Pelissero: Browns might face NFL's biggest overhaul

Tom Pelissero | USA TODAY Sports

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Whatever differences of opinion exist between coach Mike Pettine, general manager Ray Farmer, president Alec Scheiner and whoever else is pulling strings inside Cleveland Browns headquarters, this shouldn’t be in dispute: It’s a teardown job.

If anyone’s telling owner Jimmy Haslam otherwise, they’re delusional or trying to save their jobs. There’s no reasonable way to look at how the Browns are constructed and argue they just have some holes, even if they figure out how to fill the biggest one at quarterback, with Johnny Manziel getting his latest shot Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.

When you’ve lost 15 of 17 games by an average of two touchdowns, you’re not close. A tortured franchise that’s made one playoff appearance in 17 years since returning to Cleveland might be further away than ever.

Start with who’s making money. Eight of the Browns’ 10 highest-paid players in average per year were born in 1985 or earlier. APY is an imperfect metric, but if most of your top earners are in their 30s, you better be winning now, because decline isn’t far off.

Part of the issue is the Browns are multiple regimes removed from the guys who ran drafts in 2011 and ’12, i.e. the players who should be getting paid on second contracts now. No draft picks are left from 2011 and just three from 2012 – none among the team’s three first-rounders.

That helps explain why they’re perennially among the NFL leaders in cap space, with more than $19 million as of Thursday morning. They needed to spend cash this year to get to the required minimum. But there are smarter ways to do it than, say, giving 31-year-old possession receiver Dwayne Bowe $9 million in guarantees to sit on the bench.

At some point, you’d like to use those cap dollars to re-sign your own rising players. But who will that be? Linebacker Barkevious Mingo, who has seven sacks in 42 career games? Cornerback Justin Gilbert, who’s not even a starter? Manziel, who might be down to his last chance already?

The Browns should’ve taken whatever they could get for aging parts at the trade deadline. Instead, they continued to sink big money into older veterans and play them over younger players who need reps on a team that needs a rebuild. It’s just bad business.

So is blowing up the football operation as many times as Haslam has in a little more than three years as owner. But given Pettine’s pushback against starting Manziel sooner and his comments this week about a bunker mentality developing amidst a seven-game losing skid, it’s hard to believe more changes aren’t afoot.

“I can’t sit here and say, ‘Absolutely, we are all on board 100%.’ No, that is not reality,” Pettine said. “When things don’t go well, everybody has their opinions and their reasons why. It is going to come down to a brutal self-assessment and to be able to have the strength to make tough decisions and trust them and move forward.”

Step 1: Admitting how deep the problems go.

The pain of starting over is rarely as bad as the pain of pretending a team can win now.

Increased hope for minority hiring

John Wooten, chairman of the Fritz Pollard Alliance Foundation, says his outlook on this year’s hiring cycle is “pretty positive” for minority candidates.

The foundation promotes diversity and equality in the coaching, front office and scouting staffs of NFL teams. Just one of seven head coaching openings after last season was filled by a minority candidate (Todd Bowles to the New York Jets). But several teams interviewed multiple candidates of color, rather than just one to comply with the Rooney Rule.

“We think it’s going to be a good year for the guys, and we’ll see what happens from there,” Wooten told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday.

Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin and Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson are among the head coaching candidates on the foundation’s list, and both are expected within the league to receive interview requests. Stanford coach David Shaw would, too, but it’d take a unique opportunity to lure him from the college game.

Others on the foundation’s list include: Minnesota Vikings defensive coordinator George Edwards, Arizona Cardinals offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin, former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton, Buffalo Bills assistant head coach/running backs Anthony Lynn, Green Bay Packers secondary/safeties coach Darren Perry, former San Francisco 49ers coach Mike Singletary and Carolina Panthers assistant head coach/secondary Steve Wilks.

