Browns need to cut their losses and start over again

After living my entire life in the same community, I recently moved hours away to a strange, new region.

 

Whereas I used to know not just all the roads, but also all the bumps in them, to the point where I could have driven them blindfolded to get wherever I wanted whenever I wanted, now I am so afraid that I will get lost simply going out to get the mail that I to drop breadcrumbs to mark the trail. If a hungry birdie gets wind of what of my little trick, then I may never find my way back home.

 

As such, I was driving the other day when I came to a fork in the road. I thought I knew which way to go, but I wasn’t sure. So I took my best shot and stepped on the gas.

 

About a mile later, I was having second thoughts. After two miles, I was almost sure.

 

But I had some time invested in my decision, so, in being stubborn and having the waste of time as one of my pet peeves, I didn’t want to admit that this was 10 minutes I would never get back. I pressed on, hoping for a small miracle.

 

It wasn’t long before I realized it was hopeless. I finally cut my losses and turned around.

 

I thought of all that when I saw a story on SI.com today about the Browns. Left tackle Joe Thomas said the team’s biggest problem has been a lack of consistency, the failure to give coaches and general managers enough time to fully implement their plan.

 

Just too much change – way too much – since the Browns came back in 1999, he said.

 

Thomas is an intelligent young man and I fully understand what he is saying. Yes, the Browns have to establish some continuity in order to have a chance to win over the long haul.

 

There’s just one problem. The coach and GM must be the right guys in order to stick with them. To keep the status-quo simply to avoid change is exactly the wrong thing to do.

 

Certainly, the Browns don’t want to “blow the thing up again,” as owner Jimmy Haslam said at the start of training camp. “Blowing the thing up again” is painful. It’s a pain the Browns have felt a number of times with all of their reboots in the expansion era. But it’s less painful than continuing to go forward with the wrong guys and the wrong plan. When that’s the case, at some point, you’re going to have to blow it up anyway, so the sooner, the better to get back onto the right road.

 

With GM Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine, the Browns are headed nowhere fast. They have no choice but to blow it up.