CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Why is anyone sure we haven't already seen the real Hue Jackson?

Jimmy Haslam is expecting RHJ (Real Hue Jackson) now.

"I think we will see the real Hue Jackson," is what the Browns owner told reporters Saturday. I don't know who that coach was the last two years then, but someone should find that guy and ask him what he was doing.

Evaluating Jackson's job performance should and must go beyond his 1-31 record, and for Jimmy and Dee Haslam, it obviously does. No one is looking at the .031 Cleveland winning percentage on Jackson's resume and thinking, "Yes, keep that guy. He seems to bathe in success."

But they kept Jackson, and that's a fact, and arguing backward against it is a waste of time. So let's argue forward.

Jackson wasn't fired for his first two seasons. Fine. But no one should throw away those two years. He doesn't get a do-over.

He gets an open mind for this season, but not a blank slate. It wasn't fair to judge him only on victories, but you could judge him on personnel decisions, the staff he hired, his in-game strategy and clock management, how he worked with management and the way he presented his team to the world and oversaw the locker room.

Nobody set the building on fire during one win in two years. Jackson gets some credit for that.

As I've said many times, many coaches would have done better than 0-16 last year. The front office, by design, set up the Browns for losing, but it's Jackson who drove them to 0-16, aided by co-pilot DeShone Kizer, who got the jersey judged right off of him for last year.

Was that, a 21-year-old rookie thrown in with failing receivers and no offensive coordinator, the real DeShone Kizer, as the Haslams might ask? Didn't matter. It was the Kizer the Browns got, and he wasn't good enough. So he's gone.

So yes, that was Real Hue Jackson last year. RHJ fought with his GM, won a power struggle, insisted on calling his own plays, yanked quarterbacks in and out of the lineup, and made a difficult job seem impossible - that was all real Hue.

If he's changed now - wearing matching outfits with new GM John Dorsey, hiring Todd Haley to call his plays, going all-in with veteran QB Tyrod Taylor - that's new Hue.

Maybe it'll work. But it won't wipe away last year.

This may just be owner talk. The Haslams coming out Saturday and placing a win total on Jackson, or explaining to the world that of course a 1-31 coach is on thin ice, wouldn't have accomplished anything.

But my fear about those words is this.

.

Say Josh Gordon never comes back. Say injuries strike a few crucial players. Say Gregg Williams shows that blitzing constantly isn't the way to go and the defense, which Jackson has much less experience with, lets the team down, but it's Williams who takes the blame. Say the quarterback situation turns messy through something other than Jackson's habit of panicking, and the offense gets sideways again.

Say the season doesn't go as hoped, and there are a million reasons for it.

Say the owners would have some reason to say, well that wasn't RHJ either. Say we're back here again next preseason, after a three-win season, with a roster featuring young potential that hasn't reached it, and a coach who hasn't yet shown he knows how to handle it.

That's a problem. If Jackson's back next year, it must be a result of proving he should be, not a result of owners believing he still hasn't had the chance to be RHJ yet.

"We are excited about Hue Jackson," Jimmy Haslam said. "I think our commitment to him has been unwavering and still is."

That's a problem, too. Haslam has fired head coaches and GMs quickly in the past, and he's gone overboard now with Jackson support. But a coach doesn't need or deserve unwavering support. He needs to know he's being judged fairly, but he needs to be held accountable.

The franchise needs unwavering support from the Haslams. The fans need unwavering support.

That would include remembering Jackson's first two years while giving him year three.

Open mind, yes.

Blank slate, not even close.