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PITTSBURGH – Whatever the Browns decide to do over the next 24 hours regarding their coaching staff, it will not be their longterm solution. Player responses to reports Sunday morning that offensive coordinator Todd Haley could not have been in the kitchen.
"All I know is we lost today," wide receiver Jarvis Landry said. "Those are not my decisions. Those are not something that I'm wasting my energy on or my time. I just want to win games. "
Left guard Joel Bitonio said he did not get on Twitter during the season, so he said he did not see them.
Right guard Kevin Zeitler said he had no idea about the reports.
"We have eight games left, that's a lot of season, a lot of games, you never know what could happen," he said.
That's what's important here – eight games is a lot of season. It's worth keeping in mind for Jimmy Haslam, John Dorsey and whoever else might be contemplating a decision in the near future.
The thing this organization should not tolerate is two months of dysfunction.
The Browns, since the Haslams took over, have been rife with power plays and far-from-graceful departures – from Kyle Shanahan to Joe Banner / Mike Lombardi to Mike Pettine and Ray Farmer and finally, the firing of Sashi Brown last December.
A week after head coach Hue Jackson has been invited to attend the conference, the buzzards started circling. Haley's potential demise.
All of this is on the heels of a "Hard Knocks" showdown between Jackson and Haley about resting players. Then Haley feels in a package that featured Josh Gordon to start the opener after a week of Jackson insisting Gordon would not start.
These tensions start to bubble as seasons begin to swirl. Somehow, for all it's failures, the Browns' coaching staff has gone relatively drama-free the last two seasons. They did not win much, of course, and Jackson cleaned house on the defensive side of the ball after 2016.
There was never this.
Part of it stems from the hiring of Dorsey and his staff staff. Haslam was insistent that Jackson would be kept alive by this season. Dorsey, however, needs to be improved in Kansas City and the upgrades he and his staff have made this roster to show his value. The focus this season was always on Jackson and his staff. Winning hides a lot. Losing shines a light on it.
The Browns return to Cleveland to face Dorsey 's old team next Sunday, the team that' s one of the league 's most dynamic offenses and a quarterback getting MVP whispers. A week later, they face a struggling but still able Falcons team before they finally hit their bye.
It's going to be hard to believe that this team is currently on the sidelines.
That decision will come in January.
What the Browns can not do until then is allow tension to fester. Even if the goal is simply to get a place where they can play a relative peace – where do you think it is?
Making big changes in the middle of the season is not ideal. It is not ideal to have an organization divided, either.
If Jackson and Haley can not fix themselves, Haslam needs to step in and fix it for them.
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