You could make a case that the Browns are the most dysfunctional team in the NFL right now.

The Bucs are winless. The Lions just lost to the Rams. The Chiefs have just suspended their running back and only have a win over the Redskins, who are a story of weekly discombobulation.

And yet I wouldn't say any of them hold a candle to the Browns.

GM George Kokinis is out. The guy who was hired after the head coach, Eric Mangini, has been sabotaged by Randy Lerner and now must find work. The Cleveland mess is not Kokinis', thankfully. Now he can go back to the Ravens or find work elsewhere, a place where they are reasonable, level-headed and pointed in a proper direction.

Kokinis was made a scapegoat for a sitation he really had little to do with. When he was hired, Mangini already sunk his teeth into personnel and convinced Lerner who should really be making the calls. Kokinis barely had an impact on the draft, we have heard, and he found himself without any real say in team matters. He and Mangini reportedly stopped talking months ago.

See, Randolph D. Lerner twice has tried to hire the next Bill Belichick. He tried and failed with Romeo Crennel and made the same mistake twice by hiring Mangini. The owner should get out of the day-to-day personnel and coaching calls with the team. Bad things tend to happen the more he does with this stuff.

Now, the team is stuck with a head coach whom the players reportedly don't like (sound familiar, Jets fans?) and a rudderless front office. Lerner said he wants a "strong, credible, serious leader" to help guide the Browns in — cue laugh track — a "far more conspicuous, open transparent way" than, ostensibly, the way Kokinis did things.

What a joke. They treated Kokenis the way they are treating Brady Quinn: without respect. Hopefully, the next GM will strongly, credibly and seriously consider what the heck he's getting into before he signs his career away.