By Stephen Nover
Hue Jackson is the worst head coach in the NFL. My opinion on that was bolstered even more after watching the opening episode of this year’s “Hard Knocks” show on HBO. The Browns are the feature team.
The Browns last had a winning season in 2007. Cleveland is 1-31 in Jackson’s two seasons. Losing permeates this team.
It has to be cultural shock for Todd Haley. He’s the Browns’ new offensive coordinator. Haley had been the Steelers’ offensive coordinator the previous six seasons. The HBO cameras caught Haley speaking out at a coaching meeting.
“We need to get so much done, you know? …,” Haley said. “If we live in our fears, I mean our team has to get mentally tougher and be able to fight through the (bleep) that we’ve gotta fight through. We’ve got to change this drastically and if we’ve got guys that haven’t done (bleep) sitting around doing nothing, you know, I just don’t know how we’re going to do it.”
This was a call to arms to change the atmosphere. Haley wanted injured players to be more involved in training camp and for the team to have more of a sense of urgency.
Jackson responded to Haley’s trenchant observations by saying he’s the one who drives the bus and he’s going to do things his way, a way that produced an 0-16 season in 2017.
Jackson then called on Al Saunders, the Browns senior offensive advisor, to back him up. Showing he’s a total lackey, Saunders said, “It’s your team, you can do whatever the hell you want.”
Now if I’m Jackson, coming off a winless season, I certainly would be receptive to ideas and suggestions on how to turn things around especially coming from a respected coach such as Haley.
But no not Jackson. He’s made it clear that he’s going to continue to do things his way.
I would think twice about betting the Browns to go Over their regular-season win total of 5 1/2 victories.