The foundation’s list of general manager candidates includes: Browns vice president of player personnel Morocco Brown, Packers senior personnel executive Alonzo Highsmith, Pittsburgh Steelers director of football and business administration Omar Khan, Dallas Cowboys senior director of college and pro scouting Will McClay, Colts vice president of football operations Jimmy Raye III, New York Giants vice president of player evaluation Marc Ross and Lions interim general manager Sheldon White.

After dropping from seven black head coaches in 2006 to three in 2013, the number has been on the rise again. This season, there are five black head coaches and six total minorities, including Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera, who is of Puerto Rican and Mexican descent. The firing of Lions GM Martin Mayhew left seven minorities with equivalent titles.

Roughly 75% of NFL players are black. Wooten said one focus going forward is to continue developing minority candidates for coordinator jobs, including at the college level, to get them in the pipeline for head jobs down the line.

Inside runs

- Redskins RB Alfred Morris’ reduced productivity doesn’t surprise scouts who have watched him since the preseason. At age 26, Morris just doesn’t seem to have much juice in his legs – a bad sign for a player at a fungible position who’s about to hit free agency.

- No matter what happens with demoted QB Colin Kaepernick, it’s hard to imagine the 49ers won’t pay QB Blaine Gabbert’s $200,000 roster bonus, which is due on the fifth day of the league year in March. Gabbert has played enough (and well enough) to have a shot at earning some performance incentives this season. They start at $50,000 for reaching 1,750 passing yards and another $50,000 for 15 touchdown passes. He’s at 963 yards and five TDs through four starts, with four games to go.

- Could another rugby league star follow 49ers RB Jarryd Hayne to the NFL? Tom Burgess was in Seattle on Thursday to work out for the Seahawks. The 6-5, 264-pound Englishman could project as a tight end or defensive end.

- The Rams’ firing of OC Frank Cignetti makes seven coordinator changes this season, four of them on offense. Toss in Ken Whisenhunt’s ouster with the Titans, and that’s 15.6% turnover among offensive play-callers, with four weeks still to go. Only the Lions didn’t win their next game, though the Dolphins offense wasn’t exactly a juggernaut in last week’s 15-13 win over Baltimore after canning Bill Lazor.

- One byproduct of Seahawks QB Russell Wilson’s recent transformation: WR Doug Baldwin is looking (and producing) like a Pro Bowl candidate. In four games since the bye, Baldwin has 24 catches for 433 yards and six touchdowns. Nothing “pedestrian” about that.

- Odd fact, given that Cowboys QB Matt Cassel spent two seasons with the NFC North rival Vikings: He never has faced a defense coordinated by Dom Capers, who has been with the Packers since 2009. The two were together with the Patriots in 2008, when Capers was a special assistant and Cassel replaced an injured Tom Brady in Week 1.

Tom’s Top 10

(Last week’s ranking in parentheses)

1. Carolina Panthers (1): Beat Falcons to hit 13-0, and they’ll already have a bye locked up.

2. Arizona Cardinals (3): Two straight years with a 6-game win streak. Bruce Arians is 31-14.

3. Cincinnati Bengals (4): Overlooked stat: Paul Guenther’s defense is No. 1 in points allowed.

4. Denver Broncos (5): A shame RB C.J. Anderson got nicked right when he started rumbling.

5. New England Patriots (2): QB Tom Brady is downplaying all the hits, but they can add up.

6. Seattle Seahawks (7): Credit Tom Cable for helping that offensive line settle down.

7. Pittsburgh Steelers (8): Triple speed threat at receiver will test Bengals’ beat-up secondary.

8. Kansas City Chiefs (9): Haven’t lost since Oct. 18. Combined record of remaining foes: 14-34.

9. Green Bay Packers (10): TE Richard Rodgers’ big night in Detroit could lead to more.

10. Minnesota Vikings (6): Injuries have gutted defense that needs to play big role in success.

* Note: Does not factor in the result of Thursday’s game.

Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero.

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