Re: Who is our head coach in the 2103 Opener
Cleveland wants an honest evaluation of their level, not excuses. The best coach Cleveland has had since returning in 1999 was Eric Mangini, and he was sacrificed because we brought in Mike Holmgren, who brought a new philosophy. I agree with Jigo's premise, and I'd go one step further: If Haslam comes out and sets a standard for winning, and talks openly and honestly about our team with the media, the fans will give him time. Dan Gilbert gets a long leash because he is open about his process, he has conviction about the people making the decisions, and he asks his fan base for time to build his empire. Kyrie showing the potential of being a top 3 PG in the league doesn't hurt the cause either.
Holmgren himself said they underperformed last year, and despite a tough schedule he expected to see improvements in the win column. No matter which way you slice it, this team was talented enough to win any of the games played so far, and walking out 0-3 after all of them... there's just no excuse for that. Meanwhile, Shurmur has a highly penalized team that, for the second year, has been failing on crucial special teams plays. He has always coached on the offensive side of the ball before coming to Cleveland, and specialized in QB coaching/ training. His relationship with Sam Bradford was a big selling point to the fan base on his hire. Yet Colt McCoy regressed under Shurmur (despite supposedly being set up to fail by Daboll the year before), and our offense as a whole took a step back after the defensive minded Mangini left town.
Now we've drafted one of the most dynamic running backs coming out of college in the past decade. We have one of the highest drafted offensive lines in the NFL (2 1st round picks, 1 2nd, 1 3rd, 1 5th), but we are occasionally sloppy on pass protection and terrible on run protection. It is Shurmur's job to get these guys playing at the elite level their talent dictates they can play at, and it's his job to design an offense that can allow Richardson the ability to get 3 yards down field before initial contact. Couple all of the game time issues with the fact that he remains thin-skinned and defensive in front of the media. The guy just has trouble coming out and saying "I need to do better." If he's afraid of taking a large chunk of responsibility in our failures, that trickles down the the team. Anyone here who has been a part of a strong sales-oriented position can attest to the power of a convicted leader who believes what he preaches, and owns up to the results.
I completely agree with Damage that what this team needs is stability. I hope Haslam brings it. I'd love to retain Heckert, but we'll see where that falls. I hope we continue to press on with some version of the WCO, because at this point we're built for it, but we'll see what happens. Most importantly, I hope we maintain a 4-3 defense, because our strength and depth at the DL becomes diminished in a 3-4, and we do not currently have anywhere near the LB skill/ depth to handle a 3-4. Our secondary outside of Haden is terrible, and if we need to address other needs on defense because of a new scheme, our D will be set back another 2-3 years.
Finally, I'll take an historical approach to the Browns FO misery since 1999, and I'll do my best to be objective in evaluations:
'99-'00 - Chris Palmer - Never had a fair shot. He was the recipient of a team not capable of competing in the NFL, and he was the Browns first scapegoat for the failure
'01-'04 - Butch Davis - Our mistake was bringing Butch in in the first place. Butch wanted control (much like Mangini) and he got it. Due to early game time success in Cleveland, Davis received a lot of power within the organization. He used it to drive out Dwight Clark and took over GM responsibilites. By the time Davis was fired, the executive branch for the Browns was bare except for an esteemed team president in Carmen Policy and Davis' atrocious drafting record left the team in a state similar to 1999. This series of events coupled with a bad owner, IMO, is the biggest reason for the current state of affairs. Davis resigned mid season so he could get back into college football, and left a bad team in a sorry state. I don't think you can argue he didn't get a fair shot.
'05-'08 - Romeo Crennel - This was the only real hire Randy Lerner made who had a real shot to get something done. I'm again not so sure you can argue Crennel didn't get a chance. The coach and GM were hired independently (this is important because of Randy's next hire), and both were veritable all stars coming the to the Browns. However, very early into this budding team, cracks appeared. For reasons still unknown, Savage was quickly fired by team president Carmen Policy. Randy Lerner intervened, and allowed Savage to keep his job. This move pushed Policy, who had taken the job as a favor to former owner Al Lerner, to resign the next day. Crennel rallied behind Savage, but poor team play resulted in Savage continually throwing Crennel under the bus. As fans, we saw a professional organization implode and destroy itself over these 4 years, despite making the playoffs with pro-bowl QB Derek Anderson.
'09-'10 - Eric Mangini - Randy Lerner was determined not to make the same error he made when hiring Savage and Crennel. Rather than trying to pair together two guys who were both highly qualified for their respective guys, he picked the one guy he wanted most (Eric Mangini) and let him hire his own GM. Certainly this was a perfect solution. A GM and a HC working in tandem, who respect each other and can work towards the greater good of the team. It was all Randy wanted. Instead, Mangini brought in an old roomate in Kokinis, and went about marginalizing Kokinis' role in the organization as quickly as possible. We all know the story here, so I'll skip it. The end result: A good coach who is a terrible GM is in control. Lerner knows his plan went poorly, and I think at that moment, he gave up on this team. He offered a blank check to Holmgren to come to Cleveland and fix the unbelievable damage done to this organization, which has been piling up since the Davis regime. Holmgren comes in, and does just that. He gives Mangini an extra year to coach a bad team while he takes the time to put his system in place. By the end of 2010, Holmgren had his GM hired, his scouting staff in place, and he had a list of guys he wanted to run the team. Mangini was out of a job the day Holmgren was hired, and everybody knew it. You could argue he didn't get a fair shake as a HC, but he dug his own grave the day he brought in Kokinis, and manipulated his way into a GM role.
That brings us to Shurmur. Shurmur is the beneficiary of having the strongest front office the Browns have had since 1999. He has been given the time to put a plan in place, the resources of a championship caliber coaching staff, and the luxury of knowing the guys upstairs were 100% behind him. Considering all of the good going on in the organization, and the fact that Shurmur is coaching the most talented Browns team since 1999, his results are unacceptable. I don't buy into the fact that the Browns haven't given a HC a fair shot since returning. The only guy who can make that claim with 100% accuracy is Palmer. Tomlin and Cowher have been given as much time as they have in Pittsburgh because they were both great coaches, and their teams always showed it in the win column. The same could be said about Fisher's tenure in Tennessee. We haven't hired a great coach yet, and that's why they are driven out of town. Keeping a guy for 8 years doesn't make him good, but hiring a good guy gets him 8 years. It's that simple.
