BEREA, Ohio -- The Cleveland Browns have made plenty of moves in the front office and coaching staff under the ownership of Dee and Jimmy Haslam, and those winds of change blew through team headquarters in Berea once again Thursday.
The Browns parted ways with Sashi Brown, their former executive vice president of football operations, but retained coach Hue Jackson for at least the 2018 season. And in Jackson’s opinion, for the Browns to turn around their fortunes, the coaching staff and front office must be on the same page when it comes to building the team.
“I think the most important part is the alignment,” Jackson said in his Thursday press conference. “I think Jimmy is totally doing that and trying to make sure that is what is first and foremost. Again, I think you would really have to ask him exactly how he sees it, but I know one thing that he really, truly wants is collaboration, people working together -- not that anybody wasn’t.”
With their 12th consecutive loss of the 2017 season at the Los Angeles Chargers last week, the Browns dropped to 1-27 since the front-office regime of Brown and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta took control of the organization and hired Jackson as their coach in early January of 2016.
The Browns have not won on a Sunday afternoon since December 13, 2015. The 29 straight Sunday losses are an NFL record, and their 4-45 mark in the last 49 outings is the worst in the league in that four-year span.
Additionally, the Browns’ 1-27 mark is the worst in league history over a 28-game stretch, beating the previous mark of 2-26 set by the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 1976-1977 seasons.
“The record is still the record, but I think that is what we are striving for,” Jackson said. “We want people to want to be here and do it for a long time. At the same time -- I’m going to say it again -- this is a performance-based business. I get it.
“My performance, if you measure it by wins and losses, is not very good. At the same time, I am in charge of coaching this team and trying to do the best I can with what I have. That is where we are. I think what it is going to take is for us to continue to work in a process that aligns us together, that gives us an opportunity to continue to move forward to be the best version of this organization that we can be as we start towards 2018.”
Although Jackson denied wanting full control over the 53-man roster, he did express an interest in taking part in the search for the Browns’ next new top executive, which turned out to be a quick one, as the team hired former Kansas City Chiefs GM John Dorsey for the same position Thursday night.
“I just want whoever that person is going to be to be somebody that understands the vision, exactly what we are trying to accomplish and what we want to accomplish here,” Jackson said.
