Red Right 88

What’s the next move Mike?

We probably shouldn’t be surprised at the news that Eric Mangini has been fired as coach of the Browns, but in some ways we are.

While we expected some kind of news to come out of Berea following the team’s 5-11 record this season, we thought it would be more along the lines of the team hiring an experienced, competent offensive coordinator. We expected Mangini to return for a third year, especially with the progress the team showed this year with the new front office structure of Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert and Mangini.

Of course, we also thought LeBron was going to resign with the Cavs, so there you go.

“I’ve said all along and I’ve tried to be true to what I’ve told you, and certainly what I’ve told Eric all along is that this season I would make any decision I had to make once the season was concluded,” Holmgren said in his press conference announcing the firing. “Let the dust settle, let me think about it. That’s how I make decisions. That’s how I made the decision to keep Eric. And then come to some sort of conclusion. I didn’t sleep very well last night. I was up a fair amount of the night thinking about this, thinking what I might have to do and then finally trying to make the correct decision. Look, it’s difficult. I’ve never had to do this before. I like the man a lot. He is a hard working, bright, caring guy. Unfortunately this business at times and even though it wasn’t the only factor, I want to win here. We want to win here in Cleveland and we did not win enough games this year.”

In November, Holmgren said his decision would not be based solely on wins and losses. But it seems from his comments that is what he did.

“I don’t know if you can separate the two (making progress vs. winning games),” Holmgren said. “I think if you look at our season it had tremendous highs and lows for me. I think when we beat New England and New Orleans, I don’t think anybody in this room could leave this room without a smile on their face. It was really something, something very special. Then as good as we finished last year, a year ago, we finished as poor this year. If you’re talking about direction or how I felt the team was going, the finish wasn’t a feel good finish. What I tried to do is not base my decision on any one game, any one play, any two games, any stretch but the body of work. As I told the players when I met with them today after Eric had talked to them I went in and talked to them briefly. I have high expectations and I’m not going to settle, I’m just not going to settle.”

So Holmgren believes the Browns should have finished with, what … 7 or 8 wins? Apparently he believes the Browns are closer to the team that beat the Patriots and Saints, rather than the one that lost to the Bengals and Bills. It’s great that he doesn’t want to settle for the same old same, but is it realistic?

Much like when Dan Gilbert fired Mike Brown, the easy part is over for Holmgren. He must get this hiring correct because, if he doesn’t, it will be on him, not on Mangini. The good thing is Holmgren isn’t going into this alone and it sounds like he’s not in a rush to make a decision.

“I don’t want to do this again,” he said. “I think historically if you look at teams that don’t have to do this very much, they’ve been successful. They’ve been successful it’s just like which came first the chicken or the egg? Are they successful because they haven’t done it? You go through some bumps in the road if you think you have the right guy and the right system and all those things. That’s part of it. It’s very, very important that we get this right.”

One of the more interesting points Holmgren made was how people outside of Cleveland view the team, versus the way the long-suffering fanbase does.

“You guys have been here a long time, most of you and you’ve lived through the really tough things,” he said. “I think you have a tendency to view things just a little differently than perhaps I did when I came in or someone from outside coming in and looking at it. This is one of the great jobs. There are 32 jobs, this is one of the great jobs in the country. You’re a head coach in the National Football League, if you are a football coach that’s what you want to be. Another part of that is I would use the same technique that I used with Tom Heckert, Bryan Wiedmeier, Mark Schiefelbein, Jim Ross, Matt Thomas, all the guys now that are manning the offices upstairs that came from great football places but they came here to be with me to try and get something special done that hadn’t been done. There’s a challenge there that I think appeals to men in this business. That’s what I’ll be talking to the person about.”

The best part, perhaps, was Holmgren saying he won’t force a particular system on his new coach.

“I don’t think I can do that,” Holmgren said. “In what I tried to do with Eric (Mangini) this year and we talked about it this morning. I said, ‘I wish I could have helped you out more,’ and we had one of those things where we were kind of talking to each other that way. If I hire a coach, I’m hiring a coach. He’s going to run what he runs, what he’s comfortable with, what he knows. Now will it be part of the consideration in the process? Absolutely, but I am not going to interfere that way as a president. I did not do it this year, I’m not going to do it next year and I’m not going to do it ever. That’s not fair. Is it a consideration in this process? I think it is though. Maybe not the ‘system’ exactly but certainly something that I think allows the quarterback in this case in one of our quarterbacks to be successful.”

