Browns owner Jimmy Haslam didn’t trust the process!

1.5 years into the long game, a plan expected to take upwards of 3 years to fully bear fruit, and Jimmy Haslam already pulled the plug on it by firing Sashi Brown. Sashi was the Executive Vice President of football operations (Aka that thing usually given to old dudes who were good at coaching once) and the de-facto GM. Sashi was one of the architects of the Browns new goal: to play the long game. Tank a few seasons, expunge the extraneous nonsense, hoard draft picks to increase the chances of grabbing a star, and build from the foundation with cheap young talent. Moneyball. Sacrifice a few years to dismal failure as a foundation was laid. It was never going to be easy, but after so many years of trash play just seeing the Browns have a plan in the first place kind of made it exciting.

Of course Jimmy Haslam is a really bad owner (and a criminal) and may have gotten impatient and sunk the whole thing already. Jimmy Haslam was never going to have the patience for this. Honestly few owners would. But this is still pretty shameful and reeks of impatience and in-fighting. For one thing, Sashi definitely didn’t feel like the problem with the Browns. The problem (besides Jimmy of course), is Hue Jackson. Hue seems power-hungry.

Last year’s results were more or less understandable. This year the Browns have actual talent on that roster. They are winless, will probably stay as such, but they are talented enough to have won a couple of games so far. The coaching has been abysmal. The QB situation is a clear issue, Kizer, Kessler, and Hogan are all pretty terrible. But Hue keeps rotating all of them in and out and seems reluctant to really make one work and find their strengths. Good coaches can get reasonable play out of bad players. Good coaches can reveal the good players for who they can be. Look at how bad Jared Goff was last year. Now with McVay calling the shots, he’s an ace and leading the Rams to the playoffs. Kizer might not be good, but Hue is doing him absolutely no favors. There is enough talent to win a few games this year and it hasn’t happened. Hue seems intent on making the bad QB situation Sashi’s fault.

One of the big criticisms about Sashi is his failure to grab a good QB, namely passing on Carson Wentz and then also possibly DeShaun Watson. I don’t think this criticism is very fair. Turn off the hindsight glasses for a second and remember that both of those guys had questions. Carson was from a small school and played shit competition, there was potential to be what he looks like now but I think few scouts were completely sold on him. Watson had even bigger questions. The Browns, while needing a QB, also needed a shit ton more across the roster, and this was supposed to be a long-term process. I don’t think Sashi should get quite the level of scorn he got for passing on Wentz and Watson no matter how bad it looks now. I mean right now they are in position to draft Rosen, and he has just as many questions as those two did. QBs are so hard to hit on.

Earlier this year Hue Jackson tried to trade an absurd amount for Bengals backup QB and punchable face superstar AJ McCarron. McCarron would probably be an upgrade at QB, but for what they wanted to give up it was nonsense. Plus, it damaged their draft haul and would set back the process. McCarron also isn’t that good. McCarron is probably a dude who is going to fart around for 10 years as a backup who never does anything and then vanish. He wasn’t worth the picks and Sashi apparently vetoed the trade, which appears to have led to this internal power struggle between him and Hue with Hue winning. Imagine getting someone fired because they didn’t want AJ McCarron.

But, Hue has Jimmy’s ear, so Sashi’s gone. New guy John Dorsey cut Kenny Britt already which is a net positive, but who knows how well the Browns will stick to the plan after this first shake up. Here’s what I think happens: the Browns draft a QB this draft, and then the Browns suck again next year, and now Hue has run out of excuses and the guy who should have been canned already finally gets canned as the Browns abandon the process and resume Brownsing, the new QB winning a couple games but ultimately just being a head on the hydra.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The Browns deserve no benefit of the doubt until they earn it. Until then, simply assume they will Browns. This week, they Browns’d very hard.

Good lord you Browns fans deserve better.