Cleveland Browns - An Unstable Sports Franchise - Oct 2015 Update

Original post, created on Dec 31, 2013.

Updated info ...

Compare Cleveland to two of the Browns’ divisional opponents: the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Baltimore Ravens

The Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens in 1996. 2015 is the Ravens' 20th season. During this time, the Ravens have had:

• 3 head coaches (counting current coach)
• 2 Super Bowl appearances
• 2 Super Bowl wins

The current Ravens head coach is John Harbaugh who began coaching the Ravens in 2008.

The current starting QB is Joe Flacco began his rookie season with the Ravens also in 2008. From Flacco's Wikipedia page:

In his rookie year, Flacco started every game and led the Ravens to two road wins in the 2008–09 NFL Playoffs, becoming the first rookie quarterback in league history to win two road playoff games, as a rookie starting quarterback he won 14 games, 11 during regular season.

2015 is the 8th Ravens season for head coach Harbaugh and QB Flacco.

Here are the Raven's playoff appearances, since they began play in 1996:

• 2000
• 2001
• 2003
• 2006
• 2008
• 2009
• 2010
• 2011
• 2012
• 2014

Pittsburgh Steelers

Since 1970, 46 seasons counting this year, the Steelers have had:

• 3 head coaches (counting current coach)
• 8 Super Bowl appearances
• 6 Super Bowl wins

The current Steelers head coach is Mike Tomlin. He started coaching the Steelers in 2007. 2015 is Tomlin's 9th season with Pitt.

The current Steelers starting QB is Ben Roethlisberger. Ben began his NFL rookie season with the Steelers in 2004. 2015 is Ben's 12th season with the Steelers.

Steelers playoff appearances since 1970. All of this with Tomlin being only the 3rd Steelers head coach since 1970.

• 1972
• 1973
• 1974
• 1975
• 1976
• 1977
• 1978
• 1979
• 1982
• 1983
• 1984
• 1989
• 1992
• 1993
• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997
• 2001
• 2002
• 2004
• 2005
• 2007
• 2008
• 2010
• 2011
• 2014

Pitt and Balt Combined:

Since 1970 for the Steelers and Ravens combined, including the 2015 season:

• 66 total seasons
• 6 head coaches
• 4 former header coaches
• 10 Super Bowl appearances
• 8 Super Bowl wins
• Average head coach lifespan: 11.0 years.

For the 2015 seasons:

• Balt : 8th season for the head coach and 8th season for the starting QB.
• Pitt : 9th season for the head coach and 12th season for the starting QB.

Cincinnati Bengals

The Bengals are following the Ravens and Steelers blueprint by building stability at QB and head coach.

The Bengals head coach is Marvin Lewis. 2015 is his 12th season coaching the Bengals. He has coached the Bengals to the playoffs at least 5 of the previous 11 seasons.

Bengals QB is Andy Dalton. 2015 is Dalton's 5th season as the starting QB for Cincy. He helped lead the Bengals to the playoff in each of his first four years.

Granted, the Bengals lost in the first round of the playoffs over the past four seasons, but the first step to winning a playoff game is making the playoffs, which the Browns cannot do.

And when was the last time that the Browns made the playoffs in four consecutive seasons? How about two consecutive seasons?

Cleveland v2.0

In the late 1990s, the NFL granted Cleveland a new Browns team which began play in 1999.

2015 is the 17th season for the new Browns.

Current head coach Mike Pettine is the 8th Browns head coach, since 1999.

Average head coach lifespan since 1999: 2.1 years.

The last time that Cleveland made the playoffs occurred during the 2002 season.

Here are "recent" Browns' playoff appearances.

• 1980
• 1982
• 1985
• 1986
• 1987
• 1988
• 1989
• 1994
• 2002

Recent starting QBs for the Browns for the first game of the regular season:

• 2013 : Brandon Weeden
• 2014 : Brian Hoyer
• 2015 : Josh McCown

Nearly every one to two years, the Browns start the season with a new QB.

Nearly every two years, the Browns start the season with a new head coach.

Extremely high turnover and instability with the Browns, compared to the Steelers, Ravens, and Bengals.

Browns head coaches, since the team began play again in the 1999 season:

• Chris Palmer* - 1999–2000
• Butch Davis* - 2001–2004
• Terry Robiskie - 2004
• Romeo Crennel - 2005–2008
• Eric Mangini - 2009–2010
• Pat Shurmur* - 2011–2012
• Rob Chudzinski* - 2013
• Mike Pettine* - 2014–

* = Spent entire NFL head coaching career with the Browns

Browns Misc.

http://jothut.com/cgi-bin/junco.pl/blogpost/53126/22Apr2015/Cleveland-Browns-2015-Schedule

Closing out the season

In recent years, the Browns have struggled during the final four games of each season.

Browns record over the final four games and overall record:

• 2014 : 0-4 : (7-9)
• 2013 : 0-4 : (4-12
• 2012 : 1-3 : (5-11)
• 2011 : 0-4 : (4-12)
• 2010 : 0-4 : (5-11)
• 2009 : 4-0 : (5-11)
• 2008 : 0-4 : (4-12)
• 2007 : 3-1 : (10-6) - the only loss in the final four games occurred against Cincinnati, which was the only divisional game.

Over the past five seasons, Cleveland's combined record during the final quarter of each season is 1-19. That achievement occurred with different head coaches, QBs, many QBs, front office management personnel, and owners.

Divisional Record

Cleveland's divisional record:

• 2014 : 2-4
• 2013 : 2-4
• 2012 : 2-4
• 2011 : 0-6
• 2010 : 1-5
• 2009 : 1-5
• 2008 : 1-5
• 2007 : 3-3 : 10-6 overall record.

2015 Antics

Backup QB enters rehab for unknown reasons for a lengthy stay.

GM suspended for the first four games of the regular season for texting coach(s) during a game last year.

Offensive line coach involved in a domestic issue, involving the police during the preseason, and resulting in the coach being suspended and then finally released on Sep 30.

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