As for Mangini, on some level its hard to argue that the Browns should have kept a coach who was 10-22 with the team, and is 33-47 in five years as a head coach. After making the playoffs in his first year as Jets coach with Herm Edwards’ players, Mangini was only 23-41 in his next four years. Those numbers are hard to overlook.

And if we were told the four-game winning streak to end the 2009 season was a sign of progress, what should we make of this year’s four-game season-ending losing streak?

Having said that, we just can’t shake the feeling that another year of Mangini working with Holmgren and Heckert would have been a positive for the team. The team played hard this year; unfortunately the lasting memory will be the final loss against Pittsburgh.

Despite his record, Mangini is the best coach the Browns have had since returning in 1999. We know that’s not saying much, but it’s saying something. He’s probably the fourth-best coach we’ve seen since becoming a Browns’ fan, which dates back to the days of Forrest Gregg as coach.

“The experience coaching the Cleveland Browns the past two years has been tremendous,” Mangini said in a statement. “I appreciate the opportunity that the Lerner family gave me. I have a deep respect for the players that I have coached the past two years and how they have made a profound difference in changing the culture — a tougher, smarter, more competitive, selfless team that never gave up.

“Our goal was to build a team for long-term success. The core characteristics we were dedicated to, I believe, will help achieve that goal, and have provided a strong identity for this football team and have helped to create a positive foundation upon which the organization can continue to build.”

A new coach won’t make the defensive line younger or improve the linebackers. A new coach will still be looking at a team without a single wide receiver who would start for any other team in the league and a right side of the offensive line that is a mess.

But the new coach will be coming to a team with the No. 6 pick in the upcoming draft, young talent in Joe Haden, T.J. Ward, Colt McCoy and Peyton Hillis. Plus the new coach better be able to continue the tough, competitive nature of the team that Mangini put in over the past two years.

One additional thing we have going for us is, unlike the past coaching changes, this one doesn’t involve a complete overhaul of the front office as well. While Mangini is gone, Holmgren and Heckert remain. So the team, for once, isn’t really starting over from scratch.

But this is probably Holmgren’s one and only chance to get it right when it comes to hiring a coach.

Let’s hope he knows what his next move is.

***

No surprise that there is plenty of talk about Holmgren’s decision:

Mike Holmgren talks about Eric Mangini: Waiting for Next Year

Mike Holmgren, Eric Mangini and a Question with No Good Answers: Cleveland Frowns

And the Circle of Suck Continues: Two One Six Sports

Don’t Coach Mike: Terry Pluto

Mike Holmgren did the right thing: Bud Shaw

Holmgren needs younger version of himself: Marla Ridenour

ESPN celebrates Eric Mangini’s firing: Cleveland Leader

Mike Holmgren is best choice for Browns: James Walker

Final Thoughts on the Browns-Ravens

After a day of reflection, we feel a bit better about the Browns even after their latest loss to the Ravens.

Disappointed? Of course. Discouraged? Not really.

In some ways, beating New Orleans and New England earlier in the year hurt the Browns. Those wins made it hard for some fans to understand the team is still in a rebuilding process; those fans struggled with the idea that the Browns could beat two of the best teams in the NFL, but also lose to the Bills and the Bengals.

While we would certainly like it if the record was reversed, the reality is this team doesn’t yet have the talent to win consistently, especially when they turn the ball over four times against a team that will probably end the season at 12-4. But what they can do is compete, which they have done every week.

”I’ve seen [teams] get beat by 20 and 30 points, and that’s losing bad,” fullback Lawrence Vickers told The Beacon-Journal. ”A loss is a loss, but the way you lose sometimes plays a part in it. . . .The way we lost this year, not saying it was good, but three points here, a touchdown there. . . .That tells you something: that we’re on the verge of doing something great. I can feel it even with whatever’s going on. We [went through] three quarterbacks and kept ticking and kept fighting. That just tells you what kind of group we are.”

