Cleveland Browns: 5 biggest in-season mistakes entering Bye Week

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Cleveland Browns Hue Jackson (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /

The Cleveland Browns haven’t been shy about making news in 2018. These are the five biggest mistakes from the first 10 weeks of the season.

The Cleveland Browns go into the Bye Week on a positive note, with an upset of the Atlanta Falcons to hang their helmets on.

But a lot’s happened on the road to 3-6-1. The Browns finally won a game, yet the embarrassment that is a road losing streak that’s been in place since 2015 still torments the organization.

Cleveland’s also benched their starting quarterback, traded their No. 1 wideout from Week 1, dealt the starting running back, promoted rookie No. 1 pick Baker Mayfield to starter in Week 4 and then fired their head coach and offensive coordinator.

And there’s still six weeks to go!

The playoffs aren’t in these Browns’ futures, but they’re certainly never going to leave you bored.

Here’s the five biggest mistakes this team’s committed during the 2018 campaign heading into the Bye Week.

1.Going into the season with Hue

Jimmy and Dee Haslam correctly recognized Hue Jackson wasn’t given much of a shot in his first two years as head coach.

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His rosters were stripped down to the studs and he was asked to win with too many young players.

The result was a 1-31 record.

No one would’ve blamed ownership for parting ways with Jackson, but the Haslams decided to buck the trend of having a quick trigger finger, by firing coaches too soon.

Jackson returned and with him, the gray cloud of losing that’s hung over the franchise for close to 20 years stayed in place as the Browns still weren’t able to win, even as new GM John Dorsey delivered his coach better players.

The Week 1 tie to the Steelers felt like a loss, and then there was the Saints. New Orleans look poised to make a run at the Super Bowl, yet Cleveland played with Drew Brees, Michael Thomas and company. There’s nothing Jackson could do about it, but if his kicker had made kicks, the Browns win that game.

The Browns went on to lose a heartbreaker in Oakland, and then another in Tampa.

Cleveland was good enough to win. Any given Sunday, right? Yet under Jackson, it wasn’t happening.

Now the Browns face a dilemma Browns fans have seen before.

What happens if Gregg Williams wins games? What happens if Freddie Kitchens bonds with Baker Mayfield and the offense continues to roll?

Ownership and the front office is putting itself in the crosshairs of the media and the fan base yet again, because of gone-awry decision making.

If the new coach comes in and falls on his face. Go ahead and press the DEFCON-5 button. We’ll all be screaming how Kitchens shouldn’t have been let go, while remembering how all of this could’ve been avoided had the Browns just started with a clean slate at head coach to start the 2019 campaign.

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