Mike McCarthy
Although the Green Bay Packers cut ties with Mike McCarthy during the 2018 season after it became clear that they would be unable to qualify for the playoffs, McCarthy was once one of the more highly-regarded coaches in the NFL. He won double-digit games in 8 of his 13 seasons coaching the Packers, including a Super Bowl championship in 2010 that was followed by a 15-win 2011 campaign with Aaron Rodgers in historically good form.
Over the past couple of years, the Packers have sagged, and McCarthy’s offenses have posted negative OSRS scores in back-to-back seasons. This, of course, would have been hard to believe just a handful of years ago, when Rodgers was the league MVP in 2014 and the Packers seemed unstoppable, coming agonizingly close to a second Super Bowl appearance.
Green Bay finished with a 4-7-1 record under McCarthy, and that was enough for the Packers to give him the boot. But because of his past track record and concerns that a seemingly disgruntled Rodgers is underperforming, McCarthy could be an attractive, big-name hire for a team like the Browns. Former Super Bowl winners get some grace as head coaching candidates, and there’s a chance the Browns see McCarthy as someone who can work with Mayfield, even given how poorly McCarthy’s relationship with Rodgers seemed to have ended.
McCarthy has a career 61.8% winning percentage as a coach, and that alone could be a reason for the Browns to view him more favorably than the other candidates on this list. Spending 13 years with one team, a bad breakup is bound to happen, and perhaps the Browns are willing to see past the consistent critiques of McCarthy’s scheming and gameplanning as someone who was sometimes seen as a force holding back Rodgers’s potential.