The Browns parted ways their head coach this week. They did the same with their offensive coordinator and shuffled several members of their coaching staff. The Browns have done that before, too, but they haven't done it midseason since Terry Robiskie took over for six games in 2004. The Browns say this time is different, though. While past coaches were let go as part of a rebuilding process, the Browns believe they made these moves to re-energize a roster they believe has enough talent to win now. "I do not think that we are giving up," Bitonio said. "I think this is a step to improve the team." John Dorsey and owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam took that step around 9 a.m. Monday morning, or as soon as special teams meetings concluded. Bitonio said players learned of the news via their phones and locker room TVs. For some, such as Bitonio and linebacker Christian Kirksey, who are poised to play for their third coach in five years, Monday's news was unfortunately familiar. For others, such as Baker Mayfield and Kevin Zeitler, who have never been on a team where the coach was fired, it was foreign territory. "New experience," Zeitler said. "It is the first time it has ever happened to me, and just a challenge. We have to work through it." The challenge is even steeper for Mayfield, who's experiencing his first coaching change during his first NFL season. He sees the change as more of a test of character than a statement of chaos, though. "With all the distractions, we will see what kind of men we have in this room," Mayfield said. "Not what kind of team that we have, but what kind of men can handle a distraction the right way – can come together and focus on doing their job and doing it at a high level against a great team coming Sunday." The Browns host the Chiefs — the best team in the AFC — on Sunday. Few outside the walls in Berea will give the Browns much of a chance, given all the recent change and the team's recent performance. Bitonio would say those people are watching from the wrong viewpoint.<doc-sep>Hue Jackson publicly pledged four times to eventually win a Super Bowl with the Browns. He didn't even win four games. Owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam finally gave many disgruntled Browns fans what they wanted by firing Jackson on Monday, less than 24 hours after the Browns fell 33-18 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the eighth game of the season Sunday at Heinz Field. Now none of them will need to listen to Jackson talk the talk, only to watch him repeatedly stumble while trying to walk the walk. The Browns also fired offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who clashed with Jackson. The writing was on the wall for the franchise to make significant changes, yet ousting Jackson and Haley on the same day is a surprise. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams will serve as the Browns' interim head coach and running backs coach/associate head coach Freddie Kitchens will become the offensive coordinator. The Haslams are looking for their fifth full-time head coach since they bought the Browns in 2012. The difference this time is General Manager John Dorsey, hired in December to replace Sashi Brown, will be guiding the search. Dorsey and Jimmy Haslam will hold a news conference at Browns headquarters in Berea at 4:30 p.m. Monday. Jackson earned a record of 3-36-1 in two and a half seasons with the Browns. With a record of 1-31 during the 2016-17 seasons, Jackson had the fewest wins by any coach in NFL history in his first 32 games with one team, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Despite Dorsey significantly upgrading the talent and leadership on the roster in the offseason, the Browns could only muster a record of 2-5-1 midway through in their third season under Jackson. "We greatly appreciate Hue's commitment to the Cleveland Browns organization over the last two and a half years," the Haslams said in a prepared statement. "We understand how critical this time period is in the development of our football team, individually and collectively, and believed it was in the organization's best interest to make the move at this time, in order to maximize our opportunities the rest of this season. We certainly only wish Hue, [his wife] Michelle, and his family the best moving forward." The Browns are on a three-game losing streak after falling to the Steelers. The last six Browns coaches, including Jackson, have been fired after their second meeting of the season against the Steelers. They'll have a chance to rebound in the final eight games under Williams, a longtime NFL defensive coordinator who has been with the Browns for a season and a half. Williams went 17-31 in three seasons (2001-03) as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. As for Kitchens, he has never been an offensive coordinator before. Forcing Dorsey to enter the 2018 season paired with Jackson defied logic, but the Haslams did it anyway. They essentially gave Jackson a mulligan for records of 1-15 and 0-16 the past two years and placed the blame for the historic losing largely on Brown, their former head of football operations. Brown and chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta tore the roster down to the studs in a radical, analytics-driven