What the Browns are building toward, and what is hard for some fans to see, is a team that enters each season with a realistic chance to win 10+ games each season, not rollercoaster up and down depending on the yearly schedule (think 2007 Browns).

“I think what you have to do, philosophically, when you’re discussing it, it’s how do you want to build the winner? You can look at it from a short-term perspective where you are going to do everything that you can to just win that year, or you’re going to look to build a team and an organization that can compete year in and year out, and that’s what I believe in,” coach Eric Mangini said in his Monday press conference. “I’ve been a part of that and there are a lot of things that go into that. Ideally what you have is you create something that each year is at a high level, like a lot of teams in our division are.”

Specifically Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The biggest hurdle the Browns have to get over is being in the same division as the Steelers and the Ravens because that means there are no easy games on the schedule.

Look at Kansas City for example. The Chiefs are getting a lot of love this year from the media, but what happens next year when they play a tougher schedule? They won’t have teams like Arizona, Seattle and San Francisco on the schedule next year; instead they will get Indy, New England and Pittsburgh, among others, thanks to their first-place finish. You don’t think that will impact on their record?

Thankfully the players understand what’s going on.

“I think we’ve had a big improvement from this year to last,” center Alex Mack told The Plain Dealer. “I think we’ve been a lot closer in a lot of games and I think we’ve played a lot better. We have a lot of great guys on this team. It’s sad to see the season go.”

“To me, there’s a sense of community in this team and there’s a sense of purpose in this team,” Mangini said. “That doesn’t happen by accident. We all want to win every single week and there’s tremendous respect for each other from the players and the coaches and you can’t share this long period of time of working together and having the positives and negatives throughout the course of the season and the emotional highs and lows throughout the course of the season without forming that bond. That’s going to continue to be here and it’s going to continue to propel us forward. It’s meaningful when players say that because I think it’s indicative of the mutual respect and feelings that we have for each other.”

We’re confident that team president Mike Holmgren will weigh what the players say, and what he has seen this year, more heavily than what the media manufactures as they busy themselves with the temperature of the office furniture in Berea. And there is certainly a lot of hoo-haa flying around.

”People are digging, trying to find a reason for us not having success this year,” cornerback Sheldon Brown told The Beacon-Journal. “And at the end of the day, it’s us as players not making enough plays. That’s what the story is.”

The latest anti-Mangini argument centers on the premise that Holmgren absolutely must have the Browns run a West Coast offense. Of course, Holmgren has never said this; but why let that get in the way?

First off is The PD‘s Bill Livingston, who writes that because Colt McCoy may actually be an NFL-caliber quarterback, then Mangini must go:

“A clash seemed inevitable over time between the defensive-minded philosophy of Mangini and the offense-oriented approach of Browns president Mike Holmgren. McCoy’s rise accelerates it.”

And Bud Shaw:

“How could Mike Holmgren think this head coach and this manage-the-game-and-keep-it-close offensive philosophy is the best available custodian for McCoy’s development, let alone offer fertile ground for McCoy’s West Coast skills to blossom?”

And Peter King:

“Eric Mangini had to be great this year to survive the shotgun marriage with Mike Holmgren, but a three-game losing streak puts him on the firing line — if Holmgren can get one of his type of guys (Jon Gruden, maybe Marty Mornhinweg) to coach.”

And ESPN’s James Walker:

“What was Holmgren thinking as he watched rookie Colt McCoy — Holmgren’s personal choice at quarterback — run a porous offense with questionable play calling? … Mangini had to demonstrate progress after last season’s 5-11 record. But despite wins against the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints on the road and the heavily favored New England Patriots at home, the Browns have not shown enough improvement in 2010.”

