Eric Mangini: Double Take

[Enigmatic Evil]

This was first posted at my Barking Hard Blog

Eric Mangini joined the team and left the team under very similar circumstance. Many were torn over his initial acquisition. Many were split over his unceremonious departure. The reasons for that are part of which I wish to discuss here.

Mangini joined the team in the wake of the Romeo Crennel / Phil Savage departure. The team hired Mangini, and to be honest he must have sold Lerner well to get the job he did. Coach/GM... a guy who had mixed grades from his time with the Jets landed himself a golden opportunity to make a name for himself with the Browns.

Joining the team in the 2008/09 off-season. Mangini hit the ground running, bringing over some players from the Jets to help begin what would become 'his' locker room. Players like Elam, David Bowens, looking to make a change to show the Browns were his team.

The Draft that year wasn't exactly flattering to Mangini's resume. Lets look at it pick by pick. These are players he wanted afterall...

Trading down for Alex Mack: He's our starting center, and he looks like he will be for a long time. Hard to knock this pick as a guy who continually states that our offensive line NEEDS some young starters and depth, STILL, two years later.

Second pick, Brian Robiskie: Now... he never really 'arrived' until late THIS year, getting a TD in each of the last 4 games of the 2010 season. Before that, he had generated his fair share of pre-season buzz and little else. I'm not decided on this pick

Pick 3, MoMass: Now, Mohammad Massaquoi has shown flashes that he could be a good reciever but he's also shown incredibly frustrating mental lapses which seem to re-play EVERY game. At this time I would almost rank Robo ahead of MoMass...

Mr. Veikune: Is he a lineman, is he a linebacker? Who knows... Middle Linebacker, OLB? ILB? We couldn't decide what to do with him. Mangini should have picked a spot for him right off the bat and go with it. Instead, indecision and Veikune's own overrated value may have lead to him now being gone from the Browns.

Kaluka Maiava: He impressed me in 09 but got buried by better talent in 10. I don't know if he even saw the field in 2010 but he contributed in 2009.

The rest: Don Carey didn't even WEAR a Browns uniform did he? Coye Francis was cut, then re-signed by the Browns and James Davis was eventually released.

Mangini made a reputation for himself with the way he coached the team in 2009. A rather un-flattering article in Sports Illustrated compared Mangini's coaching tactics to Nazism. A caricature of Mangini with chocolate splattered on his face. A mountain of football players discarded behind him while he wore his infamous sulking look, sitting alone on the bench. This image set the tone for what was truly a one-sided article.

With the team off to a 1-11 start, such negative articles were not entirely un-warranted. However the team made a turn-around which smoothed over the majority of negativity which circled Mangini. A turn-around which included the first victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers since Ben Roethlisburger became the main man behind center for the Steelers.

The strong finish didn't do much to inspire confidence of Randy Lerner who hired Mike Holmgren to be the team's president in the 2009/10 off-season. Mangini managed to hold on to his job as Head Coach. Perhaps the first seed of doubt was planted here by Holmgren, whose initial critique of Mangini was a simple request that the man smile more...

Thus, the more genial and attractive Mangini of 2010 was born. The team was still defined by the work ethic of its head coach who put countless hours in the film room.

A draft by Tom Heckert which was heralded by most of us as one of the best drafts the team has had. The draft brought us future long term starters like Joe Haden and TJ Ward as well as Colt McCoy. Potential starters in Lauvao at Guard and Hardesty at RB as well as a project pick in Carlton Mitchell.

Mangini continued his house cleaning that he began in 2009. We got rid of Brady Quinn, traded for pretty much the MVP of 2010 in Peyton Hillis who mentioned he wanted to be the steal of that trade... I digress.

2010 didn't start out quite as planned, with an 0-3 start which marked tough losses to Tampa Bay and Kansas City as well as a disappointing loss to Baltimore in week 3 that saw Anquan Boldin run wild on Eric Wright, i think that the pitchforks were being sharpened right here.

A week 4 win against the Bengals restored some confidence and gave the fans a win they desperately needed. Tough losses against the Falcons and Steelers lead way to a huge win against the Super Bowl Champions, and then we became the last team to beat the Patriots.

Ugly losses against the Jets and Jaguars and an ugly win against the Panthers didn't help matters much.

Close win to the Dolphins and a close loss to the Bills and losses all the divisional rivals to close the year spelled another 5-11 season for Eric Mangini.

I wonder if a four game losing streak to close the season did as much to harm his job as a four game winning streak went to help him keep his job the year before.

In the end, my main knocks against Mangini are as follows:

THE SULK: Imagine it with me, the team is down, again. At a time where the team needs a coach to help lift their spirits and motivate them past a rough spot in a game. Mangini would be standing there with his arms crossed and his glare fixed. What does this accomplish?

Stuck In His Ways: This started with his 'hard work system' and boiled down to 'sticking to the game plan' it seemed like if there was a way for Mangini to avoid adjusting the plan, he would. Its great to reward the hard working players with playing time but when it's doing nothing to help the product that goes on the field during game time. Its the coaches job to make changes here that were rarely made.

That's not to say it was all bad, here are some things I liked about Mangini:

Teamwork: Even if it was "his team". The team played hard for Mangini. Resulting in a team that kept in it until the end on the majority of the games we played in 2010. I can't think of the same for any of the previous seasons where there were always glaring inconsistencies. Those inconsistencies poked their heads out at times in 2010 but for the most part the team believed in each other and we played tough the whole season.

Moderate Improvement: Improvements none the less right? I think he learned from his mistakes in 2009, including making himself more media friendly. There was not a revolving door at QB for the sake of finding out which turd shines a bit brighter. I'm glad that he didn't throw Seneca in there late in the year when everyone was sick of Delhomme. He learned you gotta stick with your guy sometimes...

