The new head coach and “talent evaluator,” as owner Jimmy Haslam likes to describe him, have yet to be hired, but whenever they are, they will have plenty of decisions to make as they try to get the Browns back on track.

Here’s hoping they decide to keep left tackle Joe Thomas and center Alex Mack, both of whom are Pro Bowlers and integral parts of the team. The Browns don’t have enough good players as it is. As such, they can’t afford to lose any of them.

Thomas was a fan of former head coach Mike Pettine and was strongly in favor of keeping him. He was not happy when that happened, and said that if he doesn’t like the coach the Browns bring in, he will ask them to trade him.

Mack can opt out of his contract this offseason and although he refused to discuss the matter this season, most people believe he’ll be gone.

There are some followers of the Browns who believe that both Thomas and Mack are expendable, that teams don’t need top-flight offensive linemen to be successful anymore.

A lot of ignorant people say ignorant things. This is the case here.

 

When the Browns acquire their franchise quarterback, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out he’ll need someone to fortify the middle of the line and make the proper blocking calls, and someone to protect his blind side. Nobody in the game today do those jobs better than Mack, a three-time Pro Bowler, and Thomas, a nine-time Pro Bowler who is headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame someday.

With that, then, as one of his first – if not THE first – orders of business after he gets hired, the new coach should sit down with the two linemen and convince them that he will make the offense and the team better and that they are necessary to make that happen.