No news, as they say, is good news.

But not always, and certainly not in the case of the Browns’ two top football men, General Manager Andrew Berry and head coach Kevin Stefanski. With them, no news — the fact that Browns co-owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam have not come out in support of them, especially with the daily pounding that Berry and Stefanski, the architects of this miserable season, are taking in the media, both locally and nationally, and from frustrated, disappointed and downright angry Browns fans — leaves them flapping in the breeze.

Perception is 90 percent of reality, and if their bosses refuse to throw them a lifeline in a way that all can plainly see, then you have to believe they’re in serious trouble.

Perhaps Berry and Stefanski have already been given an ultimatum that there must be marked improvement in the 2-7 team in the second half of the season, or else, or it could be that the owners have already come to the conclusion that, no matter what happens from here, this thing is in such bad shape that there must be new blood in the offseason, or before, and have just decided to not say anything — good, bad or indifferent — at this time. What would be the use in that case, right?

But, if there are changes at the top — and I truly believe there will be, especially in the case of Stefanski, despite the useless jibber-jabber that Berry used to defend him with the other day — I hope that the first prospect they talk to is Mike Vrabel. The Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit High School and Ohio State product has been with the team all season in the role of a consultant, so he knows the problems, issues and shortcomings all too well. He would not need to do a study to figure it out.

But more importantly, Vrabel is a tough, strong-minded and no-nonsense guy, and this team needs leadership, direction, toughness and discipline in the worst way. That’s evident from all the false starts on offense and blown pass coverages in the secondary on defense. Despite the latter, I would like Vrabel, if he got the job, to make Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz his first hire to remain in that role and as an assistant head coach. All season long, when those missed assignments have occurred, Schwartz has stood on the sideline steaming and shaking his head in disgust.

In addition, if I were the Haslams, I might have fired, or at least strongly admonished, Berry for the pathetic, embarrassing, indignant and irresponsible manner with which he conducted himself in the aforementioned presser on Wednesday morning. He didn’t offer any explanation on any of the team’s woes, let alone go as far as to simply and humbly make a much-needed apology — and a hearfelt one at that — to the loyal Browns fans who love this team and have had to watch this nonsense play out this season, and, forget the whole expansion era, but also for specifically the entire time since Stefanski and Berry arrived. I’m sorry, but making the playoffs just twice im the last five seasons, with no AFC North titles and only one postseason victory, is not, in any rational way, a successful stretch. Rather, it is a mediocre one.

So, then, how can Berry ignore all that and act as if it’s not a big issue, and if it is, then he is above it all — above the fray, as it were. No, you’re not. You’re the GM and you put the team together, so this disaster is mostly on your shoulders. This is like “Titanic,“ where the ship was sinking and the band played on.

And finally, if you watched the thrilling game — or saw the highlights from it — as the Baltimore Ravens rallied from a two-touchdown halftime deficit and then held on to edge the Cincinnati Bengals 36-35 on Thursday Night Football, then you know how far the Browns are behind those two division rivals on a consistent basis when it comes to the quarterback position. The Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and the Bengals’ Joe Burrow were absolutely sensational — yet again.

The Browns? They have veritable plough horses trying to race against thoroughbreds.

Steve King