Davis Steps Down as Browns’ Coach

After arriving three years ago with the promise of winning a Super Bowl title, Butch Davis resigned Tuesday as coach of the Cleveland Browns with five games left in another sinking season.

Davis’ departure came two days after the Browns (3-8) lost their fifth consecutive game, a 58-48 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals that followed a script similar to so many others in the Davis era: close but not good enough.

Although he had been promised last week by team owner Randy Lerner that his job was safe for the remainder of this season, Davis, 53, surprised the team by stepping down.

“My sense of it is that the whole environment had become very difficult to manage emotionally, and it was his sense that enough was enough,” Lerner said. “I know his family’s state of mind was a huge piece of the calculation.”

First-year offensive coordinator Terry Robiskie will coach the Browns for the rest of the season. His first game won’t be easy: The Browns play host to the Super Bowl champion New England Patriots on Sunday.

In 2001, Davis inherited from Chris Palmer a 5-27 expansion team devoid of any depth or star players. He had a 24-36 record with the Browns and led them to a 9-7 record and a playoff appearance in 2002, his second season after leaving the University of Miami.

But since then, the Browns are 8-19 amid a string of close losses, costly injuries and chaos.

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Martin Gramatica was released by Tampa Bay, two days after he missed three field-goal tries in the Buccaneers’ 21-14 loss at Carolina, extending a slump that began after the team won the Super Bowl two seasons ago.

The Buccaneers signed Arena Football League kicker Jay Taylor, who will make his NFL debut against Atlanta on Sunday.

Gramatica, 29, missed seven of his last nine field-goal attempts and was 11 for 19 overall this season. He had not made a field goal over 22 yards since Oct. 10, a puzzling statistic for a strong-legged kicker who had converted 15 of more than 50 yards in six NFL seasons.

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Backup tight end David Martin was put on injured reserve by Green Bay because of a strained left knee, ending his season.... New England re-signed receiver Kevin Kasper and waived defensive back Omar Lowe.