Holmgren chasing fools gold with consideration of new coach.

The Genesis of a Process...

Almost 24 months ago, Eric Mangini was first introduced as the Cleveland Browns new head coach. He came to town on the heels of the 4 year Phil Savage/Romeo Crennel "era", and was commissioned with the job of turning around a franchise that was in a constant state of disarray and upheaval.

As anybody in Northeastern Ohio can tell you, this is no small feat. The Browns last tasted championship glory in 1964 a full 3 years before the 1st ever Super Bowl. Cleveland is a city that's starved for a championship, and anyone who is perceived as an obstacle or detriment to that goal is met with the fiercest criticism and disdain. Which is why it's not surprising that there's a fair amount of chatter in regards to Mangini's job security with the Browns. After all, Mangini's been here for a full two years and we haven't hoisted the Lombardi hardware yet, doesn't he know we've been waiting 46 years? What the hell is taking him so long?


Flip this team!


In the not too distant past, when the economy wasn't in the crapper, some entrepreneurial minded individuals made a handsome living buying houses at a low price, fixing them up using minimal funds, then selling them at a much higher price. The practice is known as "flipping" a property, and in the football sense, for Mangini to have any chance at success here in Cleveland he had to "flip" the roster of the Browns. He had to do this for the simple fact this team lacked talent, and the talent it did have was more interested modeling careers than playing football (just one example). So a major overhaul was necessary.


We won't even begin to speculate on the George Kokinis relationship and how that worked, but suffice to say the arrangement as it was established could not continue. He was released from the ball club mid 2009. It's no secret Mangini had his finger prints all over that first draft. If we were evaluating Mangini based on his talent evaluation, then the chorus of those wanting Mangini fired would definitely have more credibility Most draft experts say you can't fully evaluate a draft for at least 3 seasons, however when you only have 3 draft picks still on your active roster (Massaquoi , Robiskie, Mack) only a year after that draft then it's safe to put that draft in the "needs improvement" category.

However we're not here to debate the merits of Eric Mangini; general manager. That's why Mike Holmgren was brought in to oversee the front office and stack the team with talented players. With what Holmgren has provided in his first off-season as President, I'd say Mangini the coach has lived up to expectations.

In today's pass happy league the quarterback is king, and if you don't have a franchise QB under center then things become exponentially more difficult. Can you win with a sub par QB? Sure, just ask the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. However if you're gonna go that route, you better play near perfect football in all other areas of the game. Last year's fiasco with Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn was thankfully and mercifully put out of it's misery by Mr. Holmgren. He recognized that neither QB commanded the locker room, and by extension the huddle. A change was needed, so Holmgren went out and signed Jake Delhomme. Delhomme was coming off the worst season of his distinguished career, however Holmgren weighed the options and saw him as the most viable candidate to add stability to the QB position. You can see the rationale. A few years ago the Arizona Cardinals took a flier on a washed up former Super Bowl QB and it paid off 100 fold when Kurt Warner took the Cards to a Super Bowl in 2008.


A tale of two teams.

At this point last year the Browns were 1-11 with their sole win coming against the Buffalo Bills in what was arguably the ugliest most pathetic game in the modern era of the NFL. The Browns were abysmal in almost every aspect of the game, and while fans moan and groan about Jake Delhomme's interceptions, he does throw a lot of completions in between those interceptions. Ander-Quinn only gave you 3 options when in the pocket. Incomplete pass, Interception, Sack. That's it, that's the list. Completions were a rarity that bordered on complete and total embarrassment for a professional franchise.

The most striking difference between last year and this is the level of play and effort from this team. Yes, they are 5-7 however their largest defeat came at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers by a margin of 18 points. This is also the same game that saw Josh Cribbs and Mohammed Massaquoi fall victim to a spear happy madman by the name of James Harrison, and they just happened to be starting a 3rd round rookie QB in his first NFL action. To come away with only an 18 point defeat could be considered a small victory considering there have been Browns teams beaten by a much larger margin at the hands of the Steelers who had no injury issues to speak of.


At one point last year it had become a running joke amongst us Browns fans to mock Mangini's talk of "the process". We heard it in virtually every press conference, every post game interview. It got to the point where we were beginning to think "the process" was code for Scientology doctrine. We looked at it as a sales pitch for a time share in Alabama. However, many of us are now stepping back and seeing "the process" as it really is, and the fruits of that labor.


Apparently Jenny Craig was a part of the process.

Mangini recognized something very important in football, and I'm pretty sure he had already learned this before coming to Cleveland. He realized that if you're coaching a team that's lacking talent, you can even the playing field, and close the gap between the haves and have nots by playing smart, tough, and most importantly DISCIPLINED football. Some coaches in the league who are blessed with a plethora of talented players tend to slack off on the little things because they have the players that can make up for those little things with their God given talents. They focus on adding more to the playbook, more schemes to the mix. They can run a lot of plays pretty good. Mangini's team execute fewer plays, but they do it flawlessly. When adversity hits them, they don't lose their heads because they've practiced this exact scenario earlier in the week. They're prepared for anything, and opposing coaches have to dig deeper and deeper into their bag of tricks to catch the Browns off guard.

By reading the previous paragraph you might think I was talking about the Patriots, or a team getting ready for a first round bye, but alas, I'm not. I'm talking about the 5-7 Browns, and because of that, Mangini still has to wonder about his job status. The process is making strides, but it hasn't reached the destination yet. We can only hope that Holmgren doesn't buy a ticket for the Hindenburg before the train reaches the station.