With Cap Room, the #1 Pick and the Return of Josh Gordon, is the Cleveland Browns Coaching Job a Decent One?
By Jason McIntyre
The perpetually bad Cleveland Browns are going to have another busy offseason, with major decisions coming on their GM (probably gone), their head coach (certainly gone) and what to do at QB (who the hell knows).
The Browns have been a factory of sadness for decades now, and turning around any franchise quickly usually requires an elite QB. There doesn’t appear to be one in the 2016 NFL Draft.
So is Cleveland an attractive coaching job next year? Let’s briefly examine:
Quarterback
The new coach/GM will have to deal with the Johnny Manziel decision. Part of that will depend on how JFF behaves in the offseason, but if you can unload him for a draft pick (Dallas, as we’ve mentioned before, makes sense), you have to, right? No coach wants to be hired to babysit his young QB. Josh McCown played OK … when he wasn’t hurt. Also, he’s 36.
Other QB options: Sam Bradford (the Eagles almost certainly will let him go), or backups who would be a stopgap while grooming a young QB. Those include Matt Moore, Chad Henne and Drew Stanton.
Not exactly sexy when these other coaching jobs could be open: St. Louis (great defense), Miami (Tannehill’s last chance?), San Diego (Rivers), Tennessee (Mariota), New York Giants (Eli Manning), Detroit (Matt Stafford), New Orleans (Brees, if he returns).
Salary Cap
The Browns may just look ok when glancing at overall cap room (21st) headed into 2016, but dig a little deeper and you’ll see how quickly they’ll free up more money.
It’ll be difficult to attract high-end talent to Cleveland, so the new regime will have to be thrifty with their decisions. Remember when they spent a ton of money on defensive players like Donte Whitner, Karlos Dansby and wide receiver Dwyane Bowe? Those didn’t really work out well. Throwing big money at free agents isn’t the way to go; you’ve got to build from the ground up through the draft.
And Ray Farmer his predecessors (Michael Lombardi, Tom Heckert) have whiffed terribly the last four drafts:
2012
Trent Richardson (3)
Brandon Weeden (22)
2013
Barkevious Mingo (6)
2014
Justin Gilbert (8)
Johnny Manziel (22)
2015
Danny Shelton (12)
Cameron Erving (19)
All of those players were accomplished college football players who were either All-Americans or labeled can’t-miss prospects. The Browns either didn’t do their homework (Gilbert), young players are struggling off-the-field (Manziel), or on it (Erving), or were quickly jettisoned and flopped elsewhere (Richardson, Weeden).
2016 Draft
The Browns now have the inside track on the 1st pick in the 2016 draft. They’re near the bottom in almost every statistical category for offense and defense. The idea of trading down has to be in play in an effort to accumulate more picks. Defensive lineman like Joey Bosa (Ohio State) and Robert Nkemdiche (Ole Miss) make sense, but there are a couple offensive line anchors available up top, too (Laremy Tunsil, Ole Miss; Ronnie Stanley, Notre Dame).
So does all of this mean the Browns will be able to attract a quality candidate? The last three – Pat Shurmur, Rob Chudzinski and Mike Pettine – have gone a combined 22-51 and didn’t arrive with much experience. Could the Browns lure Brian Kelly from Notre Dame? Hue Jackson from the Bengals?