rebuilding project. They purged the roster of veterans and passed on quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Deshaun Watson while trading down in the 2016 and 2017 drafts to stockpile selections. Even Dorsey defended Jackson to that end. In a radio interview a week after he was hired on Dec. 7, Dorsey said Brown "didn’t get real players" to help the coach succeed. But Jackson certainly contributed to the franchise's ineptitude with his fair share of puzzling in-game decisions. The Haslams hired Jackson as the 16th full-time head coach in franchise history on Jan. 13, 2016. He came to them on the heels of two successful seasons as the offensive coordinator of the Cincinnati Bengals and with previous head-coaching experience, having gone 8-8 with the Oakland Raiders in 2011. But Jackson didn't hired an offensive coordinator in his first two seasons with the Browns and struggled mightily to juggle play-calling duties with his game-management responsibilities. After the Browns joined the 2008 Detroit Lions as the only NFL teams to finish a 16-game schedule without a victory, Jackson hired Haley as offensive coordinator. Jackson ceded his play-calling authority to Haley, who spent the previous six seasons with the Steelers but didn't have his contract renewed in January. Friction developed between Jackson and Haley, though. The most significant controversy unfolded on Oct. 21 immediately following the Browns' 26-23 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Angered by the offense failing to produce points in the first half and extra period, Jackson vowed to dive into the offense in an effort to correct the issues. NFL Network reported Sunday morning Haley could be fired soon if the disconnect between him and Jackson wasn't resolved. It turns out the Browns got rid of Jackson and Haley instead of choosing one over the other. Although Jackson arrived in Cleveland with a reputation for being "a quarterback whisperer," he failed to improve the position. The Browns picked promising rookie quarterback Baker Mayfield first overall in April, but it was Dorsey who coveted the former Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Oklahoma throughout the pre-draft process. In 2016, Jackson bought into Robert Griffin III, despite his extensive injury history, and told fans "trust me" about Brown's questionable decision to draft Cody Kessler in the third round. In 2017, Jackson mismanaged second-round selection DeShone Kizer by benching him three times in the first half of the season. Kizer wrapped up his rookie year by going 0-15 as a starter and leading the league with 22 interceptions. Brown released Griffin, and Dorsey traded Kessler and Kizer. It all led the Browns to seek their ninth full-time head coach since 1999. Potential candidates who have been connected to the vacancy by media include Oklahoma coach Lincoln Riley, who achieved great success with Mayfield, Iowa State coach Matt Campbell and Kansas City Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub. On Monday, a reporter told Riley he's been linked to the Browns' job and asked the coach if he has any interest in going to the NFL. "Not right now," Riley replied during a news conference. "You sit here and answer these questions, and I always want to be truthful. The truth is for me is I love Oklahoma. I love coaching here. I love college football. I certainly don't have that itch right now. I don't know that I ever will. But I'm never going to be a guy that's going to stand up here and say no way, no how will any of these things ever happen. I don't know that. But I know right now I could care less about the NFL."<doc-sep>Photo : Joe Sargent ( Getty Images ) Failure that breeds dysfunction, which breeds potential coaching staff or front office changes. It might as well be the Cleveland Browns’ motto. That remains true even in a season in which the Browns are finally showing some signs of life. But Cleveland has lost three of its last four games, and the Hue Jackson-Todd Haley coaching arrangement has problems. Advertisement Per NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, the Browns are mulling a switch, which is what they do. But this one has a twist. One option has Jackson getting shitcanned, while another has Haley taking the fall. Per the report: The spotlight is usually on the head coach, especially one with a current Browns record of 3-35-1. And clearly, if the wins don’t come, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam, general manager John Dorsey and the brain trust have a decision to make on Jackson. But another option is to remove Haley. That would also be under consideration. Those involved have wondered when Jackson speaks, does Haley listen? Jackson has a woeful record, but is still in charge.﻿ Jackson added Haley to his staff this past offseason, and the two have seemingly been at odds from the start. Back in August, an episode of HBO’s Hard Knocks showed a heated argument between the two over the wisdom of resting players in practice. Haley’s choice to start Josh Gordon in Cleveland’s home opener after Jackson had said the receiver would begin the game on the bench was another source of tension. The most recent issue came after the Browns lost to the Buccaneers last Sunday in overtime. Jackson told reporters afterward that he felt the solution to fixing the team’s offense was to butt in a little. “I feel like I have to, and I want to [get more involved in the offense],” Jackson said. “That’s what I know, so I’m not going to continue to watch something that I know how to do keep being that way. That’s just the truth. That’s nothing against anybody in our building. I just think that’s what I do, and I think I need to be a little bit more involved.”