Johnny Manziel, in good times and in bad – WFNY Top 10 Cleveland Sports Stories: No 3
December 28, 20152015 WFNY Author Spotlight: Best of Will Gibson
December 28, 2015In this episode of As the Franchise Turns…
Bleacher Report’s Jason Cole has reportedly been told by a source close to the Browns that the team expects to retain head coach Mike Pettine and fire general manager Ray Farmer. The Browns’ 17-13 loss at Kansas City Sunday dropped the team to 3-12 on the season and 3-17 in their last 20 games.
“Sources within the Browns organization say they expect that coach Mike Pettine will survive this season despite the failure of the team,” Cole said in a video which you can find below. “Those sources indicate that the bigger problem within the Browns’ organization is not Pettine but is actually general manager Ray Farmer and the selections that Farmer has made throughout his tenure, and even before that when he was under [former Browns CEO] Joe Banner.
“The problem here is more of a personnel issue, and that is what is going to have to be fixed by [owner Jimmy] Haslam.”
One needn’t search far and wide to see the personnel issues in question. Of the Browns’ four first-round picks made in the last two years, none can be considered an out-an-out success. Of 2014’s first rounders, Johnny Manziel has made progress at quarterback, while Justin Gilbert only occasionally sees the field and has been said to have an atrocious attitude and work ethic. In the class of 2015, defensive tackle Danny Shelton has been solid if unspectacular, while offensive lineman Cameron Erving has been mired in one of the worst blocking stretches in recent memory.
If Farmer is indeed let go, word is that Green Bay Packers director of pro personnel Eliot Wolf (son of longtime Packers exec Ron Wolf) could be a candidate for the GM job. In addition to Wolf, Cole said that leading candidates to replace Farmer would include Cincinnati Bengals Director of Player Personnel Duke Tobin, Minnesota Vikings assistant general manager George Paton, and Kansas City Chiefs Director of Football Operations Chris Ballard.
“Those three gentlemen are considered the top three candidates by the NFL for possible general manager positions around the league,” Cole said. “This is the course that Haslam may take as he tries to fix a continual problem with the Browns since he has taken over the ownership of that team.”
Per the Plain Dealer‘s Mary Kay Cabot, “Haslam has not made up his mind yet and that he’s taking his time and considering all four of his options: keeping Pettine and Farmer, firing both, or keeping one or the other.” Cabot says that decisions are likely to be carried out after the season finale against Pittsburgh.
25 Comments
What’s the matter, wasn’t Ray the answer?
Nyah!
I would be okay keeping Pettine. My worry is that whoever they bring in to replace Farmer will want to have his own coach in place. Creating friction from the start.
Absolutely right. BIG item to address, right there.
Now… DUKE TOBIN?!?!? It would admittedly be based on reputation alone, as I am not an expert. But that guy gets a ton of credit for how deep Cincinnati is, and I am pretty pumped if he indeed is an option.
Always a concern, but I think a reasonable thing to discuss in an interview is how they intend to balance the need for some continuity with the need to make changes. Do they want to bring in their own guy? Do they want to work with Mike Pettine to make some necessary changes on the coaching staff? Do they want to dictate to Pettine what he does? If I’m Haslam, I’m worried about this given the history and likelihood that top coaching candidates won’t want to come here.
No I cant go for that…
Well, for whatever it’s worth, that’s what I would do. Pettine’s not perfect, but he’s also inexperienced and keeping the team engaged is job 1. He’s navigated some tough circumstances over the past year and most of them weren’t his doing.
Farmer hasn’t just failed at the draft. His personnel strategy has just been terrible. The inability to find quality special teamers is damning, the strategy with the last 5 spots on the roster has been haphazzard at best, he gave the wrong veteran WR a ton of money, he ditched players who have since done great elsewhere, he chased off a good offensive coordinator, and obviously managed to get suspended by the league for texting the sidelines. There’s still talent on this team, but you’d have trouble identifying a move he made from last year to this year that turned out to be a positive.
Of course Haslam wouldn’t be in this position if he hadn’t blown up the organization repeatedly. He shouldn’t have fired Heckert, shouldn’t have fired Chud, probably shouldn’t have even jumped ship on Banner that quickly once he was here, to be honest. He couldn’t decide who should be in charge and it fostered dysfunction. If he blows it up now, who will take that coaching job? He needs to leave the coaching staff, (mostly) but Farmer falls in to the same category as Shurmer for me – too obvious he’s incompetent to keep him.