So with everyone speculating about what Mike Holmgren is thinking and plans to do, let’s review what he has actually said this year about the team and the coaching staff:

• Does he want to coach again?: “No, I’m doing okay. Does it sound like I want to coach? No, I’m doing okay. The challenge of this is really something for me and I’m enjoying the challenge. I’d be less than honest if I didn’t say I get fired up watching the games, I mean I did that for too long not to react sometimes the way I do, but I also recognize what I was hired to do and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
• How will he evaluate the coaching staff?: “The important point there I think is any coach, any staff where I am in the position I’m in, will be judged at the end of the season. It will take thoughtful thinking and I’ve said this before and I said it when I first came here, it think it’s important that you take some of the emotion out of it if you can. At the end of the year, everyone catches their breath a little bit, think about it and hopefully make an intelligent decision. I also said this, wins and losses are not the only criteria.”
• Will he force the Browns to run the West Coast offense?: “Any coach that thinks he has the only way to do something is nuts. I feel very strongly on how I did things. I believed for me and my staff and my personality, that was the exact way to do it. But heck, there are a lot of ways to do it. I watch and I give that speech to myself on occasion. I think it’s the right thing to do though. I kind of knew that, whether it was Eric or anyone else. They are going to do things differently than the way I did it. I had better be prepared to handle that or I shouldn’t have taken the job.”

If we can see things clearly, why can’t everyone else?

***

Also check out:

Mangini, Truth Death and Taxes at Waiting for Next Year

Monday Morning Browns Derpfest at Two One Six Sports

Too Careful, Not Careful Enough at Cleveland Frowns

Recalibrating on Eric Mangini

As we slowly move through the month of August*, the Browns are winding their way through training camp, the first exhibition game sits on the horizon and the opening of the season is a month away.

Things are quite a bit different in Browns training camp. At this time last year, we were dealing with controversial bus rides, a ridiculous quarterback “competition” and contract promises from the “previous regime.” Most importantly, we were all wondering what we had in coach Eric Mangini.

Contrast that to this year: no contract issues, a clear pecking order for the quarterbacks and overall peace and quiet. In fact, it’s Randy Lerner’s other team that finds itself dealing with coaching issues just days before the start of the season.

As we move toward the start of Year 2 of the Mangini Era, I’ve been re-evaluating my opinion of Mangini as a coach.

One of the biggest frustrations from last year was the way he handled the quarterback duties between Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn. Clearly, neither quarterback was going to be a Pro Bowler, but Mangini made the situation worse by not naming a starter at the outset of training camp and letting that person get as much work as possible as the team installed a new offensive system.

Instead, the QBs were bounced in and out during the preseason, with neither playing the final game. What followed during the regular season was historically bad play at the position.

Mangini deserved a large part of the blame because he was unable to create a situation where either quarterback could succeed. And that’s one of the key responsibilities of a coach: you have to be able to put your players in position to succeed. For example, if you want to run an offensive based on a short passing game, you don’t turn the team over to Derek Anderson.

Which brings us to this year. To be fair, if the coaches are responsible for helping the players to succeed, then management (Lerner and Mike Holmgren) are responsible for putting together the framework for the coaches to succeed.

That framework wasn’t in place last year, as Mangini had free reign to do what he wanted, especially after running GM George Kokinis out of town, and it proved too much for him to handle. Now, with Holmgren and GM Tom Heckert firmly in place, Mangini, offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and the rest of the coaching staff can do the jobs they were hired for – nothing else.

With the national media continuing to beat the drum that Mangini is on the coaching “hot seat,” creating an atmosphere for the coaching staff to succeed is vitally important. Having Holmgren as another set of eyes is only going to help as well. While he’s not going to walk out at practice and contradict Mangini, if Holmgren spots a flaw in the way a player is performing – especially at quarterback – and corrects it, then everyone wins.

Holmgren also brought in Gil Haskell, his former offensive coordinator, to observe and offer suggestions to Daboll. The ability for Haskell to sit down with Daboll and talk to him about his game plans, why he called a certain play in a certain situation, and offer suggestions and support, can only make Daboll – and by extension the offense – better this year.

I’m still not 100 percent sold on Mangini as head coach. He has a losing record in his career, made one playoff appearance as Jets coach with Herm Edwards players, and his only success in the NFL came in a supporting role to Bill Belichick.

But with the way the team is progressing and being rebuilt from top to bottom, I feel a whole lot better than I did at this time last year. The picture is starting to fill in around the edges and Browns fans once again have something to be optimistic about.

*Isn’t August really one of the worst months of the year? If you’re a kid, the start of school is just around the corner, it’s ridiculously hot, the Indians are generally out of the playoff race, the big family vacation is over, even the pool doesn’t hold the same appeal as it did in June and July. Thankfully the Premier League starts this weekend.