Browns embark on yet another coaching search

  • Questel hed shot
  • January 11, 2011
  • 236
                        
011511 Brownscolumn Promo: Browns need front office check as well as new coach Browns embark on yet another coaching search When is 5-11 not the same? When you are Eric Mangini. It doesn’t seem to make much difference who coaches the Cleveland Browns’ organization. The revolving door spun again recently when Mangini was dumped after two seasons as head coach and vastly different 5-11 records, sending the Browns on yet another search for The Chosen One. That’s been an impossible chore for the club since the dark days of Art Modell, not that it has much better under the Lerner family. In the past 18 seasons, there has been only three winning seasons in that span of ownership. With Mangini gone, the Browns embark on their fifth such head-coaching search since the team’s resurrection on the lakefront in 1999 under Chris Palmer. Not that I was a Mangini fan, especially after he left New York under a cloud, but I’ll admit I also never thought control freak Bill Belichick – who was 36-44 in Cleveland with only one winning season -- would amount to much of an NFL coach based on his performance with the Browns. One could make a sound argument that it was Belichick’s stunning lack of PR and his brilliant ability to alienate fans and divide the team, even more than Modell’s inept leadership, which contributed in turning the Browns into the Ravens. Dour Bill has had incredible success in New England, although I remain convinced he never could have matched that had he remained with the Browns. The bond between fans and team had been torn by 1995, especially once Modell’s duplicity began leaking out, but I will tip my hat to what he has accomplished in New England. And while I never would have hired Mangini in the first place, I would argue his dismissal was without merit. Sure, the team was 5-11 – again – but this was a team that defeated Belichick’s New England Patriots, who at 14-2 had the best record in the NFL this past season, and beat defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans. Throw out an embarrassing loss to Pittsburgh in the season finale, and the fact of the matter is that the Browns were in seven one-score losses and in a pair of 10-point setbacks. Four wins in the final four games of 2009 gave Mangini once more chance, but he was probably doomed by the Browns’ bookend 0-3 start and finish to 2010. Given the number of injuries sustained by the team, especially at the quarterback position with three quarterbacks getting starts this season, it’s no wonder the team struggled as much as it did. This wasn’t a roster long on talent to begin with, and the Browns suffered too many injuries to get a realistic look at its abilities. So, whose fault was it? Mangini certainly bears a large share as the leader of the on-field talent, but I’m of the belief the front office deserves more. Its drafts since 1999 have been abysmal, whether based on talent or character. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to take a flier on Kellen Winslow Jr., for example? Or Braylon Edwards, anyone? Character counts, too, and Winslow was little more than a carcinogen in the Cleveland locker room. Character aside, Cleveland drafts have been devoid of talent far too often. That’s but one example. The reality is the next coaching regime is going to undo whatever Mangini has done, and if the 2011 draft is as poor as Browns’ history suggests it will, then whomever the next coach is will struggle mightily and the two- or three-year coaching carousel will continue to spin ’round and ’round. Browns president Mike Holmgren was head coach in Green Bay, where he made his name. Yes, while he was he was in Seattle, the Seahawks made the Super Bowl in 2005. However, during his first four years in Seattle as head coach and general manager, Holmgren was 31-33 with one winning season. After being relieved of those GM duties in 2002, Holmgren went on to have five consecutive winning seasons, but he didn’t have the final say on talent. Ineptitude at the top can permanently haunt a franchise, as evidenced by the Cincinnati Bengals and Mike Brown, the St. Louis/Phoenix football Cardinals under Bill Bidwell or the Los Angeles’ Clippers under Donald Sterling. On the other hand, hire quality people and leave them alone and look at what the baseball Cardinals have done in St. Louis, the Pittsburgh Steelers (with three coaches since 1970) or the Los Angeles Dodgers in baseball, who had two managers from 1958-95 and won consistently. Forget the coach. Holmgren and Lerner had better make sure the front office is in order – which this year’s roster suggests wasn’t – before wasting time and money on a new head coach. One can assume 2011 will be a wash. When Butch Davis replaced Chris Palmer, he wanted his system and his guys. He got them and failed. Ditto Romeo Crennel when he joined Cleveland in 2005, and Mangini did exactly the same thing when he arrived. His guys, his system equaled 10-22. Rest assured, the next coach is going replace everything that isn’t his, and this once great NFL franchise of the 1950s and ‘60s will continue to spin its wheels unless the front office does its job AND has patience AND understands rebuilding doesn’t happen in two years, especially with the disarray that has surrounded this team. Go Browns, but I’m afraid we’ll have to wait until 2013 or beyond. Only then will we know if the “Mike and Al Show” finally got it right.


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