Alan Truex: Hue Jackson boasts of his ‘success’ with the Same Old Browns
On the field, the Cleveland Browns in this early preseason look like they could be good, or at least mediocre. But off the field, same old Browns, dysfunctional as ever. If not more so.
The truly good news is Baker Mayfield, No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, showed strength, accuracy and field generalship in his first NFL action. He threw 20 times, completed 11, for 2 touchdowns, no interceptions and 212 yards in a 20-10 doubling of the New York Giants.
But Mayfield is also part of the bad news. He declared on HBO’s Hard Knocks that it’s all or nothing for him, that “I could never get my mind right to be a backup. That’s the second I would be complacent. That’s the second I would stop working.”
This was unsettling news – or at least it should have been — to Browns head coach Hue Jackson, who lists a veteran as solidly No. 1: “Tyrod Taylor has demonstrated all off-season what he needed to show me and the staff to be the starter.”
Teammates say Taylor is the first player in camp every day. Jackson, by contrast, was shown in Episode 1 of Hard Knocks gently reprimanding Mayfield for being late to the practice facility. Both Taylor and Mayfield played well against the Giants, which means the veteran remains No. 1 and Jackson presumably is, as he promised to be, complacent.
Hard Knocks, (Tuesday, 9 p.m. CST) is a thoroughly edited view of NFL training camp, but candid moments occasionally slip past the censors. One such scene showed the Browns coaches meeting in their office and offensive coordinator Todd Haley urging Jackson to take a harder line on players sitting out practice.
The head coach pulled rank and shut Haley down. Later, Jackson explained his reason for cutting short a coach who called plays in a Super Bowl: “We’ve done this now for two years, and we’ve had really good success.”
Apparently he believes there’s a fine line between no success, which would be zero wins in 32 games – and really good success, which is 1 win in 32 tries.
Without quite calling Haley a journeyman, Jackson pointed out that “he’s been different places, and everybody has a different way of doing things. This is just how we do it here, and it works for us. We keep our players healthy.”
Pardon me for being callous, but when healthy athletes play like dead men, what is the value of health?
Jackson, Haley and Browns defensive chief Gregg Williams are all on different pages of safety protocol. And Jackson himself is on different pages on different days. After he was ridiculed last week for babying his players and encouraging goldbricking, he tightened the screws for the preseason opener.
The organization was so unhappy with rookie receiver Antonio Callaway being busted for marijuana possession that they punished him in a uniquely Brownsian way: They raised his workload to 54 snaps. He couldn’t get off the field even when he was trying to wave himself off.
But of course rookie receivers are not on the watch list the way rookie quarterbacks are. While Mayfield thrived on his own plateau, Sam Darnold was a solid second in the week 1 preseason rankings of First-Round Quarterbacks.
Darnold’s dink attack worked for 13-of-18 for 96 yards and a TD in a 17-0 thumping of Atlanta. Sideline shots continually showed the veteran QB Josh McCown advising the rookie.
Darnold beamed about how these pro defenses are so easily deciphered. “You can tell, most of the time, right away,” he said, “whether it’s going to be a man or zone coverage.”
Hopefully, McCown has told him by now that the schemes will be varied and veiled when the regular season begins.
Meanwhile, free-thinking Josh Rosen was a step slow against the Chargers — delay-of-game on 3rd and 10. But Aaron Rodgers would not have achieved much surrounded by the second-teamers of the Arizona Cardinals. Rookie coach Steve Wilks promised Rosen first-team reps Friday in New Orleans.
Josh Allen was so-so in his audition for the starting role in Buffalo: 9 of 19, 116 yards, no INT. He didn’t find NFL defense as simple to unravel as Darnold had.
Lamar Jackson, fifth quarterback chosen in this year’s draft, looked better at second glance than the first time he played as a pro. But he’s unlikely to unseat Joe Flacco, who’s healthier than he’s been in three years.
Few conclusions should be drawn from preseason week 1. But that’s all we have, so we’ll ponder it for more than it’s worth.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are ready, Leonard Fournette quicker with loss of weight. His retooled line – hello, Andrew Norwell – shoved aside a Saints front that’s not what they need it to be.
The Pittsburgh Steelers beat Super Bowl champ Philadelphia 31-14, but if you want to nit-pick, James Conner is no Le’Veon Bell, at least in the pass game. His blocking as a rookie was not good, and in the Eagles exhibition he failed to pick up a blitz that resulted in a sack.
For all their off-season losses, the New England Patriots were sound as ever in a 26-17 victory over swampy Washington. The Pats have the emotional edge in Thursday night’s Super Bowl rematch in Foxborough. Tom Brady and his receivers have been disconnected in camp, but this matchup is a rallying point.
Rob Ninkovich, retired linebacker who provides TV analysis for Patriots home games, believes Bill Belichick has corrected the two-year problem of no cover linebackers. Ninkovich said fifth-round draftee JaWhaun Bentley “is having a great camp; he’s going to do well covering backs out of the backfield.” He said that before the 260-pound inside backer forced a fumble in the second quarter.
But back to the Browns.
On Monday, in a scrimmage that should be a major part of Episode 2 of Hard Knocks, one of Williams’ defenders brushes against a quarterback. Haley yells from the sideline: “Don’t touch the fucking quarterback in practice.”
Whereupon Williams responds: “Somebody’s gotta fucking block ‘em.”
Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, reported that Jackson encourages such bickering. “I like a little testy,” he told her.
I don’t, and I think most coaches don’t like dissension on their team. The less reality TV the better. Mike Zimmer didn’t put up with players jawing at each other. Neither did Tom Coughlin. All athletes want a skipper with a steady hand on the rudder. As I see it, Hue Jackson is running too loose a ship. Is it possible to sink from 0-16?