It’s January, and this means two things are certain in Cleveland. One, it’s probably freezing outside. Two, the Cleveland Browns are in the middle of a coaching search.
Sure enough, both of these are true, as the Browns find themselves knee-deep in yet another mission to fill a coaching vacancy. This time, the team has decided to add some intrigue to its hunt. Now, outside of the fact potential candidates have to be convinced to join a Browns team known league-wide as a laughing stock, Cleveland’s front office is also looking for someone willing to jump on board with its new analytics-driven strategy.
In promoting Sashi Brown and hiring Paul DePodesta, the Browns are now looking to be the team which makes analytics work in the NFL. In order to do so, they’ll need a coach who both supports it and is willing to work with it.
Because of this, there are certain candidates the team has interviewed or at least plans on interviewing which may stick out as great fits. One candidate I feel is the exact opposite of this interviewed with the team yesterday.
Cleveland conducted an interview with current Jacksonville Jaguars line coach Doug Marrone on Thursday, and my hope is it went poorly. Quite honestly, he sure sounds like the wrong person to hire if the Browns want to finally start making progress.
For one, Marrone’s reputation in the NFL isn’t exactly the best.
Before landing in Jacksonville, he was head coach of the Buffalo Bills. Though the team showed progress during his tenure, his clashes with the front office were both intense and frequent.
If you ask me, I highly doubt the Browns want to force a brand new planning and game strategy on someone who has a known history of butting heads with his bosses. Even if Marrone spent his entire interview claiming he’d be 100 percent on board with utilizing this new strategy, his reputation of not always seeing eye-to-eye with management should give Cleveland’s front office pause.
Additionally, it goes without saying the way Marrone left the Bills is less than flattering. He essentially quit on the team once he realized he’d be paid $4 million by Buffalo even if he left, leaving many players in the Bills locker room more than a little furious. As it stands, such an exit certainly paints Marrone in an unflattering light.
So unflattering, in fact, that Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer believes Browns players would need to be sold on the concept of working with Marrone if he ends up getting hired. Since Cleveland is a team already dealing with a difficult task of getting players to stay and convincing free agents to join in, the last thing it needs is a coach people already don’t want to play for.
To summarize, in Marrone we have a coach known for not playing nice with the front office, who quit his last head coaching job when he found a loophole in his contract and who will force the Browns to try and persuade their own players to work with him.
All due respect to Marrone, but it certainly sounds like Cleveland needs to avoid hiring him. What the team is trying to do is bold, and it’ll need everyone joining in to be fully committed. Marrone certainly seems like someone who could rock the boat, and the Browns simply can’t afford this.
Even though Cleveland is trying to change the game with analytics, there are still quality coaching candidates available to hire. Unfortunately, Marrone doesn’t seem like one of them, and the Browns would be best to cross his name off the list.
