The Browns’ wide-ranging offensive coordinator search has moved on to the likes of Mike Martz, but General Manager Ray Farmer was still answering questions about the departed Kyle Shanahan on Tuesday.
Farmer met with reporters at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama and didn’t offer many details about the reasons why Shanahan asked out of his contract or why the Browns granted his request. When Shanahan left, there were reports of friction with members of the front office about who to play at quarterback as well as alleged text messages to coaches during games that have led the league to look into communication that is barred by league rules.
Farmer didn’t talk text messages and said that his feelings on Shanahan will remain personal, but he said that there’s been a “natural friction” between coaches and the front office everywhere he’s worked in the NFL.
“That’s just how it is. Sometimes the personnel guys want Player A and the coaches want Player B. The teams that are really, really good, they work through those things,” Farmer said, via Cleveland.com. “Sometimes, you have to have the hard conversations. Sometimes you look guys in the eye and you argue and you yell, but you’re trying to get it right. You’re trying to come up with the right answers.”
Developments with the Bills and 49ers this offseason support the notion that some level of dysfunction isn’t unique to Cleveland, even if it does seem to pop up there more often than it does in other places. Farmer and coach Mike Pettine will try again to push the team in a different direction in 2015, a process that will get started once they hire Shanahan’s replacement.
