Yeah, its tough stuff but hard to argue against.
Dorsey's fatal flaw was the Kitchens hiring. And for those who want to believe Dorsey was against it, I think he would have resigned if that had been the case. The guy is a known personnel evaluator, one of the better as no one has a perfect record. Thus his reputation would be worth more to him than taking a shot with a coach he knew to be doomed to failure.
No, the simplest and most likely explanation is that Dorsey was onboard or possibly even the prime mover behind the Kitchens hiring. It proved to be so inept as to leave Haslam with no choice but to take away Dorsey's power to make the next HC hire. Correctly in my view, Haslam sought to retain him for player personnel leadership; he declined and the rest is history.
Its been a mix of a lack of patience by ownership and a bunch of bad hires. Hard to parse between the two in all honesty. Is there a HOF head coach we've let go post Belichick? Doesn't seem so.
Much has been made of the terrible track record that Haslam has for hiring.
In eight years, his General Managers have been Tom Heckert, Michael Lombardi, Ray Farmer, Sashi Brown, John Dorsey and Andrew Berry.
In eight years, his head coaches have been Pat Shurmur, Rob Chudzinski, Mike Pettine, Hue Jackson, Greg Williams, Freddie Kitchens and Kevin Stefanski.
Obviously, giving him a grade north of F would seem absurd. However, I maintain that in some respects he deserves the benefit of the doubt. First, he inherited Tom Heckert and Pat Shurmur. Second, Joe Banner was forced on him by the league and it was Joe Banner who hired Michael Lombardi, Rob Chudzinski and Mike Pettine and fired Rob Chudzinski. So you can’t blame Haslam for any of those hirings or firings since either they were forced on him or done by others.
Furthermore, the firing of Joe Banner and Michael Lombardi were both richly deserved, so who could blame him for that?
The hiring of Ray Farmer was a panic move due to Haslam being in a difficult position. There was no need to replace Banner since Alec Scheiner was already in place, but Haslam obviously needed a GM after firing Lombardi. He didn’t have time to give any thought to a replacement for Lombardi, and Farmer was already on staff. In addition, there were rumors that someone was trying to hire Farmer away from him. So elevating Farmer in that circumstance was forgivable if unwise.
And, anyway, Farmer might actually have survived as a GM if Pettine hadn’t been such a dismal failure. By the end of Pettine’s second year, it was clear that a new beginning was indicated and he fired them both. However, note that Haslam was actually responsible only for Farmer since Pettine had been a Banner hire.
Starting with the new beginning in 2016, however, it is all on Haslam.
In only four years, his Haslam’s General Managers have been Sashi Brown, John Dorsey and Andrew Berry.
In four years, his head coaches have been Hue Jackson, Greg Williams (interim), Freddie Kitchens and Kevin Stefanski.
Okay, so it is still a miserable record, just not as bad as some would make it out to be. Now suppose he finally has got it right with Berry and Stefanski. Ten years from now, we will look back and say: "Hey, not so bad after all."
