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Jimmy Haslam and the Perpetually Rebuilding Browns

After another Cleveland season with more downs than ups, coach Mike Pettine and general manager Ray Farmer are out. It appears that analytics might be in.
Scott R. Galvin-USA TODAY Sports

There will be plenty of space in this column devoted to why the Browns are the Browns, but let me start with a faint-hearted defense of the firings that took place in Cleveland on Monday. The Browns handed pink slips to Ray Farmer, the general manager, and Mike Pettine, a Rex Ryan disciple who coached the Browns to 31st place in defensive DVOA.

This isn't to say that the Browns aren't acting dumb; it's just that the fervor with which these firings have been dissected is a bit much. It's not like Cleveland culled Jim Harbaugh. Yes, in a league that's all about appearances, the Browns are hurting themselves by making their workplace look less and less attractive—but they weren't attracting A-list coaching talent to begin with. Their roster isn't that good. Their best hope is to unearth the next great coach.

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Firing Pettine and Farmer doesn't change that. In a sense, it's akin to yanking out a loose tooth before it's fully ready to go: short-term pain in return, you hope, for an easier time in the long haul. You don't want your tongue running over that awkward hanger-on while you're trying to eat, you know? Put up with that for long enough and you'll have employed Jeff Fisher for 20 years.

For the Browns, though, the long-term outlook is still ugly. The problem starts at the top. Too often, we NFL writers fail to take ownership to task for being crummy, but Jimmy Haslam makes an easy target given all the families he's forced out of Cleveland in a short period of time.

As I understand it, new #Browns coach will have the opportunity to be heavily involved in the new GM. Essentially coach can bring in his guy
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 4, 2016

To his credit, Haslam is at least saying the right things. He has taken full responsibility for the current state of the team. He does employ some smart people, as every NFL team does. It's neither interesting nor useful to guess whether Haslam has actually learned his lesson. If he has, things will change for the better; if not, he still owns the team anyway. There is no accountability for an NFL owner, as we've learned in previous lockouts and stadium "negotiation" sessions. Haslam is trying every quick fix he knows to make the Browns relevant, but the only real solution for a bad NFL team is to hire smart football people that bring in good football players.

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With news of Johnny Manziel's latest escapades making the rounds late Sunday night, it became clearer than ever that this franchise is a blank slate. There is no quarterback of the future here. Josh Gordon is a talented player who can't stop running afoul of the NFL's drug policies. Joe Haden is an overrated cornerback with concussion issues. Joe Thomas is 31. There's some hope for the running game, and the defense as a whole is more talented than they played this year, but whoever takes over this team isn't exactly running the '07 Patriots.

So methodical search process begins for coach and GM who want to work under attorney with analytics background. https://t.co/apMaegspV9
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 4, 2016

New VP of football operations Sashi Brown was handed control of the 53-man roster, but they'll allow the new head coach to pick his own general manager. In a surprise move, they also pulled Paul DePodesta out of the New York Mets front office to be Chief Strategy Officer. (Speaking as a somewhat disgruntled Mets fan, it's a good thing NFL teams have a salary floor.) While NFL teams can operate and succeed as a dictatorship, a duopoly, or some other power structure, more people create more chances for disagreement.

Cleveland selecting Brown to stack the roster reeks of the 49ers' response to Harbaugh's exit. His replacement, Jim Tomsula, was a tool of the front office. (The arrangement, uh, didn't go well: team president Paraag Marathe abruptly reassigned in the middle of the year; Tomsula was fired late Sunday.) The 49ers gave away a conventional golden goose in Harbaugh, and now their roster is barren.

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Can the Browns find anyone to replace this man? Photo by Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Haslam's most recent front-office hires indicate a renewed focus on analytics. But recall that two years ago prior to the draft, the Browns had studies proving that, based on advanced stats, Teddy Bridgewater would be a better quarterback than Manziel. They still picked Manziel.

It's one thing to want to be more analytical, as the Browns believe Brown and DePodesta will help them be. Trying to think outside of the box is a positive developmentfor normally straight-laced NFL teams. But you can forgive Cleveland fans for being leery. The Jaguars have been analytical since the Khans took over, and it hasn't done them much good on the field yet. There's an inherent risk of embarrassment when you go against the herd, especially when those who have real power are not inherently "football people."

The real difficulty for a football team aiming for the analytical approach is the communication gap between quants and head coaches. It's pretty rare to find someone with a firm understanding of both disciplines, and rarer still the ability to communicate ideas across the divide. An optimist could at least say that the Browns are trying to unearth the sort of candidate that could do these sorts of things.

The Browns are the Browns for a reason, though. Nobody is optimistic they can find the right person. Nobody had any optimism before the search even began. As Haslam admitted on Sunday night, that falls on him as an owner. It's hard to earn the benefit of the doubt when you change your mind as often as he has.

Until Haslam settles on a clear and logical way to do things—perhaps removing himself from the picture in the process—the Browns will continue to suffer. The track record is short, but there's not much room to quibble with it. It doesn't take analytics to figure out who is poisoning the well here.