ESPN Article on Coaching Carousel

[Fooleeze]

If you haven't read it, you should. . . staring us right in the face on the front of the ESPN home page. I'm not posting this to defend Shurmer in particular, I'm posting this to call (more) attention to how this franchise has been managed since 1999. We all know that players need time to develop, and so do coaches. I support going into next year with Shurmer and McCoy (with some competition, of course). I'm scared of the results, but I need to see it through.



********
Three years ago, the NFL found itself in a similar position to where it is today. In the days following black Monday, teams scrambled to hire head coaches to replace the ones they fired.
Cleveland hired Eric Mangini, Denver tabbed Josh McDaniels, Indianapolis named Jim Caldwell, Kansas City hired Todd Haley and Oakland named Tom Cable. St. Louis hired Steve Spagnuolo, San Francisco tabbed Mike Singletary, Seattle named Jim Mora, Tampa Bay hired Raheem Morris, Detroit announced Jim Schwartz and the New York Jets hired Rex Ryan.



The coaching class of 2009 has hardly distinguished itself. Of the 11 men hired to be the answer a mere three years ago, only three remain on the job, and one of those, Caldwell, still is on shaky ground. Otherwise, NFL owners have treated head coaches as if they were as disposable as yesterday's newspaper.
Something is wrong here.
In a society that craves results now, in a world that demands excellence every day, head coaches rarely are allowed the time they need to grow into the job and master it. Reminders of it come every year at this time. Head coaches are fired, head coaches are hired and the coaching carousel spins without producing in the ways NFL owners had hoped.
Every NFL owner who recently changed head coaches, or still is considering it, also needs to study his sport's history.
Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry did not make the playoffs until his seventh season as a head coach and he didn't win his first NFL playoff game until his eighth season in Dallas. Today he would have been fired twice over.
Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll did not make the playoffs until his fourth season, after he had compiled a 12-30 record during his first three seasons in Pittsburgh. He never would have made it today.
Hall of Fame coach Don Shula didn't win a playoff game until his sixth season as a head coach in Baltimore, and went 0-2 in the postseason during his first five seasons. He probably would have been fired before getting the chance to become Shula.
The rare teams with continuity -- New England, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, New Orleans, Philadelphia and the New York Giants -- are allowed to operate efficiently while taking advantage of competitors that are not. But the teams that give their head coaches time, patience and, of course, a quarterback are the ones that find themselves playing in this postseason.
In today's world, everyone loves eating the turkey, but no one wants to wait around for it to cook. They'd rather microwave it. Unfortunately, it's not as tasty or savory, much like the seasons some of these unstable NFL franchises continually experience.
Just last month, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said he intends to hire a "young Don Shula." Doesn't every team.
The problem is, few do. Or maybe they actually do, but don't take the time to find out.
********

[TheBestPlayersPlay]

I agree 100% with this, which is why it pained me so to see use get rid of the right guy for Cleveland really after his first year, since in year 2 he was a dead man walking.

So now we hire a guy who clearly is 1/1000th of what our last coach was in almost every way, and we finally want to be patient and wait it out? Like I keep saying ...only in Cleveland.

Our own "football czar" just told us all he expected at least a .500 football team this past season, but now we're all going to be forced into watching this guy "grow" into his job, when we could have had guys who apparently didn't need to grow much, and had a past history of tremendous success. In Cleveland, we all get to watch a coach who hadn't even grown into an OC position now run our football team. Hiring Pat Shurmur as our head coach is akin to hiring Brian Daboll. Had Holmgren hired Dabs, all would be screaming bloody murder and calling for our football czars head before the season even started. But because it's Mike's nephew we all just have to kneel & pray that our football czar knows something nobody else in the league does about this guy.

[Sez.EJ]

BPP I think your Mangini glasses are affecting your vision of Shurmer. Not saying Shurmer is the real deal or the answer cuz he has not looked the greatest.... but Mangini did not either..But I don't want to turn this into a Shurmur vs Mangini thing cuz truth be told... every coach we have had has been terrible since our return to the NFL. We have not had a real coach here since Marty left... But Shurmur does have some skills.. whether they rise to the top here remains to be seen.. Who knows how long this regime has.. This league changes GM's and coaches like most people change shoes.

[TheBestPlayersPlay]

What are those skills exactly Sez? Please do tell.

[Sez.EJ]

He's been coaching 27 years.. so I have to assume he's got something that resembles some football smarts. He got Bradford to rookie of the year. When he was with the Rams OC He helped the Rams improve to a 7-9 record following a 1-15 season in 2009, (with a rookie QB) The Rams offense Improved in total yards, time of possession and third-down percentage, while they also scored 114 more points than the previous year. Fact is.. some guys make great position coaches and coordinators.. they just make lousy head coaches.. I don't know what Shurmer is yet.. I'd love him to get an offseason program, some actual talent on the field, and an OC..

Again.. I am not saying he's the answer.. he's obviously struggled and looked really bad. What coach here hasn't?????????????????????.. But as I said earlier.. we have had nothing but crappy coaches since Marty left. m(yes Mangini falls in that catagory too, but he has plenty of company). Let's just say I was not blown away by his 10-22 record here. Even Bill Billicek was considered a failure herem (before the team left). It makes nothing but sense to give Shurmur another year.. It's not like he had a lot of talent to work with here.. He had slightly better talent in St. Louis and seemed to make some pretty good improvement there.. I am just trying to be optimistic after another crappy season. I am not sold on Shurmur either.. but I don't get to choose who coaches us any more than you do. I wish I could.. I think I could hire better than any of the prior 6-7 coaches here. I have not liked a single coach we have had since Marty.

[King of Kings]

Originally Posted by Fooleeze

If you haven't read it, you should. . . staring us right in the face on the front of the ESPN home page. I'm not posting this to defend Shurmer in particular, I'm posting this to call (more) attention to how this franchise has been managed since 1999. We all know that players need time to develop, and so do coaches. I support going into next year with Shurmer and McCoy (with some competition, of course). I'm scared of the results, but I need to see it through.



********
Three years ago, the NFL found itself in a similar position to where it is today. In the days following black Monday, teams scrambled to hire head coaches to replace the ones they fired.
Cleveland hired Eric Mangini, Denver tabbed Josh McDaniels, Indianapolis named Jim Caldwell, Kansas City hired Todd Haley and Oakland named Tom Cable. St. Louis hired Steve Spagnuolo, San Francisco tabbed Mike Singletary, Seattle named Jim Mora, Tampa Bay hired Raheem Morris, Detroit announced Jim Schwartz and the New York Jets hired Rex Ryan.



The coaching class of 2009 has hardly distinguished itself. Of the 11 men hired to be the answer a mere three years ago, only three remain on the job, and one of those, Caldwell, still is on shaky ground. Otherwise, NFL owners have treated head coaches as if they were as disposable as yesterday's newspaper.
Something is wrong here.
In a society that craves results now, in a world that demands excellence every day, head coaches rarely are allowed the time they need to grow into the job and master it. Reminders of it come every year at this time. Head coaches are fired, head coaches are hired and the coaching carousel spins without producing in the ways NFL owners had hoped.
Every NFL owner who recently changed head coaches, or still is considering it, also needs to study his sport's history.
Hall of Fame coach Tom Landry did not make the playoffs until his seventh season as a head coach and he didn't win his first NFL playoff game until his eighth season in Dallas. Today he would have been fired twice over.
Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll did not make the playoffs until his fourth season, after he had compiled a 12-30 record during