The factory of sadness continues at full production. That much is clear.
The Cleveland Browns entered the offseason by cutting ties with first year head coach Rob Chudzinski. The idea was that Cleveland could snag a hot, up and coming name to lead their franchise in the right direction.
The first part of the plan went flawlessly. Chudzinski is no longer the head coach of the Browns. Beyond that, little has gone the way Cleveland had hoped.
The Browns’ head coaching search started going downhill when Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels withdrew his name from the coaching search. It was believed that the Browns had their eye on another candidate, and some thought McDaniels withdrew to save face should the Browns go in a different direction.
Now, Broncos offensive coordinator Adam Gase has withdrawn from the Browns’ coaching search according to Ian Rapoport, presenting a huge problem for Cleveland’s front office. Gase was widely believed to be coveted by the Browns, and without him, Cleveland will be missing out on that big name they were hoping to score.
Even worse, the Browns appear to be completely without direction. Usually teams have the ability to simply offer an assistant coach their top job, and that’s the end of their coaching search. Now, with two top offensive minds pulling their names out of the hat, the Browns appear to be fully primed to continue in the same direction they’ve been heading for years.
The biggest problem Cleveland has is that big name coaches know when they’re a hot item. They also realize few coaches get multiple cracks at the top job, meaning they can be picky about where they decide to land. With only one shot, and apparently only one year on the job in Cleveland, assistant coaches that are still young won’t be taking that shot in Cleveland.
Now, the specter of Chudzinski is coming back to haunt the Browns. Cleveland thought they’d be able to score that top tier coach that could lead them into the future. They didn’t consider what firing a coach after one year on the job would do to their legitimacy as a franchise.
In other words, no one wants to go to Cleveland simply because they know it’s a black hole of head coaches. Since 2000, the Browns have employed seven head coaches, and that includes three years of non-existence. When the Browns do hire a new scapegoat, that’ll be their eighth.
Until the Browns realize that stability often breeds success. Unfortunately, at least for Cleveland fans, the front office looks more intent on shifting blame for terrible performances to people they can easily drop at the end of the season
