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Report: Cleveland Browns may offer Josh McDaniels ‘Belichick-role’ after Dorsey firing

By Dan Justik

EDEN PRAIRIE, MN - FEBRUARY 02: Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots talks during the New England Patriots practice on February 2, 2018 at Winter Park in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The New England Patriots will play the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII on February 4. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
EDEN PRAIRIE, MN - FEBRUARY 02: Offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots talks during the New England Patriots practice on February 2, 2018 at Winter Park in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The New England Patriots will play the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII on February 4. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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The Cleveland Browns are realigning their organization this offseason, and it could result in Josh McDaniels landing a Belichick-role with the Browns.

Since the Cleveland Browns ended their 2019 season on Sunday, they have already fired head coach Freddie Kitchens and general manager John Dorsey. The moves could be pointing at a favorite for the Browns head coaching vacancy in New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.

The Haslam’s are both huge fans of McDaniels and he was the first reported candidate to receive an interview request from the Browns this offseason. However, if the Browns wanted to hire McDaniels, they were going to need to make a change because he was not expected to answer to Dorsey.

If McDaniels is the No. 1 candidate in Cleveland, Dorsey’s firing opens up the opportunity for McDaniels to bring in his own general manager or personnel executive. According to NFL.com’s Gil Brandt, the Browns could offer McDaniels a similar role as Bill Belichick has in New England.

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The Browns will reportedly allow the head coach to have a say in who become the team’s general manager. McDaniels is believed to want to bring either Nick Caserio or Dave Ziegler to wherever he lands as head coach so that he has a personnel executive who has the same vision as he does for the roster.

There is nothing wrong with allowing McDaniels or any other head coach to have some say in the front office so that it is a collaborative effort in making roster decisions. However, giving McDaniels or any other head coach full autonomy over football decisions could create issues. And the Browns have past experience with that, as Eric Mangini failed in Cleveland after having too big of a role in making personnel decisions.

Giving McDaniels a “Belichick-like role” could once again be another mistake the Haslam’s and the organization have made. However, Albert Breer of the MMQB and Ian Rapoport believes that McDaniels does not want to have full-control of the roster. Instead, he wants the football decisions made by somebody he knows he can trust.

Because the Haslam’s are huge fans of McDaniels and the Dorsey firing clears the way for McDaniels to bring in his own general manager, it makes Josh McDaniels look like the favorite. He may have struggled as the head coach in Denver, but that was partly because he had too much control in the organization. Giving him a Belichick-like role would be a similar setup as he had in Denver.

Next. 5 things that went wrong for the Browns in 2019. dark

However, if McDaniels does not want to run the football operations of the Browns, he would be a solid fit as a head coach. He has run a solid offense for several years and he has learned what needs to be done as a head coach from Belichick for several years. Giving McDaniels too much control would be a problem, but allowing him to let his guy run the football operations instead of him would be much more appealing.

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