Hapless Browns fire Brown, hire Dorsey, begin another rebuild

12/7/2017

Of all the teams in major professional sports, DeShone Kizer just had to be drafted by the worst one, huh?

The Browns’ wheel of incompetence continued to spin Thursday as the hapless franchise fired executive vice president and top personnel man Sashi Brown.

As for Hue Jackson, owner Jimmy Haslam said the coach will return in 2018, but mark that down as a maybe. We’ll just remind the impetuous Haslam — who, not surprisingly, had a big hand in the dysfunctional coaching search at Tennessee, his alma mater — is known to change his mind.

RELATED: Browns hire former Chiefs executive Dorsey as GM

Firing Brown after two years in charge was the right move, but came two years too late.

His appointment fell under the foresight-is-20-20 category, with the only hope being it was so crazy it just might work. Turns out, putting a lawyer with no scouting experience in charge of the front office and hiring a baseball guy — former Dodgers general manager Paul DePodesta — as his top deputy was just crazy.

Though the Browns’ overarching plan to lose big now — and hoard draft picks — in the name of winning later was sound, their inability as talent evaluators undermined all of it. It was one thing to be bad. That was expected. It was another thing to be the worst franchise in NFL history, going 1-27 over the past two years. Kizer, who this corner still believes has a promising future, has stood little chance. No rookie quarterback would.

Going forward, with another 13 picks in next year’s draft and a mounds of salary cap space, the Browns, in theory, are in decent shape. They just need someone with football experience making the calls. Getting the next crack at it will be former Chiefs general manager John Dorsey, who Cleveland hired on Thursday night. 

Let the rebuilding begin. Again.