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The Browns have talent in (almost) all the right places as coaching search begins -- Shaw's Spin

John Dorsey called the Browns an 'attractive job.' Browns GMs have said the same before, but this time it might even be true.
General manager John Dorsey and the Cleveland Browns wanted to clean up internal discord with the firings of coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley.

CLEVELAND — Unlike most other times since 1999 when the Cleveland Browns head coaching job was declared special and universally coveted in the absence of compelling evidence, this time it might even be true.

This time it’s not based on the weathered tradition of Browns football (did you know Jim Brown played here?) or the rabid fan base. It's not somehow attributed to a dedicated-to-getting-it-right-no-matter-how-many-firings-it-takes ownership.

This time it’s a good job regardless of tradition and fan base, and despite Jimmy Haslam’s stunning record of futility.

There’s significant salary cap room but that’s down the list. How and when to spend is above the head coach’s pay grade in this organizational structure. But that’s still a factor.

The bigger reasons the Browns job is a good one for the first time in many years, in no particular order:

  • The front office has layers of proven talent evaluators.

The star search at three of the four most important positions is over: quarterback, pass rusher and cornerback.

If the Browns could somehow talk Joe Thomas out of retirement and sequester him in Sokolowski’s for a month or two, they’d have all their franchise player bases covered.

Apologies to Nick Chubb, whose excellent work puts him in the company of Baker Mayfield, Myles Garrett and Denzel Ward. Running back just isn’t as important.

“I’m going to tell you what, I really think this job is very attractive,” said Dorsey, who has 11 more draft picks in 2019 to go along with all that cap space.

“Those are exciting things for this organization moving forward and anybody, once they understand that, you’ll see, ‘You know what, Cleveland is a good place to be.'’’

Dorsey says the Haslams are part of that. Nice try. What else is a GM going to say about his owners?

But it’s instructive that Dorsey’s role in leading the search has been made clear to everyone (soon to include the candidates themselves). It suggests ownership will rely on him not just to identify the top candidate but beyond the inevitable honeymoon.

There is opportunity for upward trending in the AFC North. (Be nice, this has nothing to do with Hue Jackson joining the Bengals).

The Browns are finally moving in the right direction. It’s always dangerous to proclaim something clear sailing but it seems safe to suggest 20 years of bad road might actually be behind them.

  • Dorsey says the coaching search is wide open, as it should be.

So Gregg Williams will go from being favorably contrasted with Hue Jackson to being measured against Dorsey’s candidate list. That doesn't help his chances.

I’ll believe Williams is the guy Dorsey has waited his entire career to hire as head coach only if Williams is taking a January Gatorade bath after beating the Steelers at Heinz Field in the playoffs

And even then it would help if it's a blowout.

  • Dorsey says he thinks about the hire every day on his ride home. The trip comes complete with self-messaging.

“Don’t mess things up,” he says he tells himself.

I mean it’s better to be safe than sorry, but relax, Buddy Boy.

You could get it right-ish and you still might get a statue built in your honor.

  • Browns left tackle Greg Robinson, who stepped at left tackle against the Chiefs, said, “It can only get better from here.”

A second start in a win over the Atlanta Falcons make him look prescient. For a week at least.

But generally speaking when anyone in Berea says things can only get better, it begs one question: “You’re new around here, aren’t you?”

  • Hue Jackson told the assembled Bengals media he’s happy to return to coaching in Cincinnati team with people he can trust.

People who see three wins in 40 games and think…what?…we better act quickly or lose out in a day-after-Thanksgiving style rush to hire this guy?

  • Marvin Lewis said he thought Jackson could bring some analytical oversight to the Bengals given his exposure to analytics in Berea with Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta.

Proving, I think, that Lewis can troll with the best of them.

  • Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy has it all figured out, per usual.

He can tell you the reason why more players — like Cowboys sophomore safety Thabo Mwaniki — are transferring these days.

“I think we live in a world where people are noncommittal,' he said on the topic of the NCAA passing rules that make it easier for athletes to switch schools. “We allow liberalism to say, 'Hey, I can really just do what I want and I don't have to be really tough and fight through it.’

“You see that with young people because it's an option they're given. We weren't given that option when we were growing up. We were told what to do, we did it the right way, or you go figure it out on your own. In the world today, there's a lot of entitlement.”

Either that or the NCAA is finally being fair.

  • Gundy said he wasn’t speaking directly to Mwaniki’s decision, that he meant 'talking about every millennial, young person. Generation Z.”

Good to know he’s only painting with the broadest of brushes.

  • Gundy says he's a big believer in the "snowflake." Also, apparently, the mullet.
  • If you can’t get over a 19-year-old changing schools, who’s the snowflake here?
  • A New Jersey man arrested for DUI after rear-ending a car in traffic told police he drank too much because the “Jets suck.”

After a blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills, police determined 57-year-old Christopher Greyshock had a baggie of marijuana, an open bottle of bourbon, and that he wasn’t wrong.

  • Former Brown Cody Parkey, the Chicago Bears placekicker for now, hit the upright four times in the same game Sunday, a win over Detroit.

Prompting Rick Morrissey of the Sun-Times to write that, “Until (today) nobody had thought of using the goalposts as a xylophone.”

  • Parkey couldn’t explain what happened so he turned to his faith,

“This is my job, this is what I’m supposed to do, and I’m missing out there,” he said of his misses. “I’ve got just to trust in what I’m doing and trust that my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ makes no mistakes. For whatever reason, that was the day I was supposed to have.’’

I’m not one to question anyone’s beliefs. But I think I speak for all my friends in Michigan when I say if he’s suggesting God is a Lions fan we're going to need more evidence.

  • Parkey held a kicking practice by himself at Solider Field to chase the ghosts away.

Two Chicago TV stations sent helicopters to hover overhead and record the workout in any empty stadium.

The team asked the stations not to air the footage. A Bears spokesman said it took the action “after calls (Wednesday) night from competing local media complaining that we were not enforcing” the team’s practice coverage policy.

And thus viewers were deprived from seeing anything the least bit interesting.

  • Rex Ryan is blasting the Jets for rookie quarterback Sam Darnold’s tough season.

“He’s supposed to get better and ascend, right?” said the former Jets coach. “Who the hell’s coaching him? He’s not ascending. And part of it is play calling.”

And just the Jets luck. Hue Jackson is no longer available.

  • Not sure Ryan was a great teacher as a head football coach but he did go to the AFC Championship game with Mark Sanchez at quarterback. And in retrospect, that's no small feat.
  • Tiger vs. Phil is a week away.

And 10 years too late.

  • Packers coach Mike McCarthy punted the ball away trailing by three with 4:20 remaining in Thursday night’s game in Seattle. It was fourth-and-two at the Green Bay 33. He had only one timeout.

The Seahawks, who rushed for 173 yards (only 17 by Russell Wilson), ran out the clock for a 27-24 win.

If only McCarthy had a talent like Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.

  • The Browns have a bye this week.

So I'll have to make another pick sure to be wrong.

Let's go with Bears over Vikings.

On a Cody Parkey 60-yarder with no time left.

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