – a guess based solely on reason – might have been Paton’s unease working as much with DePodesta, the analytics dude, as with Stefanski, the football dude. Most NFL general managers work autonomously when it comes to football matters.

When his name first showed up as one of the candidates, Paton became the apparent front-runner to succeed John Dorsey as GM because of his close relationship with Stefanski for many years in Minnesota.

Ever since the disaster that was the 2019 season ended, Haslam has preached alignment. Mentioned it at least a dozen times in his mea culpa end-of-the-season news conference.

He wanted everyone pulling in the same direction. Pairing the new coach and general manager was going to the perfect alignment (Haslam’s word) to that end. Some people actually believed him.

A perfect alignment would have been Stefanski and Paton, who worked together in Minnesota for more than a decade. It was going to be the perfect comfort level for both men. 

It was widely believed Paton would get the job after traveling to Berea for a second interview last Wednesday. Second interviews are rare and generally wind up in a hire.

But the silence that emanated from 76 Lou Groza Blvd. the last few days after the latest interview triggered a few doubts. Why would it take more than a day, perhaps even the day after his second interview, to name Paton to the post? The longer that silence lingered, the more doubt it built up.

And then Paton removed that doubt himself. That had to bother Stefanski, who was supposed to wield a lot of influence with the final verdict. Now he has to work with a relative stranger.

Paton must have found out that doing it the Cleveland Browns way with the power structure was anathema to the rest of the league and wanted no part of it. No part of the dysfunction, that is.

It is clearly a significant step backward for the Browns, unless there is a backchannel move no one knows about, to name Berry, the Browns’ former director of player personnel for four years, to the top spot.

The 32-year-old Berry, who moved on after the 2018 season and served as vice president of football operations for the Philadelphia Eagles last season, was Sashi Brown’s football guide in two disastrous college drafts in 2016 and 2017.

Paton was a solid football man in the Minnesota front office with a solid background in the annual college football draft. Berry, who has a background in economics and computer science, was never associated with success in the football realm with the Browns.

His eventual appointment to the role, however, will give the club an Ivy League look and feel among those who count in the new Haslam alignment. Berry and DePodesta are Harvard graduates and Stefanski, who can’t be thrilled with the latest moves, graduated from Pennsylvania.

As Freddie Kitchens would say, “Whoop-de-doo!”

The new GM will be Stefanski's choice

Lemme see if I have this right . . .

The new head coach of the Cleveland Browns will, in effect, interview candidates for the general manager vacancy. It is being reported Kevin Stefanski could take as long as two weeks to make that determination.

Jimmy Haslam III has given his new head coach a huge say in the selection. The owner ostensibly has the final call, but he wants alignment within the organization and choosing someone who is not Stefanski’s choice is anything but aligning.

Suffice it to say Stefanski’s choice will be the Browns’ next general manager. If not, trouble looms. Either way, the new GM will be his new boss. If the lucky guy is Stefanski’s man, it will be interesting to see who ranks higher on the flow chart.

The general manager on National Football League teams is usually the architect of the 53-man roster, not the head coach unless he holds a dual title such as Bill Belichick in New England.

As for the GM candidates, two of the three currently mentioned so far have qualifications that lead one to believe the future looks bright with regard to talent evaluation.

Monti Ossenfort, director of scouting for New England, is a 17-year NFL veteran, 14 with the Patriots. And Minnesota assistant general manager George Paton has been with the Vikings for 12 years and knows Stefanski well. Both men are employed by teams with a strong history of draft success.

Then there is Andrew Berry, who spent three years with the Browns as vice president of player personnel before moving to Philadelphia a year ago to become vice president of football operations for the Eagles.

The presence of John Dorsey with the Browns shunted Berry into the background and was probably the main factor he chose to move on and land in Philadelphia. Now with Dorsey gone, it is believed he would welcome a return to Cleveland.

He reportedly has two advocates for that return in Haslam and Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, who worked together during the dark days of tanking just a few years ago.

At that time, Berry was the club’s top talent evaluator under non-football man Sashi Brown. Together they managed the two-year tank job the Browns engineered in 2016 and 2017. Brown had the final say, but Berry was the personnel guy.

He has a rather dubious résumé in those two seasons of drafting. In 2016, Brown opted to trade out of the No. 2 overall spot, passing on quarterback Carson Wentz. DePodesta, the baseball man, infamously suggested Wentz was not a top 20 quarterback.

The next year, the Browns traded out of the No. 12 overall slot, passing on quarterback Deshaun Watson. Two franchise quarterbacks gone. Just like that. The ridicule that followed was warranted. Brown made the ultimate decisions, but Berry was a part of it.

