At first I read that as “tainted players”. 
I’d figured on Odell Beckham* wanting out of Cleveland within two years, but the revelation that he’s been pleading with opposing players/coaches to get him out of there was just a mite unexpected.
*From yesterday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Beckham also admitted that he’s bottled up his frustration this season and “there’s definitely been a concerted effort by me just to keep myself in check.””
:D:D:smack::D:D
There’s no way they make the playoffs. Maybe they still have a mathematical chance still but that will end soon. They’re just not a very good team, mainly because of their offense. Plus the NFC is really tough this year and they have two teams in their division that are much better than them. Even the wild card teams in NFC could have 11-12 wins.
Either Seattle or San Francisco will be a wild card. Unless Seattle loses every regular season game for the rest of the year (unlikely with both the Panthers and Cardinals on the schedule) they’ll be at 11 or better. San Francisco is already at 11.
I expect either the Packers or Vikings to win the north, and the other to get the other wild card spot. They are at 10 and 9 wins, respectively. The Vikings play the Chargers, Packers, and Bears. The Packers play the Bears, Vikings (duh) and Lions. I’d be surprised if either team finishes with fewer than 11 wins.
It’s not a certainty but it’s a very good bet that both wild card teams will be at 11+ wins. Making the NFC East seem even more pitiful at this point.
There is a possibility that both teams will have records of 12-3 when they play each other in Week 17.
Both of them could finish 12-4. And, at 12-4, they could be the #3 and #6 seeds.
I will be surprised if the NFC East winner finishes with more than 8 wins.
The NFC is very weird this year. 2 strong teams in each of the North and West, the Saints being the only good team in the South and everyone in the East stinks. The AFC has more of a normal distribution to me.
If things were as they should be then the N.F.C. playoff teams this year would be: San Francisco, Seattle, the Rams, Minnesota, Green Bay, and “Nawlins.” But since the N.F.L. insists that division winners are guaranteed a playoff spot (and at least one home game in the playoffs, even) then ONE of those other teams (probably the Rams) is going to be left out of the mix.
They were stuck with Hugh Jackson for three years because, hey, you can’t fire a coach after a year or two, right? That’s the move of an unstable, failing franchise.
And now Kitchens is pretty bad, and you’re advocating for firing him after one year, and yet you try to shame them in the next sentence by trying to say that firing a coach that fast is dysfunctional.
Would keeping Hue for 4 years have brought success?
You’re getting cause and effect reversed. Some coaches last a long time because they’re good coaches. They don’t become good coaches because they were given a lot of time. The Browns have consistently hired the wrong coaches, and after they were unsuccessful, had to fire them and try again.
The only guy who didn’t get enough time was Rob Chudzinski and I don’t really know what happened there. Everyone else was fired after it was clear they weren’t head coaching material, and it was generally proved to be correct - they found no success elsewhere.
Yeah the Rams are a really good team that likely won’t make it to the postseason, to make way for a bad team to play instead.
Such is the NFL. It has happened before and will happen again.
I’m perfectly happy to see the Rams not make the playoffs. But NOT in favor of a clearly so-so Cowboys team.
Unless the N.F.L. ever sees fit to revamp its playoff structure - yes.
I am rooting for the Ravens.
First, I didn’t actually advocate for firing Kitchens. I only noted he’s not currently doing a good job. Many said the same of Belichick in Cleveland after 1 season. Maybe he turns it around. Maybe not.
I’d actually prefer they kept Kitchens for at least 1 more season. There are plenty of good coaches with lousy first seasons. And plenty of flash in the pan coaches with a great 1st season followed by mediocrity.
Unless there’s a felony involved or a complete uprising by the players against the coach, firing Kitchens right now is just more of the same from a dysfunctional franchise.
Absolutely not, but this comes to the other part of it. Hue Jackson was foisted on the front office by Jimmy Haslam, who fell in love with his pick of coaches.
What I actually advocate is ownership gets its act together, which maybe they did, if reports are accurate that Dorsey was the prime mover behind the Kitchens hire.
A GM and head coach work in tandem. What the Browns have consistently failed to do is get that. They get married to a head coach, keep the coach, dump the GM, fall out of love with the coach, keep their GM, get a new head coach, ad nauseum.
And rather than letting either the coach pick a GM to work with or letting the GM pick the coach, it’s been Jimmy Haslam saddling either his current HC or GM with his own pick. And they end up with a lost season or two while the two figure out how to work together. Or rather, don’t figure out how to work together and end up getting fired.
This time, Dorsey got his pick. And now it’s time to give that decision time to work. Maybe it doesn’t. Actually, most of the time it doesn’t work. But the best hope a team has is not to keep alternating GMs and HCs with tons of owner intervention. And that’s still going to fail most of the time, but it’s better than the alternative.