Is Mike Pettine Browns Only Competent Brass?
Today was Groundhog Day for the Cleveland Browns. Not officially, that little guy saw his shadow again earlier this week, but it sure felt like Groundhogs Day. After today we are left to wonder if Head Coach Mike Pettine is the lone competent person in a position of power within the organization? It is a fair question given what we know about the rest of the higher ups, some of which learned or confirmed today by CBS Sports or Cleveland.com.
Jimmy Haslam
- Vetoed a Josh Gordon trade for a 2nd rounder and more.
- Pushed for the team to draft Johnny Manziel because it was good for business.
- Watches film with the head coach.
- Changed the power structure to have more authority.
- Pressured coaching staff to play Manziel.
- The whole FBI thing.
Alec Scheiner
- Joins Haslam and Pettine watching film.
- Suppose to run the business side of the team, meddles in football side.
- Wouldn’t celebrate Browns 7 – 4 record because Manziel wasn’t playing.
- Drafted Manziel even though the study they paid for said Teddy Bridgewater was the guy.
- Drafted Justin Gilbert.
- Signed Ben Tate.
- Cut Charles Johnson.
- Texted and called coaches DURING games.
That leaves us hoping that Mike Pettine is somehow the sanity in this insanity power structure.
Pettine has shown a confident, even keeled approached to everything so far. He speaks clearly, with a purpose and doesn’t seem to avoid problems. He guided the team to a positive showing in his first season as a head coach, even when injuries and an limited roster on offense caused problems.
He also worked within the craziness that was obviously going on over his head. It would be interesting to know how he responded when he found out about Farmer’s phone calls and texts. It would be interesting to know how he responded when Haslam and Scheiner walked into the film room.
Pettine is not without his faults. He struggled with use of timeouts and substitution patterns. He wasn’t able to hold firm about Manziel, even though it seems obvious he didn’t believe he was ready. He wasn’t able to keep his offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach after one season. Finally he focused a little too much time on the defense, which struggled for much of the year, instead of as the overseer of the team.
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While not perfect, Pettine presents (at least until the next bombshell drops) as the lone competence in the Browns food chain. Yet he is the one with the least power. It seems that Haslam, Scheiner and Farmer have a particular set of beliefs about how things should be done, and that Pettine opposes some/all of them.
That means we could be looking at the 4th head coach since Jimmy Haslam took over ownership of the team. We could be seeing a new GM as well but that is less likely given Farmer’s seeming agreement with Haslam, and allowing Jimmy to play a role in football decisions.
How can Browns fans have confidence when the Top 3 men in the organization have the kind of record we laid out above? The one man they could have confidence in, Mike Pettine, has far less power than those 3.
Tough day to be a Browns fan. Imagine what it is like to be Mike Pettine all of last year.
What is your confidence level in HC Mike Pettine?