In those two lamentable seasons, the Browns under Brown and Berry selected 24 players (14 in 2016). That right there constitutes almost half a roster if all made the final team.

Only five – linebacker Joe Schobert and wide receiver Rashard Higgins from 2016 and defensive end Myles Garrett, tight end David Njoku and defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi from the 2017 class – remain on the current roster. And Schobert and Higgins might be gone by next training camp.

The point here is obvious. With numbers like that for Berry, who would you want to be your next general manger? I’d opt for the likes of Ossenfort and Paton, who would arrive with more draft gravitas than Berry.

And just the other day came the news the Browns could wind up interviewing as many as five candidates for the GM vacancy. Why not 10? Or 15? What’s the hurry? Gotta get the right guy.

Of course that’s ridiculous. So are five candidates. Three is plenty. If you need more, you’re either not totally satisfied with any of the top three or you are complicating what should be a simple process.

The dysfunction churns on.

Analytics on trial

What are analytics and why have they become important to the Browns?

One dictionary defines analytics as the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. Another dictionary simplifies analytics as the method of logical analysis.

What that has to do with football is unknown at best to the ordinary fan, puzzling at worst.

So why are analytics so important to the Browns? Probably because nothing else has worked for the last two decades on the field, so they might as well try something else.

And because analytics have become the semi-rage in the National Football League, Paul DePodesta has risen in the flow chart in Berea. He was given the title of chief strategy officer probably because they couldn’t come up with anything more original.

He has become powerful enough to chair the team’s selection committee for a head coach and general manager. Everything it seems flows through him. He is one of the main reasons Kevin Stefanski is the new head coach.

DePodesta has the ears of Jimmy Haslam III, who loves what his CSO has contributed. “He’s been a good thought partner for us,” the Browns’ owner said recently.

His respect for DePodesta was the one of causal factors that led to the dismissal of General Manager John Dorsey a couple of weeks ago. Haslam called it a mutual parting of the ways.

In reality, it was DePodesta winning what amounted to a power struggle between an analytics nerd and long-time football man who wanted no part of DePodesta’s world and exited after refusing to accept what amounted to a demotion.

Dorsey won the first round against DePodesta last year, choosing Freddie Kitchens over Stefanski, the CSO’s choice.

DePodesta has one of the best, if not the best, jobs in the sports world. He commutes to Cleveland once a week from his home in La Jolla, Calif., in the San Diego area and is rewarded handsomely for what amounts to a part-time job.

He is a baseball man – he started with the Indians in 1996 as an advance scout – who has journeyed through the football world the last several years with the Browns. attempting to apply the same theories that brought him fame in the hit movie and book “Moneyball.”

His main job, it would seem, is to crunch numbers and make sure they align with the avowed goal of fielding a smart, winning football team through strategic means. Make certain the team is prepared for any and all possibilities and probabilities within the game.

He called the process “having frameworks to make decisions under uncertainty.” I can’t begin to understand what that means and how it applies to playing a game of football.

How that’s going to translate through the players is nothing more than a guess at this point. That aspect of the process most likely will run through the head coach, who then will game plan based on the analytics he receives.

In the past, coaches relied on tendencies when game planning. What will this team do in this situation? Down and distance often dictate strategy on both sides of the football.

Analytics – and this is another guess – breaks the game down even further than that and help dictate what the head coach does in a given situation.

For example, analytics contributed to the shocking home loss the heavily favored Baltimore Ravens suffered in the division playoff against the Tennessee Titans last weekend.

The Ravens twice attempted to run the football on fourth-and-1 and were stuffed, once at their 45-yard line, the second at the Tennessee 18. On the first, the Titans scored on the very next play to take a 14-0 lead. On the second, they marched 81 yards to score again to take a 21-6 lead. Ball game.

Analytics dictated Ravens coach John Harbaugh to gamble in both cases for one of the best offenses in the entire NFL. Instead of punting on the first and kicking a field goal on the second, the failed gambles resulted in turnovers on downs and the Titans capitalized on both.

The key for the Browns next season will be the connection, or alignment as Haslam likes to call it, between DePodesta’s department and Stefanski’s coaching staff. Both men called it a “shared vision.”

“My role first and foremost is to not only help us create, but almost implement that shared vision and ultimately make sure we stick to it really relentlessly,” the CSO emphasized. “That is really my role.”

Then there is the human factor. Are humans becoming slaves to analytics? Do they obey what a computer spits out every time? Not in my world. In my world, decisions made by humans based on common sense trump analytics every time.

Bottom line here: This one is on DePodesta. He finally got his man in Stefanski. Time will tell if the baseball man got the football decision right. Kitchens was Dorsey’s blunder and it cost him his job. The hot seat is now occupied by DePodesta.

