BEREA: Former Browns coach Mike Pettine packed belongings into his pickup truck Monday morning outside team headquarters with the franchise on the verge of interviewing candidates to replace him.
As players cleaned out their lockers, some were upset by his departure.
“Coach Pett says it’s pass or fail. We didn’t win enough games for him,” left guard Joel Bitonio said. “It’s not just on the coach. It’s on the players. We didn’t perform well enough. I think the whole thing kind of just wasn’t quite good enough and that’s what happens in the NFL. You’ve got to win. You’ve kind of got to win quickly.
“I feel like we didn’t do enough as a team to keep him around. ... He has a heavy place in my heart today. I feel bad seeing him go. I know it’s part of the business, and I know you’ve got to win NFL games. But it was tough.”
Others felt an overhaul was necessary.
“I feel like maybe some changes needed to be made, and hopefully next year will be better,” running back Isaiah Crowell said. “... I feel like we just needed better leadership.
“We just need people to make football decisions, better football decisions. I just feel like a lot of things could’ve went different in the season if some decisions were made differently, but I just go by what the coaches tell me to do.”
Neither Pettine nor General Manager Ray Farmer addressed the team the day after Haslam fired them in the wake of a 3-13 season and 18 losses in the past 21 games.
Instead, Haslam and new executive vice president of football operations Sashi Brown, who now has final say on the 53-man roster, told players about a revamped organizational structure and the search for the team’s eighth full-time head coach, the sixth since 2008.
A few scheduled head-coaching interviews have been reported by multiple media outlets.
• Teryl Austin is set for Wednesday. Austin, 50, has spent the past two seasons as the Detroit Lions’ defensive coordinator. In 2015, they ranked 17th in total defense (350.1 yards allowed per game) — 14th passing (237) and 19th rushing (113.1) — and tied for 25th in points allowed (25.3 per game).
• Adam Gase is set for Wednesday. Gase, 37, served as the offensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears in 2015 after spending six seasons with the Denver Broncos, two as their offensive coordinator. The Bears ranked 20th in total offense (344.8 yards per game) — 12th rushing (116.2) and 23rd passing (228.6) — and tied for 22nd in scoring (21 points per game). The Browns tried to interview him in 2014 before he took himself out of the running to focus on a Super Bowl run with the Denver Broncos.
• Doug Marrone is set for Thursday. Marrone, 51, spent 2015 as the assistant head coach-offense/offensive line coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He had a 15-17 record during the previous two seasons as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills. An ownership change allowed him to use an opt-out clause in his contract, and he exercised it after the 2014 season. He interviewed with the Browns before the Bills hired him.
Other names linked to the Browns include Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson, former Lions coach Jim Schwartz and former Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly.
Whoever succeeds Pettine will report to Haslam. Whoever replaces Farmer will report to Brown.
Haslam, wife Dee, Brown and Jed Hughes of the Korn Ferry consulting firm are conducting the search for a coach. Once he’s hired, he’ll aid their quest for a GM, who’ll focus on talent acquisition, set up the draft board and oversee the scouting department.
Pettine, who went 10-22 in two seasons with the Browns, bid farewell to a few reporters as he packed his truck. The team later released a statement on his behalf.
“I would like thank Dee and Jimmy Haslam for the opportunity they granted me to lead the Cleveland Browns as head coach for the past two seasons,” Pettine said in the statement. “Although I wish I could have brought more wins to the franchise for the passionate fans of this great city, I will have many fond memories to cherish from my time in Cleveland.
“I also want to thank all the players that I’ve been able to coach in my time here. I’m grateful for the effort they put forth, their willingness to take coaching and their overall dedication to the foundation we built. Additionally, it is very important for me to thank the coaching staff for all their hard work. I appreciate all the sacrifices that were made by their families while their husbands and fathers were enduring the long hours that are the norm for NFL coaches.
“Lastly and just as importantly, I want to thank the fans of the Cleveland Browns. I appreciated all the support, you deserve a winner and I wish that for you in the near future.”
Bitonio, a second-round pick in the 2014 draft, bumped into Pettine in the hallway at the facility and spoke to him for a few minutes.
“He’s definitely a little sad, a little disheartened,” Bitonio said. “I think he understands the business, though. Like he’s told [the media] this whole year, you’ve got to win games, and he understands he didn’t win enough. I think he wishes he had some more time.”
The exit of another regime can be difficult to swallow.
“It doesn’t make you happy when you have to go through another coaching change,” said nine-time Pro Bowl left tackle Joe Thomas, who has made it clear he might ask for a trade depending on who replaces Pettine and Farmer. “It’s tough on everybody. Coaching changes and organization changes always set you back. It’s a tough process to go through. Nobody is happy about it, and it’s never easy.”
But it is common in Berea. Haslam has fired three head coaches, three GMs, a president and a CEO since he bought the Browns from Randy Lerner for $1.05 billion in 2012.
“It is frustrating,” wide receiver Andrew Hawkins said. “I am not going to say it was the wrong move, but it is well-documented that the more continuity you have in a place, the more successful you will be.”
Still, several players insisted they trust Haslam will get the franchise on the right track.
“I didn’t want this to happen,” nose tackle Danny Shelton said. “I didn’t want to have a 3-13 season, but that’s what happened to us. There’s no taking it back. ... I’m still excited to be here and be a part of the Cleveland Browns organization. I’m still faithful that we’re going to get this culture changed.”
Thomas is more skeptical. He has earned the right by playing for five coaches since the Browns drafted him third overall in 2007.
Asked if he’s confident about the team’s future, Thomas said, “I think it remains to be seen who we bring in here and how they go about the process. Who we get for a head coach, for a GM, who we get in free agency, there’s a lot of things that are going to go into this process coming up here that hopefully will put us in the right direction.”
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Browns blog at www.ohio.com/browns. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/NateUlrichABJ and on Facebook www.facebook.com/abj.sports.