Browns give Mike Pettine 5-year deal

May 10, 2013; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Doug Marrone and defensive coordinator Mike Pettine watch players run drills during rookie minicamp at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

As reported by Mary Kay Cabot of The Plain Dealer and others, the Cleveland Browns gave new head coach  a five-year deal.  From the standpoint of Mike Lombardi and Joe Banner, this is virtually meaningless.  If the team does not improve, they are fired.  This is however a pretty substantial investment from Jimmy Haslam who is here unless he sells the team.

Rob Chudzinski was fired and paid $10.5 million for his one year of work.  Pettine stands to make even more than they over the life of his contact, so Haslam has dropped a substantial amount of money on this project to make sure they get it right.

Haslam is also supposed to have had a much larger role in the search as opposed to last year where he relied more on Banner to find the coach.  This hire seems to be as much on him as it is anyone else at this point.  Some will say it took a 5-year deal to get anyone to take this job, but regardless of how they arrived there, that is a pretty big investment from the owner in his bid to make this team a winner.