Impressive debut

First impressions, it is often said, are extremely important in that they allow you to see the true genuineness of people. They are make-or-break moments in life.

You get only one shot at it. And you better get it right. How’s that old meme go? You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. It’s true.

Kevin Stefanski made his Cleveland debut Tuesday as the new head coach of the Browns and presented himself in such a way that quietly explained why he was chosen to succeed Freddie Kitchens.

First impressions from this viewpoint after a 30-minute session with the media: Poised, self-assured, prepared, knowledgeable, serious, dedicated, confident with an absence of cockiness, reserved.

He looked comfortable in his new role, answering numerous questions about what Browns Nation could expect from him in a calm, casual manner throughout the grilling.

He did not dwell on any aspect of his new job, one he has prepared for the last decade and a half. He handled a wide range of subjects with soft-spoken, relatively brief replies. Pontification took a back seat.

He was impressive in a calm, almost-laid back manner. It looked as though he had done this before even though this was his first rodeo in front of a tough audience and he handled it in a down-to-earth fashion.

“My leadership style is to be authentic,” said the 37-year-old Stefanski, whose well-trimmed salt-and-pepper beard belied his age. “I am going to be me . . . I want to lead from a relationship standpoint and I want (the players) to know what I’m about.”

Being an offensive coach for most of his career, it was only natural he was asked about calling plays on that side of the football, which he did this past season as offensive coordinator with the Minnesota Vikings. “I think we’re going to work through that,” he said.

“I think as we put the staff together, if there is someone on that staff I feel gives us the best chance to win, that person will call the plays. It does not have to be me. But I want to work through that and see us put that staff together (first).”

It was an adroit dodge of the question. Quite different from last season when Kitchens insisted from the get-go that he was the going to call all the plays on offense. It was a decision that ultimately cost him his job.

When the question was obliquely revisited later on, Stefanski said, “I am all about the Cleveland Browns. If that’s me calling the plays, great. If it is not, I am fine with that, too.” A tiny peek into what he’s thinking now.

As for analytics and the role they will play in his new role, he said. “I am looking for any edge we can get on game day and certainly analytics is another buzzword out there. We’re looking to make informed decisions. Information is power, so we like to have a lot of information that informs our decisions.”

Interesting thought. Information is power. Can’t argue that, but every now and then, supposed correct information is exactly the opposite. Doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

Last time I looked, football was mostly about blocking and tackling. The teams that block and tackle the best are generally the ones that wind up playing in January and early February.

Stefanski also dismissed local reports that had him sharing game plans with the analytics arm of the team the Friday before games. “It’s silly season for that type of stuff and I understand that,” he said, calling them “not true.”

Owner Jimmy Haslam III did admit, however, acknowledged reports that he would meet with his latest head coach – his fifth since 2012 – the day after games to review them and justified continuing that practice.

“If you owned a pro football team, would you meet with the head coach (the day) after the game?” he said. “Of course you would. Of course we would.”

Regarding the rumors about analytics playing a much more important role this season in game planning and game-day moves, he said, “The rumors out there, though, about presenting a game plan and that kind are totally inaccurate. I really think they are irresponsible.”

Inaccurate and irresponsible are not exactly saying untrue. That is couching the answer in a way that indicates there might be more there than he lets on. His new coach said not true. He did not.

Maybe it’s the ex-journalist in me, but I tend to believe someone in that business before I believe someone who leans toward prevarication when cornered.

As for Stefanski’s approach when he begins connecting with the players, the past will not be part of the conversations. “We’re not looking backward,” he said. “We’re looking forward. Anything that has happened in the past doesn’t affect our future.”

A good start for the Ivy League graduate, who pocketed a five-year contract to move his football acumen from the Land of 10,000 Lakes (actually 11,842) to the North Coast lakefront. The stoplight is now his.

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Hands off Stefanski

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Now that the parameters Kevin Stefanski agreed to when he agreed to become the Browns’ newest head coach have been revealed, that idiom applies big time.

Nothing has changed at 76 Lou Groza with the formal announcement that hailed Stefanski’s arrival into the den of failed coaches. If two stories tied to Stefanski’s acceptance of the job are to be believed, now we know why his predecessors failed.

It’s the owner. He loves to run the show. He thinks he knows all about football. He doesn’t and it perpetuates the dysfunction that has wrapped itself around this franchise for two decades.

Jimmy Haslam III has searched for the solution to change the team culture ever since taking over as owner of the Browns from the Lerner family in 2012. He can stop searching. The problem is the visage he sees in the mirror every day.

