David Carr on the NFL: Browns next coach in college, not NFL

The Browns made another coaching change, firing Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley, and anyone could see that one coming as clearly as they could see the changes in quarterback Baker Mayfield and his game.

Going forward, Cleveland really has to look at the marriage between Baker and that coaching staff for a clue where the team needs to go to find its next coach.

On the surface — and I got caught up in it as well — Jackson and Haley are good coaches capable of creating indecision for a defense with formations and how they utilize certain personnel groups, but that’s where it ends.

It’s not really a situation like you have in Chicago with Matt Nagy and Mitch Trubisky or in Kansas City with Andy Reid and Pat Mahomes.

Baker, he would be great in a situation where he was utilized like Trubisky or Mahomes. He doesn’t have the arm talent of Mahomes, but he does have an almost identical skill set to Trubisky (though the Bears utilize Trubisky a lot more in the run game).

The Browns have to look hard at a forward-thinking offensive mind who maybe is from the college world. An old coach who just changes shirts every couple of years? Well, that’s not going to get it done in Cleveland

I’m sure there are some guys who would do every well in the interview process, but there’s a new way to play offensive football in the NFL and it has come from the college game.

It’s good, young, forward-thinking coaches like Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma. More than half the league, 80 percent of the league, goes to Riley in the offseason to get ideas and see how they can evolve their offense.

I was talking to a scout friend of mine and he told me about 28 teams went to see Riley last year to pick his brain, and the Browns were not one of those teams.

If you have Mayfield, that would be the first place to go. Go back to his college coach and say, ‘What did you guys do that Baker was successful with? Give me an idea of what makes him tick.’

But that wasn’t the Browns. It wasn’t Jackson or Haley. Their offense, while they were able to get Jarvis Landry open in certain situations and they could do some things with formations and be creative, they didn’t utilize the best weapon that Mayfield has going for him.

And that’s his ability to see the defense on the fly, whether it’s in run-pass options or zone reads, have him spread the field and be a point guard dishing the ball to his play-makers quickly.

He’s not a going to be utilized to his full capabilities if he’s in the pocket and throwing the ball 30 or 40 times a game. You have to have something else going on, and he was great at that at Oklahoma. He was dynamic.

He made plays. His creative ability is clearly there. That wasn’t happening in Cleveland, and what we’ve seen from Mayfield over the past couple of weeks is concerning. In the preseason, he had phenomenal pocket awareness. He would hang in there and he would slide and he would trust his guys and make throws, and I’ve already seen that disappear.

I’ve been in that situation. I know what that’s like to go in there and start getting your head knocked off — you don’t trust what’s going on around you, so you start to get the ball out of your hands faster, or you lose a little of that feel. I’ve seen that happen on film already to Mayfield, and that’s a scary situation.

If it’s not Riley, then it should be another guy who is similar to him running a similar system, the same type of system that the Philadelphia Eagles used last year to win the Super Bowl. It’s not like it’s something that’s out of the realm of possibility for the Browns. They really need to look at that and make sure they make the right decision for their quarterback.

With any coach hired anywhere in the NFL these days, you have to go offense just because of the way the rules are written. You have to go to that side of the ball just so you can keep up. Unless something changes, we’re not going to see the games where a team throws it 25 times, plays solid defense and wins 10-7.

That’s over. That’s gone. It’s a different world, and I think you have to look at the guys who are pushing the envelope, the guys who are doing stuff on the cutting edge, and have at least the background of calling plays and managing a team. You have to look there, or you’re not doing what you should be doing.

David Carr answers your questions

Each week, David Carr will answer a reader’s question in his column. Submit your questions by email to [email protected] (please put “David Carr” in the subject line)