CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam and GM John Dorsey met with coach Hue Jackson on Monday morning and fired him because they felt the team was regressing, a league source told cleveland.com.

A short while later, they also fired offensive coordinator Todd Haley.

Jackson and Haley were involved in a power struggle over the underperforming offense, which Haley had full rein over this season, and both lost their jobs.

"We greatly appreciate Hue's commitment to the Cleveland Browns organization over the last two and a half years,'' the Haslams said in a joint statement released Monday afternoon. "We understand how critical this time period is in the development of our football team, individually and collectively, and believed it was in the organization's best interest to make the move at this time, in order to maximize our opportunities the rest of this season. We certainly only wish Hue, Michelle, and his family the best moving forward."

The Browns also announced that defensive coordinator Gregg Williams will be the interim head coach, and running backs coach Freddie Kitchens will be the offensive coordinator, two moves that were previously reported by cleveland.com. Williams, in his second season with the Browns, went 17-31 as head coach of the Bills from 2001-03.

Jackson leaves with a 3-36-1 record in 2 1/2 seasons, including 0-20 on the road. He was under contract through next season.

His firing came a day after the Cavs fired head coach Tyronn Lue.

Jackson was fired a day after the Browns lost 33-18 to the Steelers, their third straight loss and the fourth in the last five games.

He was the sixth straight Browns coach to be fired after a loss to the Steelers in the second meeting of that season. The others were Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini Pat Shurmur, Rob Chudzinski and Mike Pettine. The last four of those were fired by the Haslams since they agreed to purchase the Browns in 2012.

According to a source, Jackson was told by management in the meeting on Monday morning that the team had quit on him in Pittsburgh and that he wasn't doing a good enough job of leading. They told him that his offense and defense had regressed.

Jackson had a 2-5-1 record this season, including a 1-2-1 mark in overtime games.

Jackson and Haley were both fired after a rift between them that began in training camp and was played out on HBO's Hard Knocks. It continued through Haley defiantly starting Josh Gordon in the opener against Jackson's wishes, and refusing to play Nick Chubb and Duke Johnson more, which led to the trade of starting running back Carlos Hyde.

A report by NFL Network's Ian Rapoport surfaced before Sunday's Steelers game that Haley might be fired over the dysfunction that had been occurring on offense.

Jackson planned to meet with ownership Monday in hopes of taking back the offense, which has struggled all season, and possibly getting the Haslams to agree to firing Haley. He had been led to believe the Haslams would be open to that based on the woeful offensive performance this season.

Instead, both men were let go.

The Haslams brought Jackson back this season after his 1-31 record the first two years with Sashi Brown as the head of football operations. The all-analytics front office did a poor job of acquiring the talent, and passed on quarterbacks such as Carson Wentz, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson.

They believed Jackson deserved a chance to coach a better roster, which features 31 new players this season.

But they determined that the team wasn't trending in the right direction, a league source said.

The Browns will begin searching soon for their next head coach, and could even look to the college ranks for an up-and-comer like Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley, Baker Mayfield's former coach.

During his Monday press conference, Riley said he wasn't interested 'right now' in jumping to the NFL.

"You sit here and answer these questions and I always want to be truthful,'' Riley said. "The truth is for me is I love Oklahoma. I love coaching here, I love college football. I certainly don't have that itch right now. I don't know that I ever will, but I'm never going to be a guy that's gonna stand up here and say 'No how, no way will any of these things ever happen.' I don't know that. I know right now I couldn't care less about the NFL."

Dorsey will also rely on longstanding relationships with coaches he's worked with in Green Bay and Kansas City in compiling his list.

Despite four overtime games this season, ownernship felt the Browns were getting worse instead of better. They also believed that Baker Mayfield wasn't being developed the way he needed to be.

The writing was on the wall last week that Jackson could lose his job when Mayfield backed Haley after Jackson stated he wanted to get more involved in the offense. Mayfield said "we don't need to reinvent the wheel'' and "we don't need to change much.''

Sources said ownership and Dorsey also didn't like some of the culture issues they were seeing recently on the team, including Myles Garrett criticizing the defensive gameplan after the loss to the Steelers and the officiating the week before that.

The firing comes just months after they pledged their unwavering support for Jackson.

"I think we'll see the real Hue Jackson," Jimmy Haslam said during training camp. "I think you've heard me say this several times, you have to give Hue credit for bringing in (offensive coordinator) Todd Haley, which I think will allow Hue to be the head coach.

"I think this will be the first opportunity Hue will have to do what we know he can do as head coach as a leader. Even though Todd will be calling all of the shots on offense, I think Hue will obviously have some impact there like he will defense. We are excited to see it."

The firing comes a week after Jackson said he still had the full support of the Haslams and Dorsey.

"No doubt. No doubt. None. No question,'' he said.

His reason for being so confident despite the Browns falling to 2-4-1 at the time following their fourth overtime game in seven outings?

"Conversations,'' he said. "Conversations."

He said the front office wasn't putting any more pressure on him than usual to win.

"I've always had added pressure to win now,'' he said. "Everything we've tried to do is win now. Our players and our coaches are doing everything that we can to win each and every game we play. That's why you play. Nothing more, nothing less than that. I don't feel any extra pressure of, 'Boy, Hue, you better win or else.' I have never felt that since I've been here.

"I'm trying to do the best job that I can with the staff and with the players, and we have to find a way to win some games. That is just the nature of the business."

The disconnect between Jackson and Haley bubbled over the following the 26-23 overtime loss to the Bucs last week in which the Browns offense' was shut out in the first half by a team that was last in the NFL in points allowed and didn't manage a first down in overtime.

"I feel like I have to (get more involved). And I want to,'' Jackson said after the game. "That's what I know, so I'm not going to continue to watch something that I know how to do keep being that way. That's just the truth. I mean, that's nothing against anybody in our building. I just think that's what I do, and I think I need to be a little bit more involved."

He walked back his remarks some the following day, saying he never said he was taking back the playcalling, just that he wanted to help the struggling unit. Despite the defense's league-high 22 takeaways, the offense was only able to score 34 points off them.

On Thursday, Haley chalked up Jackson's remarks to the heat of the moment.

"Yeah, that's what it sounded like, and we talked about it,'' said Haley. "This is an emotional game. It's not for everyone. Coaching in the NFL, especially being in that spot, is not for everyone. It's a high-pressure, high-stress job, and we've just got to keep doing what we know is right."

Haley's comment about the job not being for everyone didn't sit well with Jackson, a source said.

But Haley insisted he didn't have a problem with the dustup.

"No, not at all,'' he said. "I've been around a long time, been in this league around a lot of different personalities. One thing I'll never be is reactionary. I'm here for one purpose and that's to help this offense, continue to grow this offense, continue to develop this offense. We're all on the same page. Nothing has changed.''

After the game on Sunday, Jackson said 'there's nothing wrong with my relationship with Haley.''

In the end, it was the undoing for both of them.