BEREA, Ohio -- The sudden firing of coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley by the Cleveland Browns left some questions unanswered.

Problem is they may remain unanswered for the rest of the season, as the Browns chose not to dive much into their future plans aside from promising they are trying to win as many of the next eight games as they can.

The moves put defensive coordinator Gregg Williams in as interim coach, and Freddie Kitchens in as offensive coordinator.

There are tentacles in the latest drama of unending Browns dramas. Let’s try to hit them all.

Why now?

Owner Jimmy Haslam and general manager John Dorsey relied on only one statement from Haslam: "I think the message today is we are not going to put up with internal discord." Which means that whatever was going on between Jackson and Haley was not acceptable to the owner or the front office.

Any names to consider for the next head coach?

Lists will be formed, and they will include Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, Vikings (and former Browns) offensive coordinator John DeFilippo, and others.

One name, though, jumps out as a good fit: If the Packers part ways after the season with Mike McCarthy, he seems like a natural. He won a Super Bowl. He has been to the playoffs. He has worked with Dorsey (and Alonzo Highsmith and Eliot Wolf). He has had great success with quarterbacks.

A few years back, Andy Reid went from Philadelphia to Kansas City with the full knowledge he was joining a team with a good roster and good future. Reid has won 11, 9, 11, 12 and 10 games in five seasons and is 7-1 this season.

The next coach in Cleveland inherits Baker Mayfield, Myles Garrett, young talent, cap space and Dorsey. It’s an attractive job, one that any coach might find appealing. If McCarthy winds up looking for a fresh start, it’s a good place to land.

How it plays out, nobody knows, but McCarthy would bring instant credibility.

Who finds the next head coach?

Haslam personally took charge of the past three head coach searches that led to the hirings of Rob Chudzinski (Joe Banner was involved with the search as well), Mike Pettine (again with Banner) and Jackson. None of those coaches lasted three years.

Dorsey was hired as the general manager in December, and it seems natural to allow the new GM to pick the next coach. Haslam deferred, saying they haven’t determined how that will work.

"Right now, we are focused on the next eight games and Gregg and his staff winning as many of those games that we can," Haslam said.

"The next eight games."

OK then.

What about the organizational structure?

In Haslam’s system, the coach and GM are on equal footing with both reporting to the owner. That essentially puts the owner as the overseer of football. Haslam may have felt he needed that structure given Sashi Brown’s inexperience at top management. Dorsey, though, is a general manager who has worked under Ron Wolf in Green Bay, with Mike Holmgren in Seattle and as GM in Kansas City.

Haslam may eventually turn all of football operations over to Dorsey, but he’s not doing it immediately.

"There is no change there," Haslam said, adding: "The three of us work together."

"To me, it is a chain of command," Dorsey said. "Sometimes that is OK to have the coach and the general manager sitting there because he is ownership and ownership wants to know. You are going to explain to them what is going on. I think that is natural in anything that you do."

Haslam also said this: "Hue, John and I worked well together."

How can Haslam continually tear down structures he puts in place?

The owner clearly has not found the golden ticket. Chudzinski was fired after one season. Banner and Mike Lombardi went soon after. Ray Farmer and Pettine lasted two years. Brown was let go because the rosters were believed deficient the first two seasons; Jackson was retained after 0-16 and 1-15 seasons. The preseason hype about adding Haley was on high, and all were supposed to be marching together with Dorsey.

"Unfortunately, sometimes the best plans do not work out," Haslam said. "In this case, they did not. We were optimistic and hopeful that they would, but they did not work out."

Evidently not.

Why Williams as interim?

Well, it usually is a coordinator, and once Haley was let go he was out. There was talk midday that veteran coach Al Saunders was under consideration, but Haslam said Williams was the only individual considered.

"He has experience at the head-coaching position," Dorsey said. "He is a veteran defensive coordinator with a really nice résumé."

Cynics would point out Williams was 17-31 with the Bills and has a suspension on his résumé.

Cynics can be harsh.

Will Williams be considered for the job after the season?

Sure, Haslam said, if he wants to be and "if we decide to do a full search."

Coaches aren’t blind to reality, though. It’s a safe bet this staff knows there will be major turnover after the season.

Has Kitchens ever called plays?

"No," Dorsey said, "but he has been a quarterbacks coach. He has been a tight end coach. I believe he called a [preseason] game this year, and did a really nice job of that."

That would have been the fourth preseason game, when Devon Cajuste and Brogan Roback starred in the finale that starters watched without breaking a sweat.

In the Carmen Policy days, the Detroit-Cleveland preseason game was the Great Lakes Classic. Browns fans who have been around for some time know well that things always seem to come back to the Great Lakes Classic.

How does all this affect Mayfield?

Fair question. It’s a tough way to start a career, but … well … this is the Browns, so players should almost expect unnerving drama as they start their careers.

Dorsey pointed out that Kitchens will run the same scheme and same plays as Haley, and that quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese remains. But this clearly is not the stability or learning environment a team might draw as the ideal scenario for the first overall pick. That's probably a major reason the moves were made: The front office did not believe what was happening was conducive to Mayfield's development, which is now by far the most important item on the Browns' agenda for the final eight games.