Nobody has had a weirder offseason so far than the Cleveland Browns. The drama started just hours after the seasonin-depth ended, when head coach Rob Chudzinski, having just finished his first season at the helm, received his walking papers.

Then, following a highly ridiculed search that ended up netting Mike Pettine as Chudzinski’s replacement, the duo that ran the search got axed by owner Jimmy Haslam.

But maybe things aren’t as bad as they seem? Peter Smith, editor of Dawg Pound Daily says in Cleveland the removal of Joe Banner and Mike Lombardi was met positively by the fan base. Smith joined Zoneblitz to talk about the front office upheaval and how the Browns look heading into the 2014 season. Here’s what he had to say.

Zoneblitz: Cleveland finished 4-12, but there were signs of life on both offense and defense in 2013. What is your overall assessment of the 2013 season?

Smith: The Browns made progress in 2013 most everywhere except in the standings.  They were more productive as a defense and their investments on that side of the ball looked worthwhile.  Desmond Bryant was arguably the best player on the entire defense, because of his ability to be a force against the run and he really fueled the pass rush up front.  The run defense was better and at times, they were dominant in that area.

The pass rush was too hit or miss.  Across the board, players needed to do a better job of winning individual matchups.  The pressure Ray Horton wanted to bring would get picked up when players were unable to beat the man across from them.  In those situations, opposing quarterbacks were able to take advantage and make plays.  Some of that was a product of the new scheme and playing with a number of new guys as well as the fact that players need to continue in their development.

Offensively, the Browns were behind the eight ball quite a bit.  Trent Richardson was ineffective and ultimately traded and Rob Chudzinski stayed with Willis McGahee far too long.  Nevertheless, Chud and Norv Turner deserve a great deal of credit for the amount of offense they were able to produce with what they had.  Opponents knew they had to stop Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron, but in a number of situations, they simply could not.

The offense would get out to a lot of early leads and do damage in the first halves of games before opponents were able to adjust.  In many situations, the team would go into the half with a lead and after the opponent adjusted, the defense was put in a position where they had to try to hold onto a lead.  In several cases, they fell short in that area, leading to some losses late such as New England and Jacksonville.

Brian Hoyer showed signs of life before going down with the ACL tear and if not for that, it is hard to imagine it would not have had a huge impact on the season.  Brandon Weeden could not play dead and Jason Campbell was wildly inconsistent in the same way he had been his entire career.  Gordon and Cameron had the best seasons of their career and now look like legitimate weapons and building blocks for the team.

Zoneblitz: What did you think of the Lombardi/Banner decision to fire Rob Chudzinski and then their recent departures?

Smith: Initially, the decision to fire Rob Chudzinski was confusing.  Everything the front office did seemed to be in preparation for 2014.  The quarterbacks in the draft were underwhelming and they really put their stamp on the defense in 2013, giving themselves the opportunity to really figure out where they had to add talent to the offense for 2014.  Despite the standings, the team was substantially better under Chud even with the problems at quarterback.

After the dust had settled, the decision to fire Chud made more sense.  He was the guy who brought in and insisted on running Willis McGahee when he could not do the job.  Chud insisted on playing Chris Owens over rookie third round pick Leon McFadden, who had some injuries early which hurt his progress, but as the season wore on, it became silly not to play the young guys for the sake of their development.

Ultimately, Chud got a raw deal, but I understand the move.  The problem is the word ‘fair’ has no place in the NFL.  It was not fair, but it does not have to be.  That became more clear after they then made the moves to get rid of Mike Lombardi and Joe Banner.

For the one year they were here, I thought Banner and Lombardi did a good job.  I was happy with the moves they made from signing Paul Kruger and Desmond Bryant to drafting Barkevious Mingo.  The trade of Trent Richardson was brilliant and could be enormous to getting the team to being a consistent contender.  Combining that with the trades to get an extra third and fourth round pick this year were great and give new general manager Ray Farmer a lot of flexibility to get a franchise quarterback and really build an offense.  The Davone Bess trade will be criticized but in terms of cap and draft picks, the move was a prudent one and universally applauded.  It has a minimal impact on their ability to win this year or going forward.

With all of that said, a year of Joe Banner might have been the perfect amount.  For all of the prudent moves he made, it seems like maybe the Browns were fortunate to come out as well as they did given the amount of turmoil in the front office and how they handled things.  There is having a healthy amount of disagreement, but there seemed to be a power struggle and just a bad situation that could have been ugly.  The timing of it more than anything made it look bad, but Haslam’s track record is not good so far.

