NO NEWS REALLY IS GOOD NEWS

By STEVE KING

There are times when nothing is something – even something good.

Such was the case with Browns General Manager John Dorsey’s season-ending press conference on Monday.

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Not surprisingly, nearly every question posed to him was about the club’s head-coaching search. And not surprisingly, all of his answers had absolutely no substance. Dorsey didn’t play it just close to the vest. He played it underneath the vest – inside the vest.

He did the same thing last spring when he was scouting quarterbacks to take with the team’s No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. No one knew what he was thinking, which way he was going. As it turned out, he shocked a lot of people when he selected Baker Mayfield, and that worked out pretty well, wouldn’t you say?

So, then, when Dorsey is again unwilling to give any clues as to where his coaching search is going, just as he gave no clues as to where his quarterback search was going eight to nine months ago, Browns fans have to be both encouraged and totally OK with letting him do his thing.

It makes no sense for Dorsey to try to win the press conference at the end of the season by not really spilling his guts, but simply by giving enough clues to make for a good story. The goal – for it’s what all the good teams do in these situations – is for the GM to quietly go about his business, make the choice that he wants and then win the presser sometime during the season when the success of the coach warrants it.  A GM wants to win the presser then. It’s the only time he wants to win it.

I spoke at length Monday just hours after the presser with longtime – and outstanding — Canton Repository Browns beat writer Steve Doerschuk. We spent most of the time talking about the coaching search. We discussed it from every angle, and we came to the conclusion that we have absolutely no idea what Dorsey is going to go – we have no idea who the next Browns coach will be.

Beat writers are like detectives in these coaching searches in that they look for any shred of evidence – even the tiniest shred – so as to provide some clues. But there are no clues because there is no evidence.

Yup, I know where you’re going, Steve King and Steve Doerschuk are truly … well, clueless in this regard. But so are all the other people covering the Browns.

And you know what? For the sake of the Browns and this coaching search, that’s a great thing. It really is.