﻿ Jackson would later clarify that he wasn’t going take any responsibilities away from Haley, who dismissed the comments as a heat-of-the-moment thing. But Haley also took a backhanded jab at Jackson as he said this: “This is an emotional game. It’s not for everyone,” he said. “Coaching in the NFL, especially being in that spot, is not for everyone. It’s a high-pressure, high-stress job, and we’ve just got to keep doing what we know is right.”﻿ Advertisement Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com reported that the comments didn’t go over well within the organization. Win or lose today against the Steelers, the situation is starting to seem intractable. Same shit, different year. The Browns just can’t help being the Browns.<doc-sep>
Dan Graziano reports that Browns DE Myles Garrett criticized the play-calling from defensive coordinator Gregg Williams after their 33-18 loss to the Steelers. (0:35) PITTSBURGH -- Tension on the Cleveland Browns' coaching staff could lead to changes, including the possible firing of offensive coordinator Todd Haley and/or head coach Hue Jackson, if the team continues to lose games, sources told ESPN. NFL Network was the first to report the possible moves, saying they are caused by dysfunction within the team on offense. Jackson and Haley have been at odds, and their respect for each other is not good enough for the team to be successful, a source said. The biggest concern for the team is that any ongoing drama between the two may affect or even impair the development of first overall draft pick Baker Mayfield. It's hard to know which way Browns ownership would lean if it had to choose between Jackson and Haley. What's certain, according to one source, is that any decision the team makes would be with Mayfield and his development as the highest priority. "It's hard to make the case that changing the offense six games into the quarterback's career is the best thing for him," an NFL source said. Winning would be the surest way to change the situation and stop the internal drama, but it's tough for a team to unite and win if in-fighting happens. After the Browns lost to the Bucs on Oct. 21, Jackson said that he had to be all-in to "help" solve offensive problems because that is his forte, but his comments were not received well by the team. Mayfield said the team needed to refine what it did and not "reinvent the wheel." Haley attributed Jackson's remarks to the emotion a coach feels after losing but did not mention Jackson once in his Thursday media gathering. "I don't even want to talk about or give legs to anything I said last week," Jackson said Sunday after a 33-18 loss to the Steelers. "I said what I said out of frustration. That's over and done with." When asked about his relationship with Haley, Jackson added, "There's nothing wrong with my relationship with Haley. "I said what I said last week and obviously it had legs, but I've never said I wanted to take over play-calling. I said I wanted to help. That's it. So today, now all of a sudden it's a big old thing. Sure, everybody's going to look and say, 'Well what's going on?' The only thing that's going on is we need to get better. We need to coach better. We need to get better." "I try not to pay attention to that stuff," Mayfield said of any tension between Haley and Jackson. "I'm invested in the game plan and invested in trying to learn and grow with some of these receivers, try to get the timing down, try and get the trust. That's above my pay grade. I'm not worried about that. "When it comes down to it, we come out here and we have to play the game to win." Owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam ultimately would be the ones to decide whether Haley is fired, and Jackson has not yet brought it up, the source said. The owners could side with Jackson or Haley, or let the situation play out and change staffs after the season. Jackson knows that his record from his first two seasons is 1-31, but he was given a third year with the team based on the belief that the problems with the first two seasons were more about personnel than coaching. There is thinking around the NFL that as the head coach, he takes the brunt of struggles, so if he's going to struggle, he might as well do things the way he wants. The hiring of John Dorsey as general manager late last season was supposed to ease the struggles, and Dorsey overhauled the roster -- especially with the additions of quarterbacks Tyrod Taylor via trade and Mayfield. But the Browns have lost two games in a row after a 2-2-1 start, and struggled with just three first downs in the first half against Tampa Bay. (Haley pointed out that the second half was much better.) Before Sunday's game against the Steelers, the Browns had scored a league-low eight points in the first quarter, and in three of four overtime periods they failed to get a first down against the Steelers, Raiders and Bucs.