Now... In the end. Mangini's 10-22 record probably didn't inspire much confidence in Mike Homgren and the fact that there wasn't that much improvement overall was the reason that Mangini lost his job. Philosophies, I think that's bull. The reason Mangini was fired was because during his two seasons of work with the Browns there just wasn't enough evidence to prove he was taking this team in the right direction.

I hardly think this is the end of Eric Mangini. I will be surprised if he doesn't land an NFL Head Coach job elsewhere and I think he has learned a lot from Holmgren, from his time with the Browns. Will he be better for the team that takes him? Who knows... The Browns, we're moving in a different direction. Time to move on from Eric Mangini.

[Distempered-Dawg]

Nice Take

[nickers]

Im doubtful Mangini will get a head coaching shot again...Once youve gone with two franchise and the outcomes were poor,.,,chances are he wont get a gig unless say...someone like Belichick retires and Bob Kraft takes a chance on him....Im thinking thats the only way it happens.

[Vegasdogg]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic Evil

THE SULK: Imagine it with me, the team is down, again. At a time where the team needs a coach to help lift their spirits and motivate them past a rough spot in a game. Mangini would be standing there with his arms crossed and his glare fixed. What does this accomplish?

Exactly! I never saw Mangini on the sidelines doing much to help lift the team out of a funk on gameday. He is just not that kind of coach. He is there when things go well, but I never saw him doing much when things got difficult. That isn't the backbreaker that got him sacked, but it is important for a coach to be more than just an X's and O's guy.

[DeadWombat]

My opinion on Mangini-and this hasn't changed since the beginning of this season-is that he's a good coach when it comes to the actual coaching of the players, but he is just mediocre at best when it comes to managing the team both on and off the field. It almost got to the point where I could not stand to see him come game time.

I can't forgive him for the horrendous draft he and Kokinis had.... his repeated mishaps in game-time managment, questionable roster and depth chart moves (making favorites out of "the mangini guys"; alienating others), and hiring his buddy Brian Daboll, then favoring and defending Daboll and his offense. Then, EE, I had to add his overall stubbornness, as you pointed out, as well.


I like that he made a team of smart, tough football players, but that seems to be about the only thing he did well here.

[Enigmatic Evil]

I think you WANT your HC to be stubborn, even just a little bit. But Mangini was stubborn about a lot of bad things LIKE the players he preferred and his choice in coaches. Mind you, I'm glad that he had Daboll's back when the going got tough. I would hate to see a Coach hang HIS coordinator out to dry at a time like that. Mangini's all about character and character guys don't really do that to their buddies.

I think Mangini will coach again, and I bet he will be a head coach again. He lost his job in NYC because of Hurricane Brett Favre and here, well, it just didn't work out for him. I think he needs a team with an owner that shares his philosophies for him to land another HC job. I can't see Mangini working in another enviroment as a HC where he's not in sync with the powers that be of the team, like he was here.

[DeadWombat]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic Evil

I think you WANT your HC to be stubborn, even just a little bit. But Mangini was stubborn about a lot of bad things LIKE the players he preferred and his choice in coaches. Mind you, I'm glad that he had Daboll's back when the going got tough. I would hate to see a Coach hang HIS coordinator out to dry at a time like that. Mangini's all about character and character guys don't really do that to their buddies.

Apparently you didn't watch a lot of press conferences. I did. Game after game he blamed losses on individual players and on Rob Ryan's schemes, but never ONCE did he have anything bad to say Daboll or the playcalling. Throwing Rob Ryan under the bus, if only indirectly, was not beyond Mangini... but Daboll was golden to him. He was the Boy Who Could Do No Wrong.



EDIT: I realize that's a little exaggerated, but whatever. I'm a pissed off mood right now.

[Enigmatic Evil]

Hah you know that's true he wouldn't hesitate to double talk the blame for a loss onto someone. I don't think he was ever negative about Daboll but Holmgren was probably negative enough for the both of them. Can you show me an instance where Mangini held Ryan out to dry like this though because I can't think of any... was this latter in the season?

[DeadWombat]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic Evil

Hah you know that's true he wouldn't hesitate to double talk the blame for a loss onto someone. I don't think he was ever negative about Daboll but Holmgren was probably negative enough for the both of them. Can you show me an instance where Mangini held Ryan out to dry like this though because I can't think of any... was this latter in the season?

Gosh, I'd have to listen to old post-game press conferences to find one.... that would take a while. However, there was that Jaguars game where we had like 6 turnovers but couldn't capitalize on them.... This one's sticking out in my mind because in the post-game press conference, Mangini talked about why we lost and 2 of the reasons he listed pissed me off: He said the defense couldn't stop the Jags at all near the end of the game, and that Hillis never "turned the corner in the running game". I just remember this one because I sat there thinking "Rob Ryan's guys netted us 6 turnovers and your damn offense couldn't capitalize on any of them save for 1 field goal and you're complaining about the defense!?" IIRC we stopped using Vickers as a lead blocker for Hillis as much as the year went on, which is why I was pissed about Mangini's comments about the running game, too. Mangini said something along the lines of he truly believed that he could run the ball against them but the o-line and Hillis just never produced.... which means during the game we kept trying the same thing over and over again and expected something to change.

Arg, that game, and the post-game conference really pissed me off! Just having to write about it again brought back angry memories.


I can't remember if he mention Ryan by name in that conference but when Mangini complains about the entire defense for being ineffective, he is pretty much calling Ryan out indirectly, whether that was intended or not. Part of me is pretty sure there's at least 1 press conference where Mangini directly calls out Ryan, but I can't remember which one it was. I could be making this up, too... I'm not completely sure.