Why John Dorsey must have final say on the next head coach
For all the talk of being organizationally “aligned”, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has failed to get the right combination of leaders in his first few attempts. His fortunes seem to be changing with the hiring of John Dorsey and the firing of Hue Jackson. The question now is will it continue?
One of the ongoing questions about the 2018 Cleveland Browns season will be what if things were different? I’m not talking about a missed kick in New Orleans or an overturned first down in Oakland.
I’m talking about the what if that started during Hard Knocks when it was obvious that Todd Haley and Hue Jackson were not on the same page. I’m talking about watching a team over the last six games that looks completely different than the one that played the first eight.
In organizational communication and group dynamics, there is a bias toward being “aligned”. Since taking ownership of the Browns in 2012, Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has talked repeatedly, about having everyone in the organization on the same page. However, the only time he’s managed to have that in the organization is right now, when it happened by accident.
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Haslam got a mulligan for being paired with Joe Banner, Mike Lombardi in a shotgun marriage that many thought was doomed from the beginning. But then there was the Mike Pettine-Kyle Shanahan-Ray Farmer pairing.
This ended with texts to the sidelines during games, an organizational desire to put Johnny Manziel on the field in spite of the Browns being in first place without him – and Shanahan exiting Berea but not after firing a Molotov cocktail at the organization by way of PowerPoint.
And then there’s Hue and Sashi — and 1-31. And by putting the handcuffs on John Dorsey in terms of hiring his own head coach at the end of last season, it became obvious that Todd Haley, Hue Jackson, and Dorsey all had different visions for what the Browns should look like. That never ends well, and after eight games, Jimmy Haslam finally agreed.
Your track record, Mr. Haslam is not good. And that’s partly because being aligned often leads to “group think”. Nobody calls a bad idea a bad idea because they have to be a good team player. But the only thing that leads to is dysfunction. Good, or better, ideas are ignored or left unspoken and good people leave organizations because they know their opinions are not valued.
This is why John Dorsey, and John Dorsey alone, must make the final say on the Browns new head coach. For the most part, Browns fans give Dorsey high marks for his first year, but if we want to be completely fair, the bar was set very low.
Dorsey seems to have a keen eye for talent, but he has been with three organizations, and he left Kansas City with comments that he has not seen a salary cap he won’t blow through. There were also reports that he and Andy Reid were not “aligned”.
Had Jimmy Haslam given John Dorsey the authority to hire his coach before the year started, I don’t know if the Browns would have a better record, but we’d have a better sense of where this organization really is, including how to fairly evaluate John Dorsey.
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There will probably never be a time when the Browns head coaching position is so sought after. Which is why the Browns have to make the right choice for head coach. But with an opportunity for the stars to finally align, Jimmy Haslam needs to be true to his word and let John Dorsey make the call.