Thursday was a day for addition by subtraction for the Browns.
It came when special teams coordinator Chris Tabor left to take the same job with the Chicago Bears.
Hooray!
Whoopee!
Yahoo!
Woohoo!
The Browns immediately got better as Tabor walked out the door.
It doesn’t matter who heads coach Hue Jackson hires to replace him. The new coach can’t be any worse. He just can’t.
Tabor was, by far, the worst special teams coach in Browns history, both the original franchise and this re-born.
Nobody else comes even close.
Even in this expansion era, which has been otherwise incredibly dreadful, the Browns have had some good to outstanding special teams coaches. And these men have gotten their guys to play well so as to be a compliment – or, as it, were, a counter-balance – to offenses and defenses that were pretty bad. The Browns of those seasons stayed in games simply because of their special teams.
Phil Dawson is the best kicker the Browns have ever had. Yes, even better than Pro Football Hall of Famer Lou Groza, who could be called “The Father of Modern Kicking” for the way his excellence drew attention to the importance of special teams.
Dave Zastudil and Chris Gardocki were tremendous punters.
The two Ryans – Kuehl and Pontbriand – were the two best long snappers the Browns have ever had.
And the returners? Have you ever heard a man by the name of Joshua Cribbs.
But there has been none of that since Tabor arrived in 2011. The quality of special teams play nosedived right asway, so much so that although he would never say it, I’m betting that Jackson allowed Tabor to leave so he wouldn’t have the stigma of getting fired. Jackson did what he could to defend Tabor in his press conferences the last two season, but it was obvious that for the Browns to get better overall, one of the things that had to happen was for their special teams to get better.
And now they will.
