If the last two decades were a testament to the idea, this year's team has found a way to add an overwhelming amount of favorable evidence. They entered their Week 9 contest against the Kansas City Chiefs without their head coach and offensive coordinator. Their former coach is on a bizarre media tour unlike anything we've ever seen before. They've amassed a 2-6-1 record which has been simultaneously promising and damning. Their interim head coach went viral this summer for needing a lozenge, which would be a lot more hilarious if he wasn't the same man who placed bounties on NFL quarterbacks earlier this decade. Their kicking situation has been so dire the team's owner bought a soccer team in the state to find a suitable replacement.
Despite all the carnage, the team may finally have an answer to their quarterback woes in Baker Mayfield. It hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows, but he's made Browns football fun again. After this past week, however, the team's mission the rest of the way should be avoiding any and all serious injuries. There's always next year in Cleveland sports, and the promise of next year could be tantalizing if the Browns hire the right head coach.
Whoever follows Hue Jackson will not have big shoes to fill. Whether it was Jackson, Mike Pettine, Rob Chudzinski, Terry Rogers, Chris Palmer, or Barry Mendelssohn (Two of those guys are made up. Can you identify them? I wrote the damn article and I needed several seconds when I proofread this to remember the answer), this has been a troubling trend the past two decades. The rumor mill has already been cranked up and everybody who is anybody will likely see their name surface in the next two to three months.
Cleveland may poach Mayfield's college coach, Lincoln Riley, from Oklahoma. When Aaron Rodgers inevitably jettisons Mike McCarthy from Green Bay at the end of the year, there may be a Super Bowl winning coach available on the market. The Browns may target one of the promising assistants under wunderkind Sean McVay or offer seven first round picks in a trade for the man himself. Bruce Arians has already expressed a desire to come out of retirement. All of these names would at the very least be intriguing. For the first time in a long time, the job may be appealing enough to attract a noteworthy candidate.
But I hope one name comes calling for the job: Nick Saban.
But I hope one name comes calling for the job: Nick Saban.
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That's right. Bill Belichick's defensive coordinator during his stint with Cleveland in the 1990s needs to come home. Journalists and bloggers have written ad nauseam about Saban's success at Alabama. He's currently in the midst of his most dominant season to date. Coming into this season, Saban had mastered every requirement to build a juggernaut program short of finding an elite quarterback and a reliable kicker. Tua Tagovailoa, a rich man's Tom Brady, crossed the first task off the list. The result? Alabama is throttling every opponent this fall. The latter is an oxymoron at the collegiate level, so this is literally as good as it gets.
Nick Saban could stay at Alabama where he gets an official bye week before playing LSU every year, essentially another bye week before playing Auburn every year, and for all intents and purposes a third bye week when he plays Tennessee every year. He could continue spending his summers at his $11 million lake house in Georgia reminiscing on a season of blowout wins. He could continue his hysterical tirades on the sideline at third stringers when his team is up 46 points in the 4th quarter. I fully expect him to opt for this lifestyle for a few more years because it's equally monotonous and lucrative. Saban will pad his stats before he firmly cements himself as the greatest college football coach of all time, if he hasn't already.
But if this football genius, meticulous craftsman, and leader of men wants to erase the biggest stain on his legacy, he's about to have the perfect opportunity in 2019. Nick Saban can come to Cleveland where he plays six games a season against the gritty and grueling AFC North. He can spend his summer molding one of the most promising crops of young pass rushers in the NFL. He can groom the sport's next star quarterback equally obsessed with attention to detail. He can stop beating up on his own hapless former coordinators scattered across the southeast and take a shot at his former mentor and the second best quarterback in the history of football (Cleveland at New England is on the schedule for 2019. Imagine the story lines. The world needs this narrative instead of desperate and ungrounded rationalizations to hype up LSU's chances of beating Alabama for the millionth year in a row).
Nick Saban's success at the collegiate level is unprecedented. He could remain in Tuscaloosa for another decade and go on a run that would rival John Wooden. Achieving success in the pros is a whole different animal, though. The fact remain Nick Saban had about as much success as Trent Richardson during his first crack at the NFL. Does this, like the rat poison he laments all the time, keep Saban up at night?
It would if I was Nick Saban. But then again, I'm not a coward.
J. Nave
Nick Saban's success at the collegiate level is unprecedented. He could remain in Tuscaloosa for another decade and go on a run that would rival John Wooden. Achieving success in the pros is a whole different animal, though. The fact remain Nick Saban had about as much success as Trent Richardson during his first crack at the NFL. Does this, like the rat poison he laments all the time, keep Saban up at night?
It would if I was Nick Saban. But then again, I'm not a coward.
J. Nave
