It could be that Browns special teams coordinator Chris Tabor, or defensive coordinator Ray Horton, or perhaps both, will be fired in the next several days.
Head coach Hue Jackson was asked at the team’s season-ending press conference on Monday about possible changes to his coaching staff. But instead of dismissing those chances and saying he wants to keep things intact heading into the offseason so as to establish some coaching consistency on a team that has sorely lacked it in the past, he said it was his job as the staff’s leader to evaluate things to see if improvements could be made.
That’s ominous-sounding. It is certainly not a vote of confidence for anyone, perhaps other than associate head coach/offense Pep Hamilton, running game coordinator Kirby Wilson and senior offensive assistant Al Saunders, all of whom seem to be in Jackson’s inner circle and would appear to be safe.
There just seems to be some uneasiness between Jackson and Tabor and Horton, both of whose units had their struggles this year.
Jackson brought in Horton, who is in his second tour of duty with the Browns, but he inherited Tabor. This was Tabor’s sixth season with Cleveland, and his groups have been god-awful in each and every year. It bordered on being unwatchable t his season.
If the special teams had been just a little better, it would have bought the Browns some time in allowing them to be more competitive in flipping field position until their offense and defense can develop.
It could be that Jackson will instead make changes among his lower-level assistants, but I just suspect it will be more high-profile than that. And if I had to choose between Horton, who I think is a fine coach and will do better next season with better players, and Tabor, who, as mentioned, has a horrible track record over a reasonably long period of time, it would definitely be Tabor. This is the fourth Browns head coach he has worked for, and every time there was a change, from Pat Shurmur to Rob Chudzinski to Mike Pettine to Jackson, he has somehow survived the inevitable housecleaning that takes place when that happens. But his luck may have run out.
We’ll just have to wait and see. It shouldn’t be long. If something’s going to happen, it will be soon.
