Browns head coach Hue Jackson used to have the same job with the Oakland Raiders.
He lasted just one year – 2011 — in Oakland, going 8-8. He was fired afterward, because in a place where founding owner Al Davis made famous the phrase, “Just win, baby,” losing as many as you win simply didn’t cut it for a coach.
Now he’s in Cleveland, where — oh, baby! — winning none last year – after having won just one in 2016 — wasn’t enough to get him fired.
But Jackson has been put on notice by Browns owner Jimmy Haslam – quietly, behind the scenes – that he had better start winning this season. And right out of the gate. Or else.
Jackson is well aware of it.
So is everyone else. It’s the worst-kept secret in the NFL, and Browns fans are extremely smart, and savvy. They might have known it before Jackson did.
But how many games does Jackson need to win early to keep his job? And how many does he need to win overall this season?
That’s up to conjecture. At least two of the first five? And at least six by the end of the year?
Who knows?
But those questions, while having been asked by fans and the media alike for several months now, really come into play with the fact that the full NFL schedule was released on Thursday night. Now we can go through the slate game by game and try to project which games the Browns will likely win, and which ones they will likely lose.
That can be dangerous – so much will happen between now and them to possibly change the outcome of these games – but until that happens, making wild guesses is all we can do in the last half of April. a little more than 4½ months from the beginning of the season.
And know this for a fact: Jackson – and his coaches – are doing the same thing with their schedule analysis, because their jobs depend on it.
The Browns open at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the best teams in the league and a club they’ve struggled to beat in the expansion era.
Then they play on the road against the New Orleans Saints.
After that, they’ve got the Raiders on the road and the Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Chargers at home. They finish the first half of the season by going to Pittsburgh.
After facing the Steelers, there are home games against two more playoff teams, the Atlanta Falcons and Kansas City Chiefs.
That takes the Browns to the bye week. They will have played 10 games by then. Haslam will know at that point if Jackson will ever have what it takes to be a winning coach with the Browns.
And if Haslam doesn’t like what he sees – which well could be the case after that meat-grinder start to the schedule – he could make a change.
That’s what I saw – that’s what I started thinking about – when the schedule was unveiled at 8 p.m. Thursday.
What about you?
