The Browns claim – emphatically so, practically with the veins popping out of their necks as they angrily shout their retort – that they are not a dysfunctional organization.
Let’s take a quick look and see if they’re right.
Heading into Sunday’s game against the 5-2 Arizona Cardinals at FirstEnergy Stadium, the Browns are 2-5 and have lost two straight, including a 24-6 decision to the St. Louis Rams last Sunday in which quarterback Josh McCown got beaten up pretty badly.
Head coach Mike Pettine has said that if McCown is healthy enough, he will start against the Cardinals, even though he is 2-15 in his last 17 NFL starts and a quarterback’s only job is to win the game.
Backup Johnny Manziel could start, and might start, if McCown isn’t able to go. But there is a possibility that he won’t be able to go, either, since the NFL is investigating a recent incident involving him and his girlfriend to see if he violated the league’s personal conduct policy. As such, he could face some punitive actions, including suspension.
If neither of those two are able to go, then the Browns will have to turn to third-stringer Austin Davis, who hasn’t played at all this season. Keep in mind that quarterback is the most important position in team sports, and that a team has to have a good one to have even a chance to win games.
The truth of the matter is that if McCown isn’t able to play, Pettine would like to use Davis instead of Manziel, even though the latter was a first-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft and was a big winner in college at Texas A&M, helping to turn around a moribund program. Pettine doesn’t like Manziel and didn’t want to draft him, and as such would do anything to keep from using him. It’s a personal thing with Pettine, you see.
On the other hand, General Manager Ray Farmer, whose ego is the size of the Terminal Tower on steroids, would love to see Manziel play since he was the one who drafted him. Farmer has a poor drafting record with those ultra-important first-round picks and is anxious for at least one of them to make a dramatic impact – a positive one, that is – on the team. In fact, he so much wanted Manziel to play last year that he texted down to the sideline to a subordinate to carry that message to Pettine. That is illegal by NFL standards, of course, and caused him to be suspended by the league for the first four games this season.
Pettine sure didn’t miss Farmer at all, In fact, he no doubt enjoyed getting farmer out of the building for a whole month. He and Farmer don’t like each other – to say they despise one another is not a strong enough term — and there is a power struggle going on between them. So that is further incentive for Pettine to keep Manziel out of the lineup. By doing so, he can take a shot at Farmer. Yeah, take that.
At no point in this silly, childish, boorish and embarrassing spitting match between Farmer and Pettine has there been, or will there ever be, any discussion about what quarterback gives the team the best chance to win. Pettine thinks McCown, who, as we mentioned, is just 2-15 in his last 17 starts, gives the Browns the best chance to win. Let’s remember that the object of the game is not to have the quarterback throw for 265 yards and two touchdowns, but rather for the team to win the game, whether the score is 3-2 or 100-99, or somewhere in between. It doesn’t matter. “Just win, baby,” as Al Davis, the late owner of the Oakland Raiders, always used to say, and correctly so.
Regardless, though, of who plays quarterback – or any other position, actually – the truth of the matter is that both Pettine and Farmer will likely be fired as soon as the season is over if the Browns do not start winning games – a lot of them, and soon. As such, then, it would behoove both men to set their egos and personal agendas aside and decide what’s best for the team in regards to winning – again, not in 2016, but right now.
The Cleveland defense might be able to override the problems on offense and contribute toward a victory if it played well, which is what you would expect from the highest-paid defense in the league. Yet the defense, though it has not been as bad as the offense, has still performed horribly overall this year. It is the worst defense in the NFL against the rush, in fact. However, Pettine and his hand-picked defensive coordinator, and good friend, Jim O’Neil, refuse to make changes of any kind, saying they believe in their system and will stick with it – perhaps right to the very end, in more ways than one.
The hope is that at some point before Sunday’s kickoff, which is set for just after 1 p.m., that, amidst all this soap opera-like drama, there can be some honest-to-goodness football talk, including specific discussion about the game. That would be nice. And if not, then perhaps some can be squeezed in before next Thursday night’s road contest against the Cincinnati Bengals.
OK, considering all this, then, do you think the Browns are indeed a dysfunctional organization? And if they are, then just how much so?
