Former Cleveland Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar is frustrated with the team's front office, believing no quarterback can succeed with the current situation. Kosar went on The Mike Trivisonno Show on WTAM 1100 in Cleveland and ripped the organization following its 30-0 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, saying that Johnny Manziel needs a better system in place around him.
Bernie Kosar rips Browns’ front office in defense of Johnny Manziel
The former Browns star is not pleased with the current state of the team, and is blaming the men upstairs.
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The Browns have only made the playoffs twice since Kosar was released by the team in 1993, winning their last postseason contest in 1994. Kosar, who used to do preseason broadcasts for the Browns, is particularly sick of seeing a procession of quarterbacks without the team fixing the issues around them.
Kosar took aim at the front office instead of Manziel, who has faced criticism in the wake of his disastrous debut in which he threw for 80 yards and a pair of interceptions. Kosar says it does not matter who is under center, because the team is without weapons. After leading the division through 10 weeks, the Browns have dropped four of their last five and at 7-7, are all but eliminated from playoff contention.
Fed up with the situation, the former Pro Bowl quarterback and Ohio native unloaded, per Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
“You can’t put these kids (the quarterbacks) in these spots,” Kosar said. “It’s almost abuse. If you’re going to keep running it the way we’re running it, we may as well do nothing (to fix the quarterback situation), because you’ll kill two more kids coming in here. It’ll fail. It does not matter right now.”
Kosar continued by saying expectations were artificially pumped up by the organization before Manziel’s first start, stating that good teams would have gone about the situation differently.
“They’ve been talking so positively like ‘this is the savior’ and that’s what bad organizations do,” he said. “They set these quarterback controversies up and it kind of takes the heat off of them and it gives everybody a little glimmer of hope. ...The organization and the players and coaches actually thought he was going to do good. I know they believed he was going to do good.”
Kosar did defend head coach Mike Pettine, who is in his first year on the job. Kosar believes Pettine doesn’t have much of a chance considering the men making decisions above him.
“For all the reporters that listen to our show that want to say I’m dogging him, absolutely not,” said Kosar. “He was hired under this set of rules where everybody gets to giggle and laugh and talk about things and everybody is involved in everything. He was hired in a tough, tough spot in a culture above him that is not a football culture. It’s not a winning football culture. It goes above that.”
However, he’s not thrilled with the sideline attitude during a defeat like Sunday’s. Manziel and Brian Hoyer were filmed in the closing minutes of the game sharing a laugh on the sideline. Kosar believes winning franchises like the Green Bay Packers and New England Patriots don’t act like that during a loss:
The Browns face the Carolina Panthers on Sunday before closing out the regular season against the Baltimore Ravens.
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