Chuck Wagon

Syracuse was 29th in passing and 17th in offense in Doug's final year there with a QB who was drafted fairly high and a left tackle who went in the 1st round. That doesn't exactly stand out as innovative or cutting edge. Chip Kelly nearly made stars out of Nick Foles and Riley Cooper, no one is confusing them with Andrew Luck and Dez Bryant anytime soon. A good coach is able to work with what he's given, a bad coach throws is hands up and says "the players aren't capable". Mike Singletary famously declared he couldn't win with the same players Jim Harbaugh took to 3 straight NFC title games. Mike Singletary likely isn't getting another head coaching job anytime soon while Harbaugh was hired instantly after things turned south in San Fran. Which one does Marrone sound more like? I refuse to believe running Spiller up the middle or using Sammy as a blocker on a screen for Chris Hogan or Fred Jackson is the best use of a player's talent. St. Doug is inflexible and far from innovative, sitting in the same room while Sean Payton and Drew Brees worked doesn't make someone a genius.

Bolstered the line like take Kouandjio in the 2nd round then bench him all year?

Why sell results when hope sells out?

On top of that, look at the last handful of drafts. The first round is almost exclusively QBs, LTs, Pass Rushers, WRs & CBs. We aren't in the market for any of those beyond QB and the top 2 are going to be long gone by 19. Very good guards and TEs are always available in rounds 2 & 3.

Remember when the Browns traded Julio Jones for Brandon Weeden, Greg Little, Phil Taylor, Owen Marecic and a pick they used to move up from 4th to 3rd to make sure no one could get Trent Richardson? And every Browns fan said "Awesome deal, we really ripped them off". Why do I have a feeling the Sammy trade is going to end up looking very similar?

Tons

Don't you love when guys argue about clear outliers? On top of it, Romo came from a small nowhere college in a different scouting age (where does Garopollo get picked a decade ago?), Brady was a part timer his entire college career and Wilson clearly would have been a no doubt 1st round pick if he were 6'2".

Woody rushing to the media the second Doug opted out is not a good look. If Doug left the building on Wednesday with everyone believing he would be back and suddenly at the final hour of the clause he decided he was opting out only to have Woody's comments hit the media immediately thereafter the damage is done and you had better believe the charge is coming, regardless of them interviewing everyone and their mother. I hope the hire him and we charge them. Him taking that job and immediately losing the 6th pick in the draft would be pretty fantastic.

It seems pretty clear from all the evidence he quit because his agent supposedly had the Jets job lined up and Doug would be able to double dip on his salary (not a bad business move by any means, just questionable on the ethical front). It appears now either his reputation has scared the Jets away or they are afraid of a tampering charge, especially considering the Pats-Revis incident and the rumor about having an extension in place. Any "the media made him quit" or "he was afraid about not having a QB or a 1st round pick" is bs spin from either side.

I really hope he has to take the Browns OC job. Getting his future hitched to Johnny Football would be amazing.

The problem with Marrone in NY is no GM. Casserly said it would be ideal to have a GM in place before hiring a coach, but not a deal breaker. I imagine given his rep, hiring Marrone may have a severe impact on the pool of GM candidates interested in the job.

Exactly. The guy is an exotistical maniac who thought he should have the same power as a guy like Belichick despite posting no real results. He failed to develop the QB he was given (and likely had more than a little input in choosing) and skipped town with a full paycheck under the belief everyone would rush over themselves to hire him. If the media is really the reason the guy is clearly clueless as to what comes along with being a NFL coach. Either he's a quitter who is only looking to cash in on a better opportunity or he's much too thin skinned and clueless for the job in the first place, regardless we are better off without him.

If our braintrust interviews nearly 20 candidates and comes out with a worse candidate than the offensive guru who can't put points on the board and punts on 4th & 1 with the season on the line while alienating everyone involved, then we can officially give up hope and move on to more productive things with our lives.

The Browns beat reporters are notorious shills for the franchise, probably the worst in the league. In return for "access" they print whatever the franchise wants their message to be. On top of that, I imagine I'd be difficult to work with if I had the owner's voice in my headset telling me what play to run as well.

