If you had Todd Haley on your list of candidates who might take over as coach in Cleveland, it looks like you can go ahead and scratch him off.
According to NFL.com, Haley has been fired by the Browns in a move that comes less than an hour after the team also fired head coach Hue Jackson. Basically, the heads are still rolling in Cleveland and it appears that no one is safe.
After Jackson was dumped on Monday, the presumption from the outside was that Haley was going to take control of the Browns' offense. According to Yahoo Sports, one of the reasons Jackson was fired was because general manager John Dorsey didn't want Baker Mayfield caught in the middle of the ongoing feud between Haley and Jackson.
Of course, there's no chance of Mayfield being caught in the middle of anything now and that's because both coaches have been given pink slips. With both coaches out, it's not clear who's going to take control of the Browns' offense. However, we do know will be serving as interim coach. According to ESPN.com, the last man standing in Cleveland is apparently defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, who will be given the title of interim coach. The job of offensive coordinator will go to Freddie Kitchens, according to NFL.com.
By getting rid of both Jackson and Haley, Browns owner Jimmy Haslam has basically made it clear that he doesn't want to deal with the drama that has surrounded the team for the past several months. Haley and Jackson had seemingly been at odds since the team filmed Hard Knocks back in training camp. During one specific episode, Haley and Jackson famously clashed about whether or not players should be allowed to sit out practice when they're healthy. Jackson thought the rest day made sense, but Haley was adamantly against it.
Things got so ugly between the two that Jackson was actually asked about his relationship with Haley following the team's 33-18 loss to the Steelers on Sunday. Despite the fact that Jackson recently said he was going to take a "bigger role" in offensive decisions, he said there was no animosity between him and Haley.
"There's nothing wrong with my relationship with Haley," Jackson said, via NFL.com. "Guys, I said what I said last week. And obviously, it had legs. But I've never said I wanted to take over play-calling. I said I wanted to help. That's it."
As things currently stand, the state of their relationship doesn't matter and that's because they're now both out of a job.
Although Jackson was given a long leash in Cleveland, Haley definitely wasn't given the same luxury. The 51-year-old offensive coordinator was canned after just eight games and a total of 10 months. Haley had only been in Cleveland since January. Before being hired by the Browns, Haley spent six seasons as the offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh.
With Haley running the show, the Browns' offense ranked 24th in both total yards and points per game this season.
