And Then There Was One.

I’d like to thank the Giants and the Panthers for hiring their head coaches today and leaving the Browns as the last coaching vacancy. Jimmy, DON’T SCREW THIS UP. You have your choice, you have the guy everyone thinks you’ve always wanted available, Josh McDaniels. Again, DON’T SCREW THIS UP. The greatest threat to the Browns hiring Josh McDaniels is the New England Patriots talking him into coming back. Word is the Browns want their next coach to be hired by Saturday, so no Kevin Stefanski because he’s still coaching in the playoffs. The Browns are still going to interview Stefanski and Jim Schwartz on Thursday and McDaniels on Friday. Come on Jimmy, you only have to get this right once for the first time. That noise you hear in the background is my wife laughing and saying “right, the Browns getting it right.” Imagine Josh McDaniels as head coach, soon to be former Washington OC Kevin O’Connell as the offensive coordinator and Jim Schwartz as the defensive coordinator. That’s a home run. Come on Jimmy, let Cleveland sports fans only worry about when Kevin Love will be traded and if the Dolans are stupid enough to trade Fransico Lindor, not a coaching search. This is a layup. Josh McDaniels has lost all his leverage with no other job openings.

If McDaniels really wants to be a head coach again, here’s his chance. Come home and coach the team you rooted for as a kid. Hire Dave Ziegler as the GM, resign Paul Depodesta (his contract expires Saturday) tie them together and lets get this started. Some are wondering why Jim Schwartz? It could be a fall back in case McDaniels doesn’t take the job, he has been a head coach before. My thought is, as I mentioned earlier, hire him as McDaniels DC. He is under contract with the Eagles, that’s why you ask for their permission, but that contract expires on January 14th. He was an intern under Belichick in Cleveland and has ties to McDaniels. Next question, why interview, Daboll, Saleh, Roman and Bieniemy? It never hurts to pick the brains of people from successful teams. You get a better idea of how a winning structure works. And boy do the Browns need to learn how to create a winning anything. Also, it never hurts a coordinator to interview for jobs one year and set up interviews for the next year. It’s a selling point for their agents. And who knows, those agents may represent a free agent the Browns are interested in signing this year. This is all back channel stuff and lets face facts, the NFL has more back channels than the 2016 Trump campaign. Hire Josh McDaniels.

Moving on from the coaching search, the Browns 2020 opponents are now known. We know who and where, but won’t find out when until the week before the draft. The Browns will host the Colts, Eagles, Raiders, Redskins, Texans, Bengals, Steelers and Ravens. They go on the road and play the Titans, Giants, Jags, Jets, Cowboys, Bengals, Steelers and Ravens. Beckham will be in the Meadowlands twice and I’m really looking forward to seeing the Browns here in Nashville again. It wouldn’t surprise me that the Browns will play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving day. As for the NFL draft, I’m very happy the Bama QB Tua Tagovailoa declared for the draft. That’s one more QB in the top ten that will push an offensive tackle down to the Browns. Either Jedrick Wills of Bama or Tristan Wirfs of Iowa are fine by me.

I’m sounding a little optimistic, so it’s time to slam my head against my desk to bring me back to reality. In the end, Jimmy Haslam is the one making the final decision and that’s the major reason to be pessimistic. You know Browns fans, how we usually feel after a front office and or coaching change, which is about every year, right? As my wife always says, besides how much she hates the NFL, “they can screw this up again, can’t they?” Yes honey, they can, the Browns have an idiot for an owner. Hopefully, we’ll all know by Saturday if Jimmy got this right. I’m tired of winning the off season, it’s time to win during the regular season. Go Browns.