Daily Dawg Tags: Browns a landing spot for Mularkey?

The Cleveland Browns need an offensive coordinator and reports are out that former Tennessee head coach Mike Mularkey may be in play.

The Cleveland Browns need an offensive coordinator.

The fans know it. Most of the media know. General manager John Dorsey certainly knows it.

Deep down, even head coach Hue Jackson probably knows it. The problem is that he doesn’t want to accept the reality.

The Browns offense has been bad in its two years under Jackson, finishing 31st in points scored in 2016 and 32nd this past season. Jackson came to town with the stated goal of fixing the team’s quarterback situation, but has only managed to make it worse.

Shortly after being hired as the fifth general manager under owner Jimmy Haslam, Dorsey declared that the Browns would be bringing in an offensive coordinator. But Jackson, who reports directly to Haslam rather than Dorsey, has pushed back on that statement and has only acquiesced to the idea of “considering” an offensive coordinator.

Which brings us to Mike Mularkey, who was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Tennessee Titans on Monday. Shortly after that news broke, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport tossed out a Tweet that Mularkey could find a new home in Cleveland with the Browns:

As bad as Jackson has been in his role as offensive coordinator, the idea of Mularkey taking over the offense is not very inspiring.

While the Titans offense was statistically better than the Browns the past two seasons — it would be almost impossible for it to be worse — the team regressed this past season. As ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe points out, the Titans offense in 2017 was an underachieving unit that was too “predictable.”

The interesting part about Mularkey coming to Cleveland is that he could be viewed as a backup plan in case the Browns start off slow this fall and Haslam finally decides to fire Jackson.

That’s not a very exciting option, however, as even after going 9-7 the past two seasons with the Titans, Mularkey is toting around a career record of just 36-53. Again, that looks great compared to Jackson, but not something that would inspire excitement in a beleaguered fan base.

Which means that, given the way the offseason has gone so far for the Browns, we should be expecting Mularkey to be putting pen to paper on a contract any day now.

Cleveland Browns news:

Browns fan longing for a team that is not pitied

The Cleveland Browns have not made it easy on their fans since 1999, who generally have to deal with pity, rather than respect, from opposing fans.

Browns sign tight end Gavin Escobar to futures deal

The Cleveland Browns added another player to the futures list, inking former second-round pick Gavin Escobar to a deal on Monday.

What if the Browns trade the No. 1 overall pick? 

The Cleveland Browns may find themselves in a position this offseason where trading the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft makes sense.

Championship game staffs littered with Browns connections (ESPN)

"A team that hires and fires coaches with regularity is going to have a fair amount of alumni sprinkled around the league. So it is with the Cleveland Browns, who have had nine coaches, 15 offensive coordinators and 12 defensive coordinators since 1999, the year of the team’s return from a three-year hiatus."

NFL news:

Pat Shurmur will need to lighten up with the Giants (New York Daily News)

"Lighten up, Pat. That’s Mike Holmgren’s message to Pat Shurmur, the soon-to-be head coach of the New York Football Giants."

12 things we learned from Divisional Round games (NFL.com)

"The Divisional Round has come and gone, and only four teams remain in Super Bowl contention. Joining the usual suspects, Tom Brady’s Patriots, in next Sunday’s Championship Games are three unlikely quarterbacks leading three written-off teams. Here are some of our big takeaways from this weekend."

The best and worst free agent signings from 2017 (ESPN)

"The highest-impact signing of the 2017 offseason happened on March 31, more than three weeks after the frenzied opening of the NFL free-agent market. It was a little-noticed, one-year, $2 million contract by the Vikings for a backup quarterback who had lost the Rams’ starting job to Jared Goff five months earlier. Keep this in mind this March, when you’re wailing, “When will my team sign somebody?”"