One of the concessions Stefanski had to make in order to accept the job, according to Steve Doerschuk of the Canton Repository, was allowing people from the analytics arm of the club to wear a headset and have access to the coaching staff on game days.

In addition, he agreed to meet with Haslam the day after games – strictly coach and owner – for hours-long confabs, presumably to explain strategy and his tactical approach to the games. Sort of a second-guessers get together.

In addition, Dustin Fox of 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland reported the front office wants Stefanski to “turn in game plans to the owner and analytics guys by Friday and attend an end-of-the-week analytics meeting to discuss the plan.”

You don’t get more unorthodox than that. If anything, that’s taking analytics way too far and should have no place in the way a head coach puts his game plans together.  Bothering him on game days is counterproductive.

Now all this might be the handiwork of Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, as well as Haslam, who pretty much worships (OK, I exaggerate, but you get the point) his CSO and his analytical approach to the game of football.

Good Lord, why would anyone accept such a blatantly hands-on situation by people who should mind their own business instead of the new head coach’s business? Stefanski might as well report to work with one arm strapped behind his back.

And the new general manager, whoever the unfortunate soul is, probably faces the same situation. Too many cooks . . .

How in the world can Stefanski be successful with higher-ups lurking all the time? What kind of a relationship can he possibly have with his players? They’ll find out sooner or later what’s going on. Working under those conditions is anathema to establishing a winning culture.

Now it’s beginning to make sense why Josh McDaniels walked away from Berea after interviewing last Friday knowing there was no way he wanted that job. Doerschuk reported he wanted “a sweeping makeover” before accepting the job. Blow everything up. The offer never came.

Haslam steadfastly believes a brand new alignment is the key to turning this morose franchise around. He’s tried just about everything else up to now. Everything, that is, except clasping his hands behind his back and remaining silent.

After selecting a new GM, Jimmy and Dee Haslam should take a lengthy leave of absence and let Stefanski and Co. run the show unabated for one complete season.

Yes, it’s their money and that can do as they please. But when it comes to the NFL, they are consistent bunglers. They have a lasting relationship with Murphy’s Law, proving time and again they are incapable of running a stable operation.

It’s time for them to step back and let those they have chosen to do their jobs . . . do their jobs with no interference. Let them rise or fall on their own. Don’t second-guess them. Trust they know what they are doing.

If they succeed, enjoy their successes. If they fail, they fail, but give them time to fail. Not one of two seasons. Unless, that is, they are so bad, he has no choice but to pull the plug and apologize all over again for a bad decision. That Haslam surprisingly awarded Stefanski a five-year contract is a step in the right direction.

“We were looking for a strong leader of this football team,” the Haslams said in a prepared statement, “a very bright coach with a high football IQ who could establish a strong understanding of what he expected of his players, hold them accountable and confidently navigate the challenges and opportunities that present themselves throughout the season. Kevin exemplifies these qualities and more.”

All well and good. Now leave him alone.

DePodesta wins this time

At this time last year, Jimmy Haslam III sided with General Manager John Dorsey over Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta and named Freddie Kitchens as his new head coach.

After a disastrous 2019 season under Kitchens, the Browns owner had a chance for a do-over and this time went with DePodesta, who chaired the selection committee, in naming Kevin Stefanski the franchise’s 18^th full-time coach Sunday, exactly one year to the day later.

The somewhat surprising choice of Stefanski was also Haslam’s fifth whack at getting it right for the top whistle. It was surprising because it was believed Josh McDaniels was the leader in the clubhouse to succeed Kitchens.

The native of northeastern Ohio, best known as the offensive architect for the incredible championship run by New England Patriots, was also a favorite of Haslam and his wife, Dee.

DePodesta pushed for Stefanski last year when he was just a neophyte interim coordinator running the offense for the Minnesota Vikings. But Haslam opted to stay in house and went for Kitchens, who was endorsed by rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield after enjoying success as an interim offensive coordinator in 2018.

Despite running eight candidates through the mill in the last few weeks, it’s obvious no one impressed DePodesta more than Stefanski, under whom the Vikings’ offense flourished this past season.

A couple of guesses as to why Stefanski emerged victorious: Either McDaniels flunked his interview Friday in Berea or he was not nearly as impressive as Stefanski, who has spent his entire National Football League career with Minnesota.

With no Dorsey around to challenge this time after his “mutual” departure at the beginning of the month, DePodesta probably pushed even harder. The only reason for the delay in the announcement was Stefanski was still involved with the Vikings in the playoffs.

The Vikings’ 27-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers Saturday afternoon in an NFC divisional playoff game enabled the Browns to move in and make the offer. Terms were not immediately made public.

