The Cleveland Browns have a long and passionate history, though there hasn’t been as much winning in that history as most would have hoped for.
When there isn’t enough winning, coaches take the brunt of the blame for it, which is why a stunning six former Browns coaches have recently been ranked among some of the worst hires in NFL history.
Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports recently decided to fill some of the downtime in the dead portion of the NFL calendar by highlighting the 25 worst coaching hires this century, and the Browns, unfortunately, have six of them.
He highlighted the brutal 2005-2015 stretch that saw Cleveland consecutively hire Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini, Pat Shurmur, Rob Chudzinski, and Mike Pettine before also including Hue Jackson, who went 3-36-1 as head coach in Cleveland.
“Sorry, but this particular stretch of failure deserves special billing. These were the five men to consecutively lead the Browns from 2005-2015, averaging 2.2 seasons apiece. They combined to go 57-119, with zero playoff appearances. They are a prime introduction to the notion that organizational failure is just that: organizational. There are some decent and respected men here, but none of them could fully escape the tumultuous trappings of leading Cleveland’s football team. They can take solace knowing they’re recognized together,” Benjamin wrote.
It’s nice that Benjamin didn’t place all the blame on those first five coaches because it truly was an organizational failure that those teams were as bad as they were.
Cleveland never drafted well and never had an adequate franchise quarterback, so even Bill Belichick or Andy Reid likely would have failed leading those squads.
Hue Jackson was much worse, as 3-36-1 speaks for itself, and his falling out with Baker Mayfield set the franchise back years and he played a role in this team moving on from the only legitimate franchise quarterback it has had in a long time.
This all hurts for Browns fans to reminisce about, but they can take solace in the fact that they have a two-time Coach of the Year in Kevin Stefanski running things now.
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