For most of this millennium, the Cleveland Browns have been the model of how not to build a franchise, so it should come as little surprise that their search for a new head coach is going poorly.
They started their search a week before the Pittsburgh Steelers, yet they couldn’t make a hire at this very moment even if they wanted to. The Steelers can, and they’ve lapped their division rivals in the process.
“I do wanna make clear that the Browns do appear to be behind in their process,” Jonathan Jones said on CBS Sports HQ. “Other teams are ahead of them. Slightly embarrassing for the Browns, no doubt about it, but they still can get their guy early next week. But it’s time to put their foot on the gas a little bit.”
NFL fans and media sometimes use the Rooney Rule as a time measuring device. It’s annoying. Yes, the Browns had a setback in their search. But they still have time to land a coach as their process continues pic.twitter.com/552lbidEJD
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) January 23, 2026
The Browns lagging behind boils down to the Rooney Rule, a requirement that two minority candidates come in for an in-person interview before any hires are made. As of right now, the Browns have not hosted a single minority candidate. They can’t advance in the process until they check that box.
To make matters worse, they would have satisfied one of the two Rooney Rule interviews with Mike McDaniel, but he turned down their head coach interview request to become the Los Angeles Chargers’ offensive coordinator. McDaniel wasn’t the first candidate to turn them down, either. Jesse Minter reportedly skipped out on the Browns and eventually got hired by the Baltimore Ravens.
Why might candidates be snubbing them? Along with years of instability and subpar performance, the interview process itself may be partially to blame.
“They are a data-driven operation in Cleveland, and so they spend an extraordinary amount of time gathering data on their coaching candidates,” Tom Pelissero said on The Rich Eisen Show. “You’re talking about taking a personality test. You’re talking about writing an essay. You’re talking about completing homework assignments.”
Maybe a well-respected organization with a history of success could get away with putting its candidates through that, but what coach in their right mind would want to go through that process if two or three other teams are also competing for their services?
With top candidates, the coach is interviewing the team just as much as the team is interviewing the coach, and timeliness is a critical part of the equation as candidates scramble to secure a landing spot.
In the words of Mike Tomlin, “Andrew Berry must be smarter than me.”
When coaches have options, the Browns are once again reminding the league why Cleveland is rarely one of them.