Thank you letter to former Browns coach Hue Jackson

The real reason Hue Jackson was fired

Hue Jackson has been steamed for three years at the accusation that he had lost control of the team. He has some justification. From the viewpoint of an outsider looking in, the team continued to play hard. Baker Mayfield would have run through a brick wall for his coach. The players never let up. However, in no way was he in control of the team, though not because of the players.

After the sorry mess of 2017, an unworkable compromise was hatched by ownership, in which superstar offensive coordinator Todd Haley was brought in to handle the play-calling, and that responsibility was taken away from the head coach.

Now, whoever heard of a head coach who cannot control the offensive coordinator? In effect, he reported to new general manager John Dorsey. Didn’t the Browns try that with Ray Farmer and Kyle Shanahan? Confusing lines of authority was a hallmark of the Cleveland Browns organization prior to Dee Haslam taking control following the Freddie Kitchens debacle.

It’s one thing if Jackson wanted help with play calling and trusted Haley to make most of the calls. It’s quite another thing if the head coach is not allowed to make play calls at all. For example, on defense, Gregg Williams probably made 99 percent of the calls, but would dial up whatever Jackson wanted.

However, Haley was really the head coach of the offense. If Jackson wanted to run right, and Haley wanted to run left, what is the coach supposed to do? Go to general manager John Dorsey and ask Dorsey to make the offensive coordinator run right? What a mess.

Those of you who were in the military can understand that you can’t have a Lieutenant who does not have to follow the orders from a General. That just cannot be allowed to happen.

The fact that the offensive coordinator and the supposed head coach could not get along made Jackson’s departure inevitable, in this fan’s opinion at least. It could never, never work.

So, coach Jackson, stay bitter if you want to, but you were offered an unworkable situation. JH3 was terribly wrong to put you in that situation, and you were equally wrong to accept it. Haley was also wrong to accept it.

He must have thought that he was soon going to be the head coach, which is part of the reason he was openly insubordinate. So of course you and Haley both deserved to be fired and there was no other option. This relation was doomed from the get-go, and really, you should have been fired at the same time that Sashi Brown was let go.

Brown had to leave for botching the A.J. McCarron trade. Actually, he did the Dawg Pound a major favor, because that would have been a stupid trade. The Browns didn’t need to blow two number two draft picks (one of which became Nick Chubb) in order to spend $18 million per year for career backup A.J. McCarron.

In any case, Sashi Brown was a casualty and John Dorsey took his place.

Hue was allowed to come back with unacceptable strings and conditions that no coach should ever have tolerated.

These organization failures, followed by the hiring of Freddie Kitchens and blowing about half of Browns $59 million of salary cap carryover dollars without a Super Bowl run to show for it, were the major reason why Dee Haslam had to step in and clarify the roles and expectations for ownership, the front office, and the coach.

She’s the organizer. Henceforward, we are not having offensive coordinators accountable to the general manager (by the way, didn’t Ray Farmer try that with Kyle Shanahan?). The coach has to be responsible for that. If we have a problem with the coach’s play-calling, we will fire the coach, but not hire someone else to interfere with the coach’s job.

Likewise, the owner is not going to broker trades. That’s the job of the general manager. If we don’t like the general manager’s trades, the fix is not to have the owner take over the trades, the fix is to fire the general manager.

So far, it seems to be working since Dee has taken over. She let the smartest person in the building, namely Paul DePodesta, hire Kevin Stefanski.

Hue was victimized by unclear lines of authority. That’s for sure.