Zoneblitz: And what are your thoughts on the hiring of Ray Farmer and Mike Pettine?

Smith: I liked the hire of Mike Pettine.  Had Buffalo had a better offense and won more games, he would have been a far bigger name in my opinion.  All Pettine seems to do is coach top 10 defenses.  He did it with the New York Jets under Rex Ryan and with the Buffalo Bills under Doug Marrone.  It also seems like a great fit.  The Bills under Pettine led the league in sacks from the defensive line.  The Bills had Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Marcel Dareus and Alan Branch.  Now in Cleveland, he will have Phil Taylor, Desmond Bryant, Billy Winn and John Hughes, which have many of the same characteristics, but are a younger group.

Many expected the Browns to struggle to put together a good coaching staff with a truncated time frame, but if that was an indication of how Pettine will operate, it was a great start.  It is a young group, especially on the defensive side of the ball, but he has had success there and hired staffs before on that side of the ball.  On offense, there is a good amount of youth as well, but the group is extremely qualified.  The offensive coordinator, Kyle Shanahan gets a fresh start and will have a chance to form an offense while they have some veteran coaches who are highly regarded in the NFL.

There is a lot of bad information out there in regards to the coaching search.  The talk of all of these coaches who did not want to coach for the Browns was largely fabricated.  Some of the coaches took their name out of consideration because they were not a real candidate.  In the end, the candidates that basically said no were Adam Gase and Gus Malzahn.  The idea that they could not hire anyone for the job was simply false.

Ray Farmer served as the assistant general manager under Mike Lombardi last year.  It was applauded when he was brought over from the Kansas City Chiefs last season.  When the opportunity came up for him to be the general manger of the Miami Dolphins, he was expected to get the job if he wanted it.  Farmer opted to stay and unexpectedly got the general manager job in Cleveland.

The Browns are just as prepared for the draft and free agency as they were before the purge.  The only thing that changes is how he wants to attack the draft.  He has 10 picks in what is a critical draft for the Browns and the sentiment is that most people feel much better about him making the picks than they would have with Banner in charge.  Farmer is supremely confident in his ability and this draft will test him immediately.

Zoneblitz: What do you think of Jimmy Haslam at this point and what is your sense for the region’s overall feeling on the team given the struggles of the last several years?

Smith: Jimmy Haslam has a choice to make.  He can either be the decisive owner that saw a problem and addressed it or he can be a meddler and a rash decision maker like Jerry Jones or Daniel Snyder.  A large part of that will be success from the combination of Farmer and Pettine, but if he goes out and makes another group of firings next year or even in two years, it makes it difficult not to look at him as someone who is going to be a problem and get in the way.

Haslam insists he is done making a bunch of big moves and these are his guys.  He blamed much of the early struggles on his being a rookie owner.  If this works, people will buy it and live with it.  If not, there will be a chorus of people who bring those words back at him.

It is bizarre in how different he is viewed nationally than he is locally.  On a national level, the team is looked at as a team that is dysfunctional and not going anywhere.  Locally, many are applauding Haslam because they did not like Banner and Lombardi.  In my view, there is nothing but gray in the moves involves and it largely remains to be seen how this will go.

Zoneblitz: Who do you see as the QB in 2014? Is the person on the roster or do the Browns go with an early draft pick?

Smith: I cannot fathom a situation in which the Browns do not use an early pick on a quarterback, likely in the first round.  I believe the team really likes Brian Hoyer and he could start the year as the starter, but it is difficult to fathom that Farmer and Pettine will bet purely on Hoyer with their futures.  He only had two games and while he was solid, he was hardly spectacular.  I don’t see how he is a long term answer at the position and with Lombardi, the guy who was highest on him out of the picture, it seems even less likely.

Short of Jadeveon Clowney, I have a difficult time seeing them not take a quarterback with their first pick.  The question is who they like and whether they like him enough to trade up to get him.  My hope is that whatever reported love there was for Johnny Manziel went out the door with Lombardi and Banner.

Zoneblitz: Trent Richardson trade: Good move or knee-jerk decision and why?