Wait…it gets better. Reportedly/supposedly Ray Farmer could be demoted but remain with the Cleveland Browns.
#clownshow
The heat on the pan is getting turned up. Is anyone else concerned about Ray’s dehydration at this point? Hope he’s drinking plenty of Gatorade.
There’s no way Heckert, et al. stay on this team when Haslam let the Walrus go. The first blow up was to be expected, IMO. Now, I agree with you that the Banner FO should have been left in place (well, it should have never been put together, but it shouldn’t have been blown up so soon.)
Pettine can stay if O’Neil goes.
Assistant Wiener Dog Race Coordinator.
Source?
Must, must, MUST GO.
Farmer is obviously a talented evaluator or he wouldn’t be in the position he’s in today, but the Browns need to find someone who has a better vision for the organization.
Whoever gets the job (if this is true), I hope they have a good relationship with Pettine and understand what sort of personnel they need and who would fit in on this team. I hope they don’t cut guys from previous regimes and replace them with new players simply to give off the impression that they are more talented evaluators than the previous front office. There are some good players on this team already, and I felt that Farmer got rid of talented guys to make it look like he really new what he was doing. Finally, I hope they commit to building through the draft rather than FA.
I hope they might consider giving Heckert another interview. If you look at his drafts, outside of Weeden and Richardson, he drafted pretty well. He’s a Cleveland guy and I think he understood how to build a team, and wouldn’t have to pick another coach.
Makes no sense that Haslam is leaning toward keeping Pettine. That implies he is voluntarily narrowing a GM search that is already severely hampered by the organization’s skull-and-crossbones reputation. No, a quality candidate will want input as to who is cooking his ingredients. Jimmy’s put himself in a position where he can’t set any pre-conditions.
I’m guessing that right now he’s assigning primary blame to Farmer, and that’s obvious enough.
I’m curious about something that you may be able to answer. Why is the paradigm that an HC reports to a GM rather than the other way around? If the HC is the one held responsible for Ws & Ls wouldn’t it make more sense for the GM to answer to him? To paraphrase Parcells, if I’m going to cook the meal shouldn’t I choose the ingredients? I understand that a GM has to be the one to determine which player is ranked 1st, 2nd, etc but ultimately the HC is judged for the Ws & Ls the team produces. It seems that a GM should answer to what the coach deems most important to produce those Ws & Ls.
Not sure it is the paradigm now – with our division rivals of solid coaches I think every one can get their GM fired. But if there is team in need of repair I think there are a few things going on:
– the talent on the roster is the primary factor in success or failure (not only, primary).
– there are more competent coaches than personnel directors, and they are thus easier to replace. Thik about it: there are excellent college head coaches around the country who cannot sniff the NFL. There isn’t that kind of feeding ground for GMs. It’s harder to pick a no-brainer of a newbie. Ernie Accorsi, a very competent GM, had been a sportswriter. Think about that.
– In the Browns case, their most glaring need is a competent personnel person. They can get another Pettine from the list of coordinators desperate for any HC job.
Just my thoughts.
Expected yes, but still the wrong move. Yes, The Walrus had to go, but turning the whole thing over every time somebody has to go is part of why we’re here.
You would hope that GMs and HCs would have a good enough relationship so that there isn’t a power struggle. I don’t want my GM adding guys when the HC thinks there are other guys who would be a better fit with the team, or guys he does not like, which has happened repeatedly with this team the last couple of years. I also don’t want a HC who doesn’t trust the evaluation talents of their GM.
The main reason why I want to see Pettine fired is his clock management, his poor decisions (he lost us the last game not kicking a field goal early in the 4th quarter and going for it on 4th down, failing, then a FG attempt to win would have happened. Yes, the ST cant block on FG attempts, but man, the KC game should have been a win and I put a lot of that on Pettine. He almost blew the at Baltimore victory too. Plus, at some point, you have to stop disciplining players like Gilbert and throw them out there. I just don’t see young players developing on this team, and I know, it may be more the GM, but a lot of teams after the browns would have taken Shelton. He has potential, but has not been a success yet. Some of it has to be coaching.
In reality, all early guesses (reports like this) usually end up being wrong. Another poster said you cannot just fire a GM and keep a coach he may not like. It would be a mistake if these people can’t work together.
Serious question: Who is Jason Cole and why would the national media pick this up? Bleacher Report? Pah leeze….
Pretty well respected national reporter. National guys almost always get these stories first.
He’s more reliable than La Confora who makes up rumors.
My McLaren’s always in the shop…POS.