Let’s start at the beginning, as they say. I think Browns owner Jimmy Haslam made a wise decision – certainly a tough one and a daring one, but also an intelligent one – in keeping head coach Hue Jackson rather than firing following the 2017 season.

And, much more importantly, I think it will pay off. I think the Browns will start winning this season – they’re not going to the AFC playoffs by any stretch of the imagination, but they’re not going to be the dregs of the NFL, either – and they will certainly contend for the postseason in 2019, and actually make it.

I see the same head-coaching ability in Jackson that I saw when he was hired. I haven’t wavered on that, and neither, apparently, has Haslam.

It would have been easy, of course, to fire Jackson after going 1-31 – including 0-16 in 2017 – in his two years on the job. It would have been like firing the captain of the Titanic.

Duh?!

No one could have – or would have – argued with Haslam had he sent Jackson packing. Heck, Jackson probably won’t have argued with Haslam, either. I believe in his heart of hearts that Jackson fully expected to be dismissed and was stunned beyond belief when it didn’t happen. He is getting a reprieve – a stay of execution – the likes of which has never been seen in NFL history, and perhaps not even in pro sports history overall.

Haslam knows that and, again, deep down inside, certainly wants the situation to be couched that way. That is almost fully because, of course, he wants to change his reputation of being too impatient after going through head coaches like water since he bought the team.

But it’s also partly because Haslam realizes now just how bad of a director of football operations Sashi Brown was. He knows that no coach, even an accomplished one, let alone one with just three seasons of NFL head-coaching experience, could have survived with Brown making the decisions – or, in this case when it came to getting a franchise quarterback at the top of the NFL Draft, failing to make those decisions.

So Haslam is going to give Hue a chance to operate with an experienced hand/partner in new General Manager John Dorsey and see if that makes a difference.

But Jackson is far from being out of the woods. I’ll talk about that in my next post.