Smith: The Richardson trade was brilliant even if he is great for the Colts.  I loved it and wrote about loving it as soon as it happened.  Short of getting Adrian Peterson, picking a running back that high is a terrible investment.  The fact that a team was willing to give up a premium pick for him is still astounding to me.  The Browns need to make that pick count, but even if the Browns forfeited the pick, it was a fantastic trade.

Zoneblitz: Josh Gordon appears to be a superstar. In addition to improved QB play, what has to happen for the offense to take the next step?

Smith: The Browns have to find a running game.  Josh Gordon and Jordan Cameron are both great weapons, but a lack of balance really hurt the Browns.  With or without Richardson, they could not run.  They got a little bit of life from Edwin Baker at the end of the year, but they have to find a way to get consistent production on the ground.  As bad as the quarterback play was for the Browns in 2013, the running game forced them to throw that much more often.  It was an absolute struggle.

Dion Lewis was the guy after Richardson and he broke his leg in preseason.  People were excited about his prospects.  He should be back this year.  Edwin Baker should be back at least for a tryout in camp.  After that, the Browns should bring in multiple backs through the draft or with undrafted free agency.

Zoneblitz: Where could the defense improve?

Smith: The defense has to get better at winning individual matchups in the pass rush.  Being in a situation where six or seven guys are sent at the opposing quarterback with all of them being picked up simply cannot happen.  Barkevious Mingo should be ready to have a big impact in his second year, Jabaal Sheard has been good, Paul Kruger should be able to produce more on the stat sheet, and their defensive line needs to be more productive.  Armonty Bryant will have an opportunity to prove he can be a good player.

Additionally, they need to find help at inside linebacker.  Short of substantial and likely improbable improvement from Craig Robertson, they need to find a better player to put next to D’Qwell Jackson.  Robertson was fine when he was free to run around and make plays, but he struggles to take on shed blocks and struggles in coverage.  He was the weakest link on the field.

They also need to find a nickel corner.  Haden is great and Skrine was vastly improved this past year.  Chris Owens was awful and they were picked apart when quarterbacks had time and more defensive backs were on the field.

All of these issues combined should help them improve on 3rd down, which was their Achilles’ heel on defense this past year.  They were able to get opponents into winnable situations and then be unable to finish.

Zoneblitz: How far are the Browns from being a playoff contender?

Smith: The defense is good enough to go to the playoffs now.  It can get better, but if paired with an effective offense, they could go to the playoffs.  That means the Browns need to find a legitimate quarterback and running game.  If they just had average quarterback play, they were probably much closer to an 8-8 season last year.  If they can get good quarterback play, run the ball, and still have the threats they have with Gordon and Cameron, they can go to the playoffs.

Zoneblitz: What would you like to see Cleveland do in the draft and free agency?

Smith: I would like to see them end up with Teddy Bridgewater or Derek Carr in the draft.  Those are my top two quarterbacks.  Beyond that, getting a wide receiver to be the third option would be great.  Odell Beckham at 26 could be a huge benefit to what the Browns already have for example.

They have to find a running back somewhere and perhaps more than one.  If they want to hammer that position, they might take Bishop Sankey with the 35th pick.  They also need to continue to address the offensive line and get more inside linebacker and safety help.

For free agency, the likelihood is the Browns will try to sign Mack and he will leave for more money elsewhere.  Perhaps the promotion of Farmer and removal of Banner could impact the decision, but that has been the way this appears to be playing out right now.  Mack is not going to get franchised and he has the ability to make the final decision.  There has been talk that he could end up in Tampa.  If that does happen, the Browns will need to get a center in the draft.

Ward is the guy to franchise.  Not only does he want to be here and was good for the Browns defense, but he has had injury issues.  If they can get a good deal for the long term done, great, but it would probably make the most sense to franchise him and have him prove to stay healthy another year.

Beyond that, the Browns need to be active in free agency when it comes to signing the Browns.  The team is reported to have about $45 million in cap room, but they have a number of contracts coming up due this year and next year.  Talks have begun with Joe Haden already and he is going to get over $10 million per season when all is said and done.  Players like Jabaal Sheard, Jordan Cameron, T.J. Ward, and Buster Skrine make peanuts and if they want to keep them, they will have to pay them.  Phil Taylor comes due next year.

I hope the Browns shop for value in free agency.  The last thing they need to do is something like sign Ben Tate or Eric Decker.  With the influx of rookies, there should be some veterans who are forced to take less and the Browns could get players on good value without being reckless with their cap.

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