Month: November 2018

This past weekend the Cleveland Browns defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 35-20 in Cincinnati. One of the bigger stories from this game is that the Browns destroyed their old head coach both on the field and off of it. Hue Jackson was hired as a special assistant to Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati shortly after his firing in Cleveland.

In the week leading up to the game Cleveland safety Damarious Randall stated that “If they don’t have A.J. (Green), they’re getting their ass beat.” A.J. Green is the Bengals star wide receiver who injured his toe during the Bengals’ game on October 28th against the Buccaneers. On Sunday Green didn’t play and the Browns definitely did.

At halftime, the Browns lead 28-7 and were led by Baker Mayfield who threw for over 200 yards and 3 touchdowns in the first half alone. Randall made even more noise during the game when he intercepted a pass from Andy Dalton and handed it to Hue Jackson.

After the game ended Randall continued to trash talk Jackson by signing a fan made poster of Jackson’s face over Dwight Shrute’s from The Office that reads “Special Assistant To The Head Coach”.

Mayfield made noise about Hue Jackson as well both on the field and off the field. Since Jackson has been fired Mayfield has thrown for 9 touchdowns and just 1 interception with a passer rating of 129.5. Only future Hall of Famer Drew Brees has a higher passer rating during that time.

During post game handshakes Jackson went to hug Mayfield and Baker clearly avoided it with an awkward handshake. After the game, he displayed his disliking for Jackson’s decision to join Cincinnati, a division rival.

Since then Mayfield has been battling back and forth with some members of the media over his comments. Specifically with Damien Woody on ESPN’s First Take who said, “Baker Mayfield needs to grow up.” Mayfield commented on First Take’s Instagram post of Damien Woody and said, “Not even comparable… I didn’t lose 30+ games be fake and then do that…” This is who Baker is. This confidence and swag that carries him throughout life is what the Browns need in a leader to help them revive the franchise. It has already helped Baker destroy some embarrassing records during just his first season with the Browns such as the first road win since 2015 and the first back-to-back wins since 2014. He is proving to the world why the Browns were right in taking him with the first overall pick.

We all know that Baker Mayfield was drafted first overall by the Cleveland Browns in this year’s draft. Do you remember Nick Chubb being drafted? What about Denzel Ward? Ward was drafted fourth overall and Chubb was drafted thirty-fifth overall.

Ward has won Rookie of the Week in weeks one and five. Chubb won the award in week four. Baker won in weeks three, seven, and nine. Both Nick Chubb and Baker Mayfield are nominated for this weeks Rookie of the Week once again.

The Browns have had a player win Rookie of the Week six out of nine weeks. This is more than just a few rookies performing well on a team that went winless last season. These three players are giving the Browns the foundation that is needed to become a winning football team.

The Browns used to be a powerhouse football organization. From 1946 to 1995 the Browns placed either first or second in their division thirty-five times. Crazy, right? They also won every AAFC championship when they were still in the AAFC. After the merger, the team won three NFL championships in six years. The Browns were the Patriots before the Patriots became the Patriots.

Since the franchise returned to Northeast Ohio in 1999 it has been hard for both the team and the fans to find multiple franchise type players to root for. If you include last years number one overall pick Myles Garrett, there are potentially four franchise players. First comes young talent. The comes old and wise coaching. This is the foundation that can lead the Dawg Pound fans to a championship.

As we all know, the Cleveland Browns are currently searching for yet another head coach. No extremely promising names were involved in the discussions until Bruce Arians told the Canton Repository that “Cleveland is the only job I would consider,” for him to come out of retirement. Arians previously was the offensive coordinator in Cleveland from 2001-2003.

Afterwards, he served as the wide receiver coach in Pittsburgh from 2004-2006 which led up to him becoming the offensive coordinator there from 2007-2011. After Pittsburgh, he left to become the offensive coordinator in Indianapolis in 2012. Arians served as the Colts interim head coach until that same year which ultimately led to his hiring as the head coach in Arizona in 2013.

He retired in 2017 due to a combination of health issues and wanting to spend more time with his family. Unable to stay away from football, this season Arians serves as an analyst for CBS’s coverage of NFL games.

Is Cleveland’s head coaching job enough to convince the 66 year old to leave his lake house in Georgia and come up for the Northeast Ohio winters? It is no secret that he loves Cleveland. Over the years he has made it clear that this is the job he wanted. Arians previously interviewed for the head coaching job in 2013 but the Browns decided to hire Rob Chudzinski instead. Chudzinski only led the Browns to four wins while Arians lead the Cardinals to ten wins. The following year the Browns hired yet another coach while Arians led Arizona to the playoffs and won his second coach of the year award.

If Arians were to come back to Cleveland for the 2019 season, he could be the first consistent and winning Browns head coach in a long time. The last winning Browns coach was Marty Schottenheimer. Never heard of him? That probably because he was Cleveland’s coach from 1984-1988. Yes, it has been that long.

As an offensive type of coach and a team like the Browns with promising and young offensive talent (especially at quarterback), the opening has to be very enticing for Arians. Will it be enough to get him out of his Georgia home?