Hue Jackson just admitted to tanking games

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Hue Jackson is the worst HC in the history of the NFL, and it is not debatable.

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If there’s a top prospect why the hell wouldn’t you

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In 2014, the war room was packed with Haslam's guests. It was a consequential draft. The Browns were looking to pick a quarterback, either Blake Bortles or Johnny Manziel in the first round, or Teddy Bridgewater or Derek Carr in the second. Farmer was running his first draft. He had a lot to work with: 10 total picks, including an extra first-rounder because of the Richardson trade.

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He started the draft by trading down, from No. 4 to No. 9, then traded up to No. 8 to pick Pettine's preferred player, Oklahoma State cornerback Justin Gilbert. With the second first-round pick, Farmer was targeting Oregon State receiver Brandin Cooks. But then Manziel started to slide and Haslam wanted Manziel. Some of the football guys in the room wanted to wait and pick Bridgewater in the second round. But the team had soured on Bridgewater after his interview dinner and workout with team brass; something about Bridgewater's handshake rubbed Haslam the wrong way, he told team executives. Manziel texted Browns quarterbacks coach Dowell Loggains during the draft, begging the team to pick him, and Loggains forwarded the texts to Haslam. Farmer knew whom the owner wanted, so he made a decision that felt like a concession and traded up to draft him, despite significant concerns about Manziel's skill set and hard partying at Texas A&M. Haslam celebrated, but those in the room could tell Farmer was frustrated. After months of planning, he'd given away his two first-rounders to his coach and owner.

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Browns draft: team leaders on different pages and bad decisions leading to more bad decisions -- both Gilbert and Manziel would flame out -- with the owner in the middle of it all and his guests as a live audience.

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THE BROWNS ADOPTED a plan to lose and then warred over whether the team lost too much. The front office felt the team would win four or five games in 2016; some coaches felt it could even be seven or eight. The team went 1-15, and the lines were drawn. Jackson's survival instincts kicked in; he fired much of his staff and vented to co-workers and privately to reporters about analytics. The Browns had the first pick in the 2017 draft, and it would be another defining moment for the franchise. 

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Now there was debate between targeting Texas A&M defensive end Myles Garrett and North Carolina quarterback Mitch Trubisky. Jackson wanted Garrett and one day made his case by taping pictures of Garrett on the glass walls in Haslam's office as a joke. But Jackson wasn't kidding when he later vowed to Haslam that he wouldn't support Trubisky, publicly or privately. The team ended up deciding in favor of Garrett but kept Jackson in the dark about it until shortly before the draft, for reasons unexplained to him.

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The Browns went 0-16 in 2017, nearly unthinkable in the salary cap era and much worse than even the architects of the rebuilding plan expected. It broke the building. The front office felt Jackson's poor coaching cost the team wins. Jackson felt he was in an impossible position because the team had shed so much talent, including star cornerback Joe Haden. Against the advice of scouts, Brown had picked receiver Corey Coleman in the first round in 2016; Coleman was released after two years. Against the recommendation of Brown, Jackson started rookie quarterback DeShone Kizer in 2017; when Kizer struggled, Jackson complained that Brown had passed on Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. It enraged the front office, given Jackson's insistence on drafting Garrett that year.

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Was we tanking too?

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