Here are opinions on three timely topics:

*A SMART MAN – Mike Pettine didn’t have any understanding, or know the importance, of the quarterback position. Neither did Pat Shurmur, Eric Mangini and Romeo Crennel. Thank goodness the Browns now have a head coach who does understand – very well, in fact – that quarterback is the most important position in team sports. Before anything else, the head coach has to get the quarterback position right. And if he doesn’t, he’s sunk. He has no chance to succeed.

Check out this quote from Jackson at the NFL Meetings this week in Boca Raton, Fla.: “We are going through our process (of evaluating free-agent quarterback Robert Griffin III, who visited the team last Friday and Saturday). We’re going to be very diligent in what we are doing, trying to make sure that we put the right quarterbacks on our football team and in that quarterback room. And that’s one of my biggest responsibilities and also one of our organization’s biggest responsibilities.”

I have faith that a guy who says that can fix the long-suffering quarterback position on this team. It won’t be easy and it may take a while, and in fact a long, long while, but I believe Jackson can do it.

*MORE ON RG III – Everybody seems to believe that if the Browns were to sign Griffin III, it would immediately mean the end of Josh McCown’s time with the Browns. That may not necessarily be the case.

With quarterback being so crucial, and injuries being so prevalent at that position, especially on the Browns, it would behoove the club to retain McCown even if it signs RG III, and even if it then takes a quarterback near the top of the NFL Draft. You have to fortify the quarterback position like no other. You over-spend to do so if you have to. You don’t do that at any other spot on your team. It’s like building a house. You can’t scrimp on the foundation, lest your house be weak and ultimately collapse into itself.

Guys like Connor Shaw aren’t going to win you anything, so by getting rid of him and having as their three quarterbacks McCown, RG III and either Carson Wentz or Jared Goff, the Browns would have upgraded their quarterback room from terrible to at least average. Sure, McCown, like Shaw, isn’t going to win you anything, either, but he’s valuable in that he’s a veteran who knows the game, he’s a great locker-room influence and he made it clear last year that he was willing to tutor Johnny Manziel. So why wouldn’t he do that this season with a Goff or a Wentz, and an RG III?

If Jackson were to get RG III and figure out how to harness all that athleticism and fit it into the parameters of the quarterback position, then the Browns might have something. They might have found a nugget. And if anyone could rejuvenate RG III, it’s someone like Jackson who really knows quarterbacking.

*AN INJURY THAT REALLY HURTS THE BROWNS – If the Browns are already saying in the third full week of March that cornerback Joe Haden might not be ready for the start of the regular season after having had ankle surgery recently, then you can almost bet that he will miss the opener, and probably beyond that.

Haden first injured the ankle midway through last year and then re-injured it when he began working out in the offseason. How does that happen? Didn’t it occur to the Browns to thoroughly examine that ankle before Haden put it to the test. If so, then maybe a problem could have been detected in early January, right after the regular season was over, and Haden would be 2½ months into his rehab instead of not even having started it. That’s 10 weeks wasted.

The Browns are certainly not good enough to have Haden on the sideline for any length of time. They found out last season how valuable he is when they had to play much of the time without him.

The Browns are hardly the only ones who do it – in fact, every team in every pro sport, and most college sports as well, also stumble, fumble and bumble their way into the same situation – but teams spend all this money for the best doctors and trainers and then somehow they still can’t get needed surgeries done right away. So many times, that costs a player valuable time during the season, which really costs a team.

Again, how does that happen? What are the Browns paying these doctors and trainers for if they can’t get these ultra-important decisions and determinations right?

No matter how the Browns couch it and try to massage the issue, they messed up big-time. And as such they’ve already set Haden and themselves back at the start of the regular season even though it’s still 5½ months away.

Yikes!

And they have only themselves to blame.