Other than a fondness for Oregon's Chip Kelly, a college coach whose system would have had the same effect on the Browns' roster and their future rebuilding plans as a wrecking ball, what did Coach Hunt, Part I -- a.k.a., "The Wild Duck Chase", reveal about the new brain trust of Joe Banner and Jimmy Haslam?

Let's begin with the "locked at the hip" talk, which Haslam said was a big deal for his coach and general manager, once they get around to finding them. It's a good step if the executives are on the same page, but what if they're in the wrong library? Kelly and his "Star Wars" offense would have created a lot of buzz, but no quarterback on the roster could fly the thing.

Brandon Weeden is more mobile than Jhonny Peralta was when he played shortstop for the Indians. That's about as far as I'm willing to go. With a read-option offense, the Browns would have been starting all over again, because the backup, Colt McCoy, was battered out of the lineup even when he wasn't called on to be a designed runner. Seven hours of being closeted with a coach whose system is antithetical to Weeden's skill set pretty much announces with a megaphone that the new regime and the 29-year-old Weeden are not a long-term partnership.

Two conclusions, both unflattering, can be drawn from the pursuit of Kelly. The first is that Kelly played both the Browns and Philadelphia Eagles into a big raise from the University of Nike's sugar daddy, Phil Knight. The second is that the Browns walked away when they realized Kelly wasn't all-in on coaching a pro franchise. Better they found out now than later.

The really bothersome part is that all three of the college coaches the Browns were considering -- Kelly, Syracuse's Doug Marrone (gone to Buffalo) and Penn State's Bill O'Brien (staying there) -- have ties to former Browns executive Mike Lombardi. Banner is friendly with him, too.

Lombardi turned the always intrigue-filled front office of Art Modell into something out of the toxin-tinged days of the Medici family in Renaissance Italy. His drafts were unimpressive, as was his veracity.

People can change, but Lombardi would be a bigger initial buzz-kill than even the feckless Randy Lerner's hires.

Eric Mangini was not a well-received hire as coach, but at least he brought with him a record as a former head coach in the NFL with a playoff appearance. The fact that Lerner hired him about 15 minutes after sacking Romeo Crennel, as well as the thuds with which Belichick disciples had fallen upon promotion, skewed the view of Mangini. With Lombardi, fans experienced his work up close and personal.

The very mention of Josh McDaniels, another Belichick lieutenant who failed in his first try as a head coach, makes me reach for the string of garlic to wear. This is the guy who chased Jay Cutler out of Denver. That franchise became wedded to the collegiate spread with glorified wildcat quarterback Tim Tebow, who was battered ferociously. Denver was the worst representation of what the Browns could have become with Kelly.

As a free agent, though, Peyton Manning saved the Broncos. Such a quarterback is not going to choose the Browns.

My view is that there is really one realistic top candidate now. Bill Cowher and Jon Gruden are too comfortable in their television jobs, and, despite the nice spin Banner and Haslam put on the appeal of the franchise, a generation of losing does not make this franchise a free-agent magnet.

Why not Lovie Smith, unjustly fired after a 10-6 season in Chicago? Cutler missed one game behind a porous line. Not only is Smith a former head coach in a cold-weather city, but he has a Super Bowl appearance (with Rex Grossman as his quarterback) on his resume. Ken Whisenhunt went to a Super Bowl in Arizona too, but he had one of all-time greats, albeit at the end of his career, in Kurt Warner.

Smith is more appealing than the Millennium Mallard and his magic X's and O's, anyway. Or he should be.

To reach Bill Livingston:

blivingston@plaind.com, 216-999-4672