The Browns were stuck in neutral in the first two years of the head-coaching tenure of Sam Rutigliano. 

After finishing 6-8 in 1977 in the final season under head coach Forrest Gregg, Rutigliano’s first team in 1978 improved to 8-8 and that went to 9-7 the next season.

Baby steps, as it were.

The 1978 and ‘79 Browns were mirror images of each other, with a fast start followed by an average performance in the middle of the year and then struggles down the stretch, keeping the them just out of the playoffs those first two years.

It was time to take bigger steps, though. The Browns hired Rutigliano with expectations of more success that that, with a playoff berth included.

But how could the Browns do that? What did they need to do — to tweak, to change — in order for that to happen? It didn’t seem as if it would be dramatic.

Rutigliano and his assistant coaches had to figure that out.

Indeed, that would be the project for the offseason heading into 1980.

Steve King