Cleveland Browns: 5 things owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam should do now

With more talent on the roster than at any other point since buying the team, it’s time for Cleveland Browns owners Jimmy & Dee Haslam to take the necessary steps to ensure success.

With very little to show for their years as owners of the Browns and having personified the definition of insanity time & again since buying the team from Randy Lerner, maybe it’s time for the Haslams to try some different things. We can think of five great ideas right off the bat:

Sell the team

From a strict business transaction standpoint, Jimmy & Dee Haslam would likely more than double their original $1 billion dollar investment in the Browns, so nobody’s suggesting that they should take a financial hit by selling the franchise.

As the new owners of the Columbus Crew of Major League Soccer, the Haslams wouldn’t even have to get out of the pro sports business by selling the Browns. With the Crew, they’d get a clean slate and be able to focus their energies on finding their niche in the MLS.

Fire Paul DePodesta

Even if we give DePodesta a modicum of credit for his influence on Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s through his championing of sabermetrics, aka analytics, one only need take a look at the A’s success since he left to conclude that he wasn’t the driving force behind the team’s wins and losses. In the 20 seasons since DePodesta’s departure from Oakland, the franchise has made 10 postseason appearances.

Avoid the temptation to hire Andrew Berry as General Manager

We get it, he’s a nice young man. And the Haslams like him. He’s a Harvard grad too, which is impressive, but so are Conan O’Brien and Natalie Portman and we wouldn’t want to put them in charge of the Browns’ roster either, would we?

Not that anyone’s memory needs refreshing, but the same Andrew Berry was a key component in the Sashi Brown-led effort that resulted in a 0-16 record in 2017. Did he suddenly become a personnel savant during his one season in Philadelphia?

Reassign the son-in-law

First, it was Jimmy Haslam who was the face of the Cleveland Browns, then it became a joint effort between Jimmy & Dee, now we have the triumvirate of Jimmy & Dee Haslam and their son-in-law  JW Johnson leading the charge towards mediocrity. Stop the madness, please!

Sell the team

The sentiment’s so nice, we said it twice! And we mean it. Not as a personal attack on Jimmy & Dee Haslam, but as a practical matter. They seem like lovely, caring people who are not only financially invested in the Browns, but personally as well. Unfortunately, none of their equity, monetary or sweat, has given fans one iota of hope for the ultimate success of the team.

The Haslams profess to care about fans of the Cleveland Browns. While we don’t doubt that, there’s one surefire way to prove it. Sell the franchise.