The timing of the announcement in the wake of that game is unfortunate. Stefanski’s offense looked pathetic against the 49ers. The week before, though, it was quite the opposite as the Vikings went down to New Orleans and upset the Saints in a wild-card game.

It’s unfair to judge the qualities of an incoming new head coach based on a game or two. The results of those playoff games should in no way be used as a barometer for what Browns Nation can expect from Stefanski. The Penn graduate is the head coach, not just one side of the football.

As the head coach, he talks to the entire team. If he was hired mainly to help rehabilitate Mayfield, who struggled throughout his sophomore season, he was hired for the wrong reason. He’ll have too many other items about which to worry.

Ignoring them is what led to Kitchens’ dismissal. After Mayfield lobbied for the ex-head coach, he proceeded to make the offense more important than the entire team. As a result, that offense – and the team – suffered most of the season.

If Stefanski is smart, and being an Ivy League school (Penn) graduate is a good start, he will not follow in his predecessor’s footsteps and call the plays on offense. He will hire his own coordinators on both sides of the ball. This assumes the departure of defensive boss Steve Wilks.

There’s also a chance the new coach might stick with Browns special teams coordinator Mike Priefer, with whom he worked for several seasons before the native Clevelander joined the Browns this past season.

One of the reasons Stefanski enjoyed so much success in 2019 was the presence of Gary Kubiak, the former Denver Broncos quarterback and head coach who was brought in to shepherd the young man in his first full season as a coordinator.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said Kubiak was “probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me since I came here.” The question now is whether the Browns will attempt to pry Kubiak loose to join Stefanski in Cleveland.

But for right now, all we know about Stefanski is he is young, he is bright, he is enthusiastic and he is about to enter the most dangerous head coaching job in the NFL by far.

History has proven in the last 21 years that Cleveland is where head coaches come to die. Stefanski is No. 10 since the resurrection in 1999 and the fifth Haslam hire since 2012.  That’s 10 new head coaches (not counting two interims) in 21 seasons, or about one every two years. Stefanski is the latest to try and dispel that notion.

How special is the new hire? We don’t know. No one knows for certain. Right now, he is a blank palette. We’ll all get a much better idea when he starts painting.

But he needs time, time to develop a culture, time to learn how to be “the man”, time to create a culture where the team becomes the embodiment of its head coach. It requires time and patience, attributes of which the Haslams are sadly bereft.

It’s the lack of those two vital ingredients on the executive level that has stymied whatever growth this franchise had begun. If that does not stop, the rinse-and-repeat machine will drone on.

Saleh back in the mix?

Just when it appeared the Browns were closing in on either Josh McDaniels or Kevin Stefanski as their next head coach, they made a move Saturday suggesting that might not be the case after all.

The club put in a request to interview Indianapolis Colts Assistant General Manager Ed Dodds Jr., who has no known affiliation with either McDaniels or Stefanski.

Considering owner Jimmy Haslam III is allowing whomever he selects as his next head coach the opportunity to pick his own general manager, only San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Saleh among those who have interviewed has a connection with Dodds.

The two men were in the Seattle Seahawks organization for three years before moving on to their current roles, Dodds joining the Colts in 2017 after 10 seasons in Seattle.

In his interview with the Browns, Saleh placed Dodds, along with Scott Fitterer and Trent Kirchner, co-directors of player personnel with Seattle and 49ers Vice President of Personnel Adam Peters on his wish list.

The relatively unknown Dodds has developed a reputation around the National Football League as one of the shrewdest evaluators of talent on the collegiate and professional levels.

In what can correctly be classified as attempting to connect the dots, one can only hazard a guess that Saleh, who reportedly had a strong interview with the club’s selection committee about a week ago, no longer is a long shot.

If he winds up with the job, it would be a huge upset considering it was believed the eventual winner would be someone with a background on the other side of the football.

One of the major reasons would be to help Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland offense to regain what it had for most of the 2017 season when the quarterback set a rookie record for touchdown passes in a season. That’s why McDaniels and Stefanski were thought to be the finalists.

Then came the wrench that was thrown Saturday. Based on that, it’s anybody’s guess at this point who succeeds Freddie Kitchens.

Being a head football coach not easy

When it comes to selecting a head football coach for a team, any team, at any level, it is important that person knows how to run a company successfully.

That’s because being the head coach of a football team is exactly like running a company. Makes no difference whether his expertise lies on either side of the football.

All that knowledge goes out the window because the head coach must look at the big picture at all times. He has to think not as a coordinator, but as a chief executive officer. All that other stiff is overrated.

There are those head coaches, however, who are successful because they achieve that delicate balance between the two jobs. It is an art that has eluded way too many coordinators who think they know how to handle an entire team only to find out differently once they get there.

