Seven years ago, Dee and Jimmy Haslam hired a former Browns offensive coordinator to return to Cleveland as a head coach.
Would the owners do it again with Brian Daboll?
The Browns interviewed Daboll for their head coaching vacancy Monday at team headquarters in Berea.
The Browns are also scheduled to host New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels for an interview Friday, Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer reported.
In the meantime, the Browns crossed a big name off their list of candidates because the Dallas Cowboys hired former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy, according to reports.
The Browns kicked off their interviews on Thursday by hosting McCarthy at their headquarters. Now the Super Bowl-winning coach is no longer available.
Daboll just finished his second season as the offensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills, who fell 22-19 in overtime to the Houston Texans on Saturday in a wild-card playoff game.
NFL rules stipulate the Browns cannot finalize a contract with a coach whose team is in the playoffs until the club is finished with the postseason.
But Daboll and McDaniels are available for hire and can finalize a contract anytime because their teams lost over the weekend. The Patriots suffered a 20-13 wild-card loss to the Tennessee Titans on Saturday.
McDaniels interviewed with the Browns in 2009 but lost to Eric Mangini and again in 2014 but later withdrew his name from consideration. The Canton McKinley High School graduate is set to interview with the New York Giants on Wednesday and also has plans to interview with the Carolina Panthers, per Breer.
Minnesota Vikings offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski is expected to interview with the Browns this week after his team defeated the New Orleans Saints 26-20 in overtime Sunday afternoon during the wild-card round. But Stefanski, a finalist in the Browns' coaching search a year ago, would not be able to finalize a contract until the Vikings are done with the playoffs. ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Stefanski is scheduled to interview with the Panthers on Thursday.
Daboll was the offensive coordinator of the Browns from 2009-10 under Mangini. Daboll's predecessor in Cleveland was Rob Chudzinski, who became the head coach of the Browns in 2013, a year after the Haslams bought the team.
The Haslams fired Chudzinski after he went 4-12 in his only season on the job. Now they're seeking the sixth full-time head coach of their ownership after making Freddie Kitchens another one-and-done head coach. The Browns went 6-10 under Kitchens in 2019.
Daboll has never been a head coach, but he has much more play-calling experience than Kitchens, who handled those duties the last season and a half for the Browns.
In 2019, the Bills ranked 24th in the NFL in yards (330.2) and tied for 23rd in points (19.6) per game with Daboll guiding the offense and quarterback Josh Allen, the seventh overall draft pick in 2018.
Daboll, 44, has been an offensive coordinator for the Bills (2018-19), Kansas City Chiefs (2012), Miami Dolphins (2011) and Browns (2009-10). He also won a national championship as the offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama in 2017.
His resume also includes 11 seasons and five Super Bowl titles with the Patriots. He served as a defensive assistant (2000-01), wide receivers coach (2002-06) and tight ends coach (2013-16) under Patriots coach Bill Belichick.
He also coached quarterbacks for the New York Jets (2007-08), spending the second of those two seasons with Hall of Famer Brett Favre.
Shortly after the Browns interviewed McCarthy, they traveled to Baltimore for an interview with Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman on Thursday night, then to Kansas City, Missouri, for an interview with Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy on Friday and to California for an interview with San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh on Saturday. They didn't interview anyone Sunday.
