Cleveland Browns: Does John Dorsey already know his head coach?

As the Cleveland Browns continue to interview their long list of head coach candidates, does John Dorsey already know who he wants to hire?

The Cleveland Browns search for their next head coach is expected to be a long and exhaustive search that could go until the end of January.

Browns general manager John Dorsey is interviewing a long a list of candidates, with nine coaches either having already interviewed, scheduled to interview, or expected to interview.

Despite the long list of candidates, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has heard that Dorsey already knows who his guy is, but is not informing anyone. However, he does not believe that man is former Packers head coach Mike McCarthy.

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Dorsey is known to keep things close to the vest and keeping his plans to himself until the very last moment. It would not be surprising if he has the same idea for the head coaching search to minimize the risk of his favorite candidate being leaked to the media.

Prior to the 2018 NFL Draft, Dorsey was one of the most guarded executives in the entire NFL. It surprised people around the league how quiet he was being about the first overall selection. Dorsey is of the mind that other organizations having as little information about the Browns is for the better.

Leading up to the draft, it was expected that the Browns were going to select Sam Darnold with the first overall selection. However, it came out only days before the draft that the Browns were high on Baker Mayfield and that they were planning on selecting him with the first overall selection.

With how well Dorsey was able to hide Mayfield being his guy, it is anticipated that no one knows who is the actual favorite for the Browns head coaching job. Although the Browns have a variety of candidates currently known, there is a decent chance that Dorsey’s guy is not on that list yet.

If the Browns do plan on having a long and deliberate search, Dorsey could be planning a second wave of candidates to interview. Most of the current candidates for the Browns job are either first-time coordinators or veteran, ‘retread’ coaches. None of the names stick out, except for McCarthy, due to his previous connection with the Browns front office in Green Bay.

Cleveland was planning on interviewing McCarthy the first week of interviews, but decided to move his interview back to the following week. It allowed the New York Jets to get an interview with McCarthy, and they are considered to be heavily interested in the former Packers coach. With Florio believing McCarthy is not Dorsey’s guy, Cleveland pushing back his interview could be the evidence for that belief.

Browns fans should not expect the search for the team’s next head coach to end any time soon. The Browns may end up having the longest search for a head coach this off-season. But the one thing that fans should expect, is that there will likely be some surprises along the way.