And once they get there, they realize being a head football coach is a whole different animal.

The number of coordinators who fail far outweighs those who achieve success. As someone once told me, there are lieutenants and then there are generals among football coaches. Transitioning from one to the other is extremely challenging.

Perfect example of that is Freddie Kitchens, who was overmatched as the Browns’ head coach the day he accepted the job offer. That and his stubbornness doomed him. He just didn’t it know it at the time.

He believed calling plays for the offense would not be a deterrent to his main job. It got so bad, he eventually went into denial mode midway through the season, when the Browns were 2-6, and never recovered.

For whatever reason, he failed to accept responsibility for the numerous mistakes he made, both tactically and strategically, on game days. He never realized the main reason for that was his inability to look at the big picture.

He concentrated so much on running the offense, he lost sight of the fact there were two other aspects of the team. Too often we heard him in his post-game news conferences admit if he had to do it over again, he’d do it differently.

There were at least three and arguably four games this season the Browns could have – and should have – won with smarter coaching. It ultimately cost Kitchens a job for which he was not nearly qualified.

The role of the head coach basically is to coach his coaches. Then let the coaches coach the players. The head coach’s main responsibility is to look at and control the big picture.

He is the overseer. He brings the whole package together. His role is to establish a culture, make certain everything runs as smoothly as possible and if not, why not. Sort of like a CEO running a company.

e brings the wholepackage together. It’s a fine line to tread for most first-time head coaches, many of whom struggle out of the gate before finding their footing and realizing the big picture is what counts most.

That’s what makes the current situation with the Browns so critical. The Haslams and their selection committee must get it right this time or face yet another barrage of criticism that undoubtedly will be well deserved.

You never know

If the Browns surprise just about everyone and name Jim Schwartz their new head coach, it will pretty much seal the notion Jimmy Haslam III is the dumbest owner in the National Football League.

Schwartz, who interviewed for the job Wednesday, is a retread and right now, the Browns do not need a retread. At least one with a losing background. Ron Rivera and Mike McCarthy, who landed with Washington and Dallas, are retreads, but both have winning backgrounds.

The Browns need new blood, a new approach, a new outlook, a new everything in an effort to break free from the losing stranglehold that has dogged this forlorn franchise since 1999.

Schwartz, who began his pro football career as a personnel scout and researcher for Bill Belichick and the original Browns a generation ago, is not the answer. Mediocrity has followed him throughout his career since then.

The only thing going for him is journeying around the league a time or two, plugging into the ins and outs on how things work. The best he could do in that capacity, though, was a five-year stint as the boss with the Detroit Lions.

Other than that, he has bounced from Baltimore to Tennessee to Buffalo and finally Philadelphia, where he currently coordinates the Eagles’ defense.

There is a reason no one has given him a second chance. It’s the 29-52 record and just one post-season appearance he hung up with the Lions. He is a much better defensive coordinator than head coach.

You can argue Josh McDaniels, currently in the mix to succeed Freddie Kitchens, fits the same profile. He bombed in Denver. The difference with him, however, is other teams have come after him for the top job.

The Indianapolis Colts tapped him two years ago to be their head coach, but he changed his mind at the last minute and remained as offensive coordinator with New England.

It’s entirely possible he, too, might be a better coordinator than head coach. But working with a general manager he is being permitted to choose and be comfortable with, as will be the case with the Browns, might make a difference.

How and why Schwartz’s name ever popped up on the Browns’ radar to begin with is a mystery. After the Browns rummaged around and came up with nine names at the beginning of the hunt, all but one associated with offense, his name suspiciously appeared late.

The only plausible guess – and that’s what it is, a guess – is the Browns reportedly would love to bring back Andrew Berry, their vice president of player personnel from 2016 to 2018 who left to become vice president of football operations for the Eagles, and pair him with Schwartz.

Connect two members of the Eagles family in Cleveland – Berry as general manager to replace John Dorsey and Schwartz as head coach to replace Kitchens – to form the alignment Haslam seeks in his front office.

In his season-ending news conference, the owner pounded the notion alignment was his biggest goal in his never-ending search for the right formula that will produce positive results. The Berry-Schwartz tandem is one possible connection to that end.

It would mirror the McDaniels-Nick Caserio or Dave Ziegler scenario most insiders seem to believe is a possibility should Haslam opt for a Patriots tandem, er, alignment.

Kevin Stefanski, a semifinalist with Kitchens last year at this time, interviewed Thursday. McDaniels interviews for the job Friday. And then the selection committee heads for the dungeon to make its final decision.

Best guess right now is McDaniels gets the nod unless he flunks his interview. In that case, Stefanski would be the man with Schwartz a distant third. But with this crew, just about anything is possible. The key phrase for them?  You never know.