I wouldn't be opposed to Hoyer, so long as he knows it's no guaranteed starting job. I think he'd be a good guy to have in the QB room, he's guy who gets being a pro, just doesn't have the physical tools to pull off being a 16 game starter. EJ, Hoyer and a developmental prospect from rounds 3-5 would certainly be better than what we had in house 2 years ago.

Shortly thereafter. I grew up in a small town, there wasn't a lot to do.

I think a pretty decent argument could be made for the Browns having the least offensive talent in the league. Thomas, Mack and Bitonio are nice pieces, but Gordon & Cameron missed a lot of time and though Crowell and Hawkins are decent bit players there's not much else to speak of there.

Fair enough, but after their current string of appearances their goal is at least win a playoff game, not just show up and get drilled by Andrew Luck. Which is basically my point. When you don't have a QB there's not much difference between 6-10 and 9-7, both leave you picking between second tier prospects. There's been one common theme in each year of our "streak". Our goal should be "find a QB" and then everything else will naturally fall into place. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with our season, but like I mentioned the reasons are actually posting a winning record and shoving it in Browns' fans faces. String together a bunch of 9-7 seasons that end in week 17 and those feelings disappear pretty quickly. Ask Bengals fans how they feel about their team right about now.

All I remember is not playing Flutie, Johnson completing a pass without a shoe, Christie's kick and the forward lateral. Like I said, I was 16 then, the rest of high school and college killed a lot of non essential brain cells.

That's my biggest problem with our current mindset. Pats, Broncos, Colts, Bengals, Steelers, Ravens fans don't talk about the goal of making the playoffs. They talk about the goal of winning the Super Bowl. Until we stop thinking about "what do we need to do to make the playoffs" and start thinking about "what do we need to do to win the Super Bowl" (and until we have a QB) it's all just masturbation. This year felt nice to finish above .500 and lower the Browns' pick to the next to lowest non playoff pick after all their gloating about a sure top 10 pick, but realistically I don't see any difference between 6-10 and 9-7 other than the Vikings, Lions & Bears games went our way when they very easily could have gone the other way.

Rex is my top choice. I'd love to see what Rex and Schwartz could cook up together with our defensive talent. If we hire him, I believe we'll make the playoffs this year. I think he would go at least 4-2 in the division (Jets twice, Pats and Dolphins once), if we take care of business vs the Titans, Jags and Deadskins then we are looking at just needing to be 3-4 vs the Colts/Texans/Chiefs/Eagles/Cowboys/Giants/Bengals to finish 10-6. For all the talk about needing an offensive coach, I don't know if anyone can work a miracle with our current offensive situation. I believe we need a coach who values winning games by playing defense and building a strong running game. I'm a firm believer in QBs making offenses/coaching gurus, not the other way around. I haven't given up on EJ being a passable QB, but I don't think any coach is going to turn him into Brady / Manning / Luck / Rodgers.

I was 16 then. Two games from that period stand out vividly: Kelly & Marv's last game against Jacksonville, when Natrone Means tore us apart (I was at my grandmother's house, I remember my uncles teasing me mercilessly just to be mean, they weren't big football fans) and the Titans game (I remember Rob Johnson leading the go ahead drive and completing a pass without a shoe on). Ugh.

As far as I can tell he's wondering if we'd be ok trading our entire draft for RGIII, Bradford or Cutler.

That's the game. No one has won anything despite the QB since the Dilfer Ravens and the way the league is continuing to change the rules that's not going to happen anytime soon. Even a lesser QB that's won like Flacco won because the Ravens decided to just cut it lose and allow him to throw bombs.

This situation reminds me a lot of what Alex Smith said about when he first came into the league. He was coached to avoid turnovers at all costs and it got into his head, he was suddenly thinking about everything and paranoid to screw something up instead of trusting his instincts and cutting it lose. He said he realized if he kept playing that way he would be out of the league very soon and decided he would go out on his own terms playing his game. Marrone and Hacket's coaching seemed to take away any of EJ's instincts, instead he's worried about his feet being in the right place and just sailing the ball out of bounds instead of risking making a play. We need someone smart enough and ballsy enough to risk letting EJ be EJ.