Pat McManamon, ESPN Staff Writer 6y

Browns' hierarchy of problems: From owner to coach to players

CLEVELAND -- Where to begin with the Cleveland Browns, who have now followed a 1-15 season by going 0-14.

Perhaps at the top, with the owner, Jimmy Haslam, who these past miserable seasons has been the one constant. Through loss and change and change and loss there has been Haslam, hiring and firing and hiring again, all the while talking about how well everyone within his organization has been working together and how excited he is about the past and upcoming drafts.

Haslam’s latest incarnation has a new general manager replacing the fired vice president of football operations and moving from a system that relied more heavily on analytics than in the past to a system that will rely on scouting.

Haslam promised John Dorsey would work well with coach Hue Jackson.

Which, of course, means it will happen. Just take his word for it.

And then there's the coach, who vowed -- again -- that he will not go through another season in 2017 like he has in 2016.

“There is not a bone in my body that thinks this will ever be like this again,” Jackson said. “I know I said it a year ago that I didn’t think it would be this way heading into next season -- it is. I was wrong. I will be the first to tell you that and I will stand on that, but there is no way that this organization, this football team, this city, Dee [Haslam], Jimmy, the rest of the people in this organization can stomach this again.”


He’s right about one thing: The Browns are tough to stomach.


On Sunday, quarterback DeShone Kizer threw 37 passes for 146 yards. He had minus-12 yards passing in the first quarter. He lost a fumble that turned into a Ravens touchdown, and he threw an ill-advised pass into triple coverage that was intercepted in the end zone.


The Browns ran the ball five times on a 96-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter, then ran the ball eight more times the rest of the game. The lack of talent is glaring, but the coach sits on a record that says 0-14 this season and 1-15 last season.

He has matched Phil Handler for the worst start to a career in NFL history, and Handler in 1944 coached a team that merged the Cardinals with the Steelers because too many players were in the war (it was called the Card-Pitt team and Handler was a co-coach).

“I told you guys three or four weeks ago that this doesn’t define me,” Jackson said. “I get all this. ‘Hue, this is your record. This is how it works.’ I got that, but this will not define me as a football coach. I know what is here. I know how we got here. I see it. We all do. What we have to do is fix it.”

Which clearly, again, points to a lacking roster. 
But as the Browns continue to struggle and with games that turn from a 7-3 lead to a 27-10 loss, the accountability seems to spread.

Then there is Kizer, the rookie thrust into a starting spot with a roster far less than adequate. Kizer’s yo-yo season appeared poised for a high a week ago against Green Bay, but a poor decision in overtime led to an interception that set up the Packers’ game-winning score.

Against the Ravens, Kizer had a very tough game -- to the point that Jackson said he would assess whether Kizer should stay in the starting lineup for the next game against Chicago.

A change seems unlikely, but Jackson left open the chance.

“When you go out and play the performance that I had,” Kizer said, “I am sure you have to go back and re-evaluate the quarterback position.”

The Browns have inflicted misery on their fans for three seasons. There is no evident sign of improvement aside from promises. There is little anyone can say or offer to make anything better.

Meanwhile, fans stay away from the games in droves; Sunday’s home finale had perhaps 35,000 actual humans in the seats.

“It can’t get much worse than this, true?” Jackson said. “It can’t. Let’s just be honest. It can’t get much worse than what it is.”

Except there are still two games left to play.

Perhaps with this version of the Cleveland Browns, the best place to begin is the end, which can’t come soon enough.

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