It’s called the NFL coaching carousel for a reason, because you never know when a job may come around again, and who might get a chance to fill it. That is currently the case with the Cleveland Browns, who may have renewed interest in a long-ago candidate they likely did not expect to be available this time.
The Buffalo Bills reacted to their latest heartbreaking playoff elimination by firing head coach Sean McDermott. Earlier in this cycle, the Browns fired Kevin Stefanski after a second consecutive woeful season.
Now, in the midst of Cleveland’s current search, a wild backstory has emerged about McDermott and the Browns, and how they were linked before the team ultimately hired Hue Jackson a decade ago.
“It wouldn’t be surprising for the Browns to call about McDermott. They interviewed him for their head coach vacancy in 2016 when they ultimately settled on Hue Jackson, who was fired midway through the 2018 season with a 3-36-1 record. Former Browns Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, former GM Sashi Brown (now [Baltimore] Ravens president) and Andrew Berry, then-Browns vice president of player personnel and GM, preferred McDermott. But Browns ownership, led by Jimmy Haslam, favored Jackson,” Mary Kay Cabot wrote.
At the time, McDermott was the defensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers, while Jackson was the offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati Bengals. Coming off two failed seasons under head coach Mike Pettine, a former defensive coordinator, the Browns chose the other side of the ball when making the hire to replace him.
It did not work out as hoped, and Jackson didn’t make it through his third season. Meanwhile, McDermott returned to his Carolina job for another year before being hired as Buffalo’s head coach for the 2017 season.
Since then, the two franchises have taken divergent paths. Under McDermott, the Bills, who would draft quarterback Josh Allen, made the playoffs seven straight years, won the AFC East five consecutive times, and appeared in two AFC Championship Games. Yet their failure to get back to the Super Bowl may have cost him his job.
The Browns, on the other hand, suffered through one season of Freddie Kitchens before replacing him with Kevin Stefanski. Though they did make the playoffs twice in his six seasons, another change became necessary.
Now, Berry may be in a position to right that earlier wrong and hire a head coach who may have already banked a long playoff streak and multiple division titles in Cleveland, had things gone differently.
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