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And then there was one

The head coaching carousel in the National Football League saw two more candidates jump off and land Tuesday, Matt Ruhle in Carolina and Joe Judge with the Giants in New York.

That leaves only one team dragging its heels in search of a brand new head whistle: Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Cleveland Browns.

In a year when only five of the 32 teams decided a change was in order, four acted decisively with Mike McCarthy snapped up by Dallas, Ron Rivera by Washington and the aforementioned Ruhle and Judge. 

That’s right, Browns Nation, Your Cleveland Browns are the lone team now on the prowl for the successor to the dreadful Freddie Kitchens The field is wide open for Dee and Jimmy Haslam III to have another crack at getting it wrong.

By my count there are still seven names attached to the Cleveland vacancy, five on the offensive side of the football and two, including newcomer Jim Schwartz, on the other side. No special teams candidates. More on that later.

Now that the field of teams has been narrowed to one, the two most prominent names out there are New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and Minnesota offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski.

Both men had interviews scheduled with Carolina before the Panthers grabbed Ruhle and McDaniels was scheduled to meet with the Giants Wednesday before Judge was snapped up.

Unless the Browns have surreptitiously contacted someone else, and that is entirely possible with this group, it sure looks as though it boils down to a battle between McDaniels and Stefanski. Both will interview before the week is out.

Stefanski had been in a unique position before the Panthers surprised more than a few by signing Ruhle. He now has no option but to interview with the Browns despite the possibility of harboring hard feelings about losing out to Kitchens last year.

It’s understandable he doesn’t want to be a two-time loser for the job. McDaniels, however, has a stronger résumé and a much higher profile. Being a native son of northeast Ohio doesn’t hurt his chances.

The big difference is McDaniels has never interviewed with the Browns. It is believed it is incumbent on him to impress the daylights out of Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, who was reportedly blown away by Stefanski last year.

It is also believed he is the personal favorite of the Haslams, who unfortunately will make the ultimate decision. Unfortunately because everything they touch with regard to their billion-dollar team turns to trash.

One name not on what is presumed the final list of candidates is Dave Toub, special teams coordinator and assistant head coach with the Kansas City Chiefs. It should be. 

He is unquestionably the best special teams coach in the league, his teams (in Chicago and Kansas City) annually finishing in the top five for the last decade and a half.

Unlike just about everyone else vying for a chance to move up, Toub is not an offensive guru. He’s not a defensive guru, either. He’s clearly not a sexy name.

The only other Chiefs coach besides Toub who deals with all the players on the roster is head coach Andy Reid. He knows how to be a head coach. He’d be perfect for the Browns, but they probably don’t know about him.

I mention his name because of the Giants’ stunning selection of Judge, special teams coordinator/wide receivers coach for the New England Patriots. He is the first special teams coordinator to be named an NFL head coach since John Harbaugh took over in Baltimore in 2008.

The small but impressive list of special teams coaches who have gone on to become successful head coaches in the NFL, besides Harbaugh, includes Bill Cowher, Marv Levy, Dick Vermeil, Mike Ditka and Bill Belichick.

Wouldn’t hurt for the Browns to add Toub to the list. At least give him an interview. What have they got to lose? (I’d be stunned if it happened, though. They’re not smart enough to consider such a move.)

Name McDaniels already

All right, it’s time to end this little charade. From just about every indication, the Browns know who their next head coach is.

What they are doing now – interviewing every available hot assistant coach around the National Football League – is nothing more than a sham. Sort of makes them look as though they are doing their due diligence.

Unless something dramatically different happens in the next week or so, Josh McDaniels will become the seventh head coach (interim, inherited or otherwise) since Jimmy Haslam III took over as owner midway through the 2012 season

That something different includes the New England Patriots' offensive coordinator surprising just about everyone by accepting the head coaching vacancies in either Carolina or New York with the Giants after his interviews with them.

A much higher profile with the Giants and taking over a pretty good roster in Carolina might be tempting, but it isn’t every day a new coach has the opportunity to pick his new boss as general manager and that’s what the Browns reportedly have on the table for him.

I don’t see McDaniels landing in either market for one major reason. Both those clubs have general managers. The Browns do not with the firing of John Dorsey and they, at least reportedly, will throw McDaniels that GM bone.

Among the possibilities of joining him with the Browns are suburban Cleveland (Lyndhurst) native Nick Caserio, director of payer personnel with the Patriots, and Dave Ziegler, the Pats’ director of pro personnel.

Ziegler, who is from nearby Tallmadge, Ohio, McDaniels (Canton) and Caserio all attended John Carroll University in  University Heights. The possibility of an all-Ohio front office has to intrigue Haslam.

The Browns have yearned for a while now the chance to lure McDaniels, the long-time and well-regarded offensive coordinator for Bill Belichick, back to his northeast Ohio roots.

Now that the Patriots have been knocked out of the playoffs by the Tennessee Titans, he is expected to finally interview with the Browns later this week. Unless he stumbles in a major way, he is the odds-on favorite to succeed Freddie Kitchens

That includes failing to impress Chief Strategy Office Paul DePodesta, whose power within the organization grows exponentially. However, McDaniels has more than enough savvy in that department to pass that test.

The Browns nonetheless plod on this week, interviewing the likes of offensive coordinators Brian Daboll (Buffalo) and Kevin Stefanski (Minnesota), the latter a semifinalist a year ago at this time for the job that eventually went to Kitchens. Stefanski will also interview with Carolina.

It will be interesting to see whether he interviews with the Browns considering how close he came the last time to being chosen. It would be understandable if he declined, not wanting to put himself in a position to be a two-time loser for the same job.

Besides, he is relatively new to the coordinator position while McDaniels has truckloads of gravitas with numerous Super Bowl rings while serving as Belichick’s offensive guru.

One last note: DePodesta and his search committee have already complied with the Rooney Rule with regard to minority candidates, having interviewed San Francisco defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy.

It’s a ridiculous rule to begin with because clubs can escape being charged with violating it merely by interviewing at least one minority candidate. It has done very little to increase the number of minority head coaches or high profile front office types.

Bass-ackward redux

Now that the latest plans to fix the Cleveland Browns are in place, it’s time to examine the situation more closely.

First of all, by choosing a new head coach before a new general manager and then allowing that coach to choose his general manager, Jimmy Haslam III is stepping into a trap that ensnared his predecessor.

Randy Lerner way back in 2009 was so anxious to hire Eric Mangini after he fired Romeo Crennel as head coach, he directed his top men to drop everything and aim for the former Browns offensive assistant.

Mangini, who had just been fired as head coach of the New York Jets, was unemployed for exactly nine days when Lerner made the command decision. The owner was so thrilled to land him, he gave him a four-year contract.

He had also fired General Manager Phil Savage after three seasons, but Mangini helped the clueless Lerner solve that little problem with the horse-before-the-cart scenario that followed.

Mangini recommended George Kokinis, then director of player personnel for the Baltimore Ravens, to replace Savage. Lerner did not object even though National Football League protocol dictated the exact opposite. The GM is hired first and then picks the new head coach.

The move caused a stir at the time because of its unusual nature as pundits tried to figure out exactly who was really the boss for the Browns. It didn’t take long to find out.

Kokinis, who started his NFL scouting career with the original Browns about 20 years earlier, turned out to be nothing but a figurehead. Mangini moved right in and took over just about everything.

He was the head coach, the main spokesman, the man who orchestrated all the personnel moves, the man the media turned to whenever news was being made. Kokinis faded into the background. Mangini was the de facto general manager.

The 2009 season was a disaster, the Browns losing the first four games and 11 of the first 12. After game eight, a 30-6 walloping at home by the Chicago Bears, the plug was pulled (mercifully?) on Kokinis.

The mystery man was shamefully escorted out of the building at 76 Lou Groza Blvd. the day after that game in a sort of a goodbye-we-hardly-knew-ye moment. The GM who was not allowed to be the GM exited as the scapegoat for the club’s awful season.

All the while the man who beckoned Kokinis to join him in Cleveland, the man mainly responsible for the team’s poor play, remained in place despite struggling on the field.  

Kokinis went back to Baltimore the following season and remains with the club today as director of player personnel. Mangini won the final four games that season to finish 5-11. It was good enough for incoming President Mike Holmgren, who retained him. After another 5-11 campaign, Mangini was gone.

Now we have a coach-picking-his-GM again. Will the Mangini-Kokinis pairing and its resultant disaster happen all over again with whomever Haslam chooses as his new head coach? Hard to say now. A lot depends on the pairing.

The new coach in this case will have close to, if not total, carte blanche on how he handles the team on and off the field. Even though Haslam has indicated the new GM will have control of the 53-man roster, I wonder just how much actual power he’ll have with the coach who picked him breathing down his neck.

And with Haslam returning to the practice of having the general manager and coach each report to him instead of the coach reporting to the GM as it was under John Dorsey and Freddie Kitchens, there are bound to be disagreements. That could lead to disharmony along the way. They can’t be on the same page all the time.

Haslam is asking for trouble by doing all this bass-ackwards. It bears watching. History very well could be repeating itself a decade later.