When Hue Jackson was hired as the Browns head coach in 2016 it was widely hailed as a “huge coup” for Cleveland and team owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam. Jackson was the hot assistant coach that everyone wanted, having turned down a chance to interview for the Giants job and a guaranteed spot as Marvin Lewis’s successor in Cincinnati.
From there, the Browns proceeded to strip the roster down for a rebuild that was so extreme that Jimmy Haslam said that 2018 was Jackson’s “first season,” reflecting that this was in fact the first season in which the Browns could reasonably be expected to compete to win some NFL football games.