4 realistic candidates to be the Browns’ next coach — and 1 dream option

It finally happened. The Browns fired Hue Jackson.

The entirely dire Jackson era ended after 2.5 seasons and a 3-36-1 record. The goodwill raised by the team’s 2-2-1 start was quickly washed away in a three-game losing streak that featured one overtime loss and two double-digit routs. That was enough for team owner Jimmy Haslam to finally resign himself to the fact Jackson, likable as he is, just wasn’t qualified to make Cleveland anything more than a laughing stock.

That made Jackson the first head coach firing of the 2018 season. Defensive coordinator Gregg Williams will take over as the team’s interim coach but probably won’t get much of a look to be the team’s leader in 2019. Monday’s move will give the Browns a head start when it comes to parsing candidates who will either jump at the opportunity to turn a talented young roster into a contender or become the next Cleveland coach to be executed at the hands of the Steelers.

So who could Haslam and general manager John Dorsey tab to lead Baker Mayfield and the Browns from decades of wandering the desert and into the promised land? Here’s a list of extremely preliminary candidates who could wind up on Dorsey’s short list when it comes time to name a full-time successor who, if nothing else, almost certainly won’t be worse than Hue Jackson.

The most interesting name on the list will be offensive specialist who developed Cleveland’s current quarterback from a three-star Texas Tech transfer into Oklahoma’s sixth Heisman Trophy winner. Riley is one of the hottest young coaches in college football, having risen from graduate assistant to head coach at one of the game’s most prestigious programs in only 11 years.

Riley was Mayfield’s quarterback coach and offensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016 and then his head coach in 2017 following Bob Stoops’ retirement. Mayfield’s numbers under his guidance? 12,292 passing yards, 119 touchdown passes, two straight seasons of leading the FBS in completion rate, yards per pass, and passer rating, and a 34-6 record as the Sooners’ starter.

But Riley’s been successful as a head coach with and without Mayfield in the lineup. He’s followed up last year’s 12-2 College Football Playoff campaign with a 7-1 record in 2018 behind first-year starter Kyler Murray. While the Browns wouldn’t be able to lure him away from Norman until after the season, they could feasibly attract the 35-year-old coach before he can put down real roots with the program. It’ll take a major offer to pull him from one of the most sought-after jobs in college football, but the opportunity to reunite with Mayfield and pull off the NFL’s biggest redemption story could be too much for Riley to pass up.

Riley demurred when asked about jumping to the pros Monday — but he didn’t entirely rule out a move to the NFL at some point, either.

DeFilippo is familiar with the Browns’ inner workings; he was the team’s offensive coordinator in 2015 before being swept out when the club fired Mike Pettine and brought Jackson in to oversee what historians will later describe as an act of aggression toward the citizens of northeastern Ohio. He didn’t do much that year — his offense gained just 5.1 yards per play, worse than all but three other NFL teams — but many of those struggles can be attributed to a depth chart that relied heavily on quarterbacks Johnny Manziel, Josh McCown, and Austin Davis. Their receiving corps were led by Travis Benjamin and Brian Hartline. The fact he was able to turn Gary Barnidge into a Pro Bowler that fall should be worn like a badge of honor.

Like Riley, DeFilippo’s got a record of gleaning the most from his quarterbacks. In two seasons as the Eagles quarterbacks coach, he turned Carson Wentz into a regular season MVP candidate and then, shockingly, Nick Foles into an actual Super Bowl MVP.

DeFilippo’s currently in his first season as offensive coordinator with the Vikings, where he’s responsible for a top-10 offense despite a running game that’s been hamstrung by injuries. Most of his success in Minnesota has come from his ability to coax career-best performances from Kirk Cousins and Adam Thielen who, along with Stefon Diggs, anchor a unit that’s gaining nearly 300 yards through the air each week.

That’ll be attractive to a Browns team with a big-armed quarterback and a dire need for an infusion of offense.

The former All-American tailback has been rising up the coaching ranks over the past two decades, holding down a handful of positional coach jobs and spending a pair of underwhelming years with Jon Embree’s terrible teams at the University of Colorado. That long path led him to the Chiefs, where he rose from running backs coach to offensive coordinator in 2018 — and he’s currently the mind behind the league’s top scoring offense.

His playcalling has given Patrick Mahomes the opportunity to soar, and the second-year quarterback has taken advantage. Could the Browns, eager to develop a highly regarded, deep-ball advocate of their own in his second year as a pro, turn to Bieniemy in hopes Kansas City’s big-play blueprint can translate to an squad led by Mayfield? Given the team’s alleged interest in former Chiefs offensive coordinator Matt Nagy (who was later hired as the Bears’ head coach), it’s certainly possible.

The biggest question surrounding Bieniemy is how much of his 2018 success has just been the result of having otherworldly skill players and a gallon of nitroglycerine at quarterback? Can the explosion he’s brought to the Kansas City playbook translate to a Cleveland roster that can’t match the Chiefs’ overall wattage?

Campbell got a long look from the Colts after Josh McDaniels — another potential candidate for the Browns job, although given the way the Indianapolis gig turned out, probably not — reneged on his agreement to leave New England. He lost out to Frank Reich, but Campbell is more than just a consolation prize’s consolation prize.

The former NFL tight end has steadily been moving up the ranks since joining the Dolphins as a coaching intern in 2010. His only head coach experience came as Miami’s interim leader in 2015, where a 5-7 record can accurately be described as “much better than expected, given the circumstance.” The Dolphins didn’t retain him, however, and that sent him to New Orleans in 2016.

Since then, he’s been finding ways to push the Saints’ offense to a new level without having to rely entirely on Drew Brees. While he’s made the most of his veteran QB, he’s also helped incorporate a more dynamic approach to Sean Payton’s attack, using weapons like Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas to devastate opponents in New Orleans’ recent revival. He’ll get a long, hard look as a coaching candidate this offseason — and the Browns could be one of the teams that buys in.

The thinking man’s choice.

Bob Wylie is a treasure and the Browns would be foolish to let him leave. If that means making him head coach, well, maybe ...