Unique Situation, Effective Hiring Process Doesn't Guarantee Results, But Is Encouraging

Through a combination of luck and happenstance, the Cleveland Browns have found themselves in position to be able to make a good head coaching hire and the hires that result from it. There are any number of reasons to be skeptical the Browns will make the best decision in terms of who they choose, but they have put together an effective process to interview a group of seemingly qualified and capable candidates. And perhaps in spite of themselves, they do have selling points which could make this a great job.

First and foremost, there simply weren't as many head coaching vacancies as were expected this year and some of the jobs that did come open were either not as attractive as the Browns or were just in a completely different stage. The Carolina Panthers, both with an uncertain future at quarterback and a new owner, aren't similar to the Browns, who do have a good, young quarterback in Baker Mayfield and a team that can be closer to contention as opposed to rebuilding.

The New York Giants, meanwhile, came with a general manager attached. And one that wasn't terribly popular in Dave Gettleman. The Browns parted ways with their problematic general manager. John Dorsey, who is a step up from Gettleman, with the stated goal of achieving organizational alignment.

The Browns process may be deliberate but it's hardly slow. It just worked out that the processes of the other teams happened to go remarkably fast. The Washington Redskins had been pursuing Ron Rivera since Thanksgiving, so they could hire him as quickly as they did. From there, the dominoes fell quickly. The Browns fired their head coach Freddie Kitchens the evening of their regular season finale and the following Thursday, they conducted their first interview for his replacement.

It's barely the second week of January and they are the only team in the league still in the market for a head coach. Multiple reports have the Browns with a target date of Saturday, the 11th, when they will make their decision, which is perfectly reasonable. They will have interviewed a nice field of candidates and be able to make a reasoned, thoughtful decision. There's no pressure on them to move up their decision and they can weigh all of the options.

They still have to make the sale and close the candidate they want, but one of the pitfalls the Haslams have fallen into in past coaching searches was feeling rushed, becoming infatuated with a particular candidate, trying a full on pressure sales approach and when that fell through, effectively settling on a silver or even bronze medal. This famously occurred in their pursuit of Chip Kelly.

The last coaching search the Browns had, way back in 2019, had a far more organized and thoughtful approach, but the general manager and ownership made a poor choice. On top of picking someone who wasn't up to the job, even in just one season, the Browns organization still wasn't on the same page, even between the general manager and the coach he just hired. Even if Kitchens had been successful, that element would've lingered and likely come to a head in some other form.

The Browns have made the choice to have their head coach set the tone for the franchise. Given the experience with the Browns, this shouldn't really matter, as the team has done this wrong in both directions. When they hired Eric Mangini as head coach, he hired a patsy in George Kokinis while Dorsey hired an ineffective Kitchens. There's no one right way, but the Browns have found just about every wrong way under the ownership of the Haslams.

Having the head coach set the tone is fine. Perhaps an indication of their vast education in the school of doing things the wrong way, they aren't just going to allow the head coach to pick the general manager. Instead, the head coach will be one voice among several that makes that choice, which should hopefully provide the alignment the team seeks while having independent voices that can provide meaningful checks in their decision process. They could take the same approach starting with the general manager. Seemingly simple, at least the Haslams appear to be evolving in a positive direction.

The biggest test for ownership is still to come. After they've finished interviewing their candidates and start to come together on which candidate they like, the Haslams must be willing to trust the people they've hired to guide them in this process. The root of the Hue Jackson debacle was the fact that despite a building full of people urging ownership to hire Sean McDermott, ownership decided they knew better and went with Hue. Beyond ignoring the advice provided by people they hired specifically to do these jobs, they actively created the rift that would hold the organization back and lead to Dorsey and Kitchens; four years of dysfunction in all caused by ownership.

The result is any number of missed opportunities for the organization and a team that could be better than it is. They can still be put on the right path that leads to a Super Bowl, but they not only have to get this particular decision right, they could also use a little luck in the offseason, the draft and into next season. Instead of being a contender that is looking for what could be the final pieces to a championship puzzle, they have taken a notable step backward and have more holes to address than were anticipated.

Whoever the Browns ultimately hire and the form the organization takes, ownership has to then take the difficult step of trusting their plan, avoid obsessing over minutia and looking for outside opinions as confirmation and focus entirely on making the organization around them operate as effectively as possible. That could make an average hire into a good one or a good hire into a great one.