Now that teams can directly talk to players like quarterback Marcus Mariota, there’s no reason to further delay the inevitable announcement that the Browns have hired Kevin O’Connell to serve as quarterbacks coach. And so the Browns have not further delayed the inevitable announcement.
The team has issued a press release, carefully crafted to deal with the wrinkle that has caused multiple executives with other teams to cry foul: The deliberate decision to delay finalizing the process so that O’Connell could continue to work directly with Mariota, a player the Browns may try to trade up and select.
“I really was thankful to the organization for allowing me to do that,” O’Connell said in a press release that bizarrely carried a byline. “I made a commitment to Marcus and it wouldn’t have felt right not following through with him knowing that he trusted me for this important time preparing to start his NFL career.”
OK. Sure. It was the right thing to do. And it also gave the Browns an unfair advantage by allowing their future quarterbacks coach to assess Mariota far more closely than any other team could. Making the “right thing to do” even more right, from the team’s perspective.
Folks who work for other teams have a different perspective. As one league source told PFT in the wake of the official announcement, the Browns should be prevented from hiring O’Connell.
It’s clear the Browns have found a way to take advantage of a loophole to allow an incoming coach to continue to have access to a rookie that he’d otherwise be unable to enjoy. And the solution is simple; if a team is going to hire a guy to serve as an assistant coach, he needs to immediately cease all contact with incoming rookies -- or he needs to pass on the job.
Of course, that would be difficult to police. Maybe the better approach would be to tell teams that they cannot hiring assistant coaches who currently are working with draft prospects. That would keep coaches like O’Connell from having to renege on a commitment to help a kid get ready for the draft, and it would prevent teams like the Browns from getting an unfair edge.
Some would say the entire issue no big deal. To those who would say that, consider this: How big of a deal would you think it is if the Patriots did it?
