It's funny usually in a "fire" thread, you'll have one or two people who will stick up for a coach or thinks there are valid reasons that a coach should stay. Even Eric Mangini and Manny Acta still had supporters after they were fired. There is NO-ONE who disagrees and thinks Shurmur should stay. Every single person is for getting rid of this bozo. That is unprecedented for a sports message board.
Challenge accepted.
Devil's advocate time: Why we shouldn't fire Pat Shurmur mid-season:
Jimmy Haslam took this team over officially in October, and, as a result, Shurmur was guaranteed to coach half way into this season. After spending $1 billion dollars on the team and having a desire to be an active owner, there's not much room to doubt that Haslam wants to put his own spin on this team, and see if he can pioneer the turnaround of this increasingly pathetic franchise. For that reason alone, Shurmur was likely going to be fired. Now we're heading into the bye-week at 2-7, and even skeptical fans hoped this team would have managed 3 or 4 wins by now. Instead, we have seen 9 weeks of inept play-calling, second guessing, poor communication and poor discipline. Haslam has no fear of being criticized for changing coaches out at the end of the year.
However, if Haslam fired Shurmur now, and an interim coach was to be hired (say, Jauron or Chilly), there is a chance, however small, that the interim coach could have a great deal of success. What if the guy replacing Shurmur won out the rest of the season? Or what if he managed a 6-1 or 5-2 record at the home stretch? It would be great as a Browns fan, but it would put Haslam in a tough spot. With such a small sample size, there's no guarantee the interim coach was actually any good. But firing a guy who won the last 5-7 games could upset a fan base starved for success, and its certainly not the way a new owner would want to start his legacy with his franchise. Shurmur could do the same thing: He could manage to win a majority of the games at the end of the season, but he has already made enough mistakes to justify his dismissal at the end of the season, regardless of how he finishes out. If Haslam wants to bring in a new regime and a change of guard, he can't get started until the off-season. So, in the meantime, perhaps the best solution is to write off this season, and let Shurmur captain the Titanic until it hits rock bottom.
