WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS FOR 2011

[Flugel]

Originally Posted by Vegasdogg

Here is something I have been saying since last week - Mike Holmgren CAN make a decision and come to a conclusion on whether he wants to keep the coach without ONLY considering the record, the roster, or the systems. An evaluation on a coach takes into account the whole picture. Just because the roster sucks doesn't mean you're forced to keep a coach longer to see IF he is your guy.

I mean didn't Lerner hire Holmgren to make these tough decisions? In a perfect world you have a stocked roster and then you evaluate the coach. But I don't think you need a perfect world to know if the coach you have is the guy to get it done.

DID he make a tough decision or did he decide to set us back a year by waiting last year at this time? It just made ZERO sense to defer "Cleveland fans are just gonna have to be patient" to this January.

If anyone listened to the press conference on www.clevelandbrowns.com - Pat Shurmur says he's here to win. BUT, it also started coming out from the 2 guys on either side of him that this is a rebuild and startover. Not only that, Holmgren said we can't keep firing HCs every 2-3 years. I don't think he needed to fire the HC when the problem was OC and not having this dreamy WCO on Lake Erie. Back when Otto Graham was the FIRST QB to run the WCO here - seasons were 12 games long and playoffs were done before Christmas. When SIPE played we put all our marbles into a passing game - the swirling winds off Lake Erie gave him wind chills at 37 below zero. This ain't San Francisco in November/December and Carmen Policy learned that REALLY quick. I'm still witnessing square pegs not fitting round holes.

Here's what I've seen since 1999 and please feel free to correct this fan that doesn't know as much as Carmen Policy, Phil Savage and now Mike Holmgren - "we're gonna run the 3-4 defense" WITHOUT any All Pro caliber LBers and nothing but dlinemen from 4-3 schemes. NOW, we get to revert back to the concept of a WCO without anything even remotely similar to Jerry Rice. I may not be able to quit my day job - but listening to "we're gonna" since 1990 with 1 playoff W to our name means "we still have NOT." I know ALL the great reputations that have come here; but the ONE thing that never stopped failing was GETTING talent through the draft. That's why coaches have gone down like dominos.

After 22 years of empty promises about wonderful schemes and coaches coming from organizations that had so much talent they could NOT lose - I want to see somebody bring us in a Jerry Rice or a Lawrence Taylor before I join in with the pom poms, cartwheels and splits. Seriously. I don't give the first rat about HOW someone THINKS he's gonna play chess until our attack pieces exceed freakin pawns. Otherwise, they're in for the same culture shock that swarmed our previous Head Coaches. Every damn one of them came in thinking they could be different than the one before them. Every damn one of them left here KNOWING you need talent to win in this league.

There's some things I LIKE that Holmgren is doing in this order: 1) Hired Tom Heckert first (GREAT talent evaluator IMO) and 2) Demanded Colt McCoy got snagged when he was on our doorstep. He's also a likeable guy. That said, I've witnessed far too many startovers NOT to question why the tough decision wasn't made last year.

For the record, I'll never possess the Xs and Os knowledge Holmgren has or the deep understandign of the QB position. That said, I know what went on in Cleveland when he was having fun on other franchises. He didn't show up to Cleveland until 2009 so he doesn't REALLY know what we've been through and what's gone on here. For that matter, who here thinks Randy Lerner knew what went on before the inheritance gave him a hobby to split with running a pro soccer team on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean?

Heckert is gonna be the most important person to turning this thing around. If he has more drafts like his first one and some of the gems he did up in Philly - Pat Shurmur actually has a chance to be different. Man, I hope he is!

[Sez.EJ]

I agree with most of the above threads.. our drafting has killed the team and the coaches..the greatest coach is not going to win much without talent.. a good coach without talent is going to look lousy.. it's not a mystery.....but I don't blame Holmgren for getting rid of Mangini and getting his guys top to bottom..now he owns it.. Heckert needs to bring in great draft picks year after year and make some good free agent pickups.. We have 6-9 serious holes to fill.. 2-3 will be in the draft.. any others in free agency.. or they won't be filled this offseason.. We just need to get some consistency in the draft..and hopefully some talent will make Shurur Heckert and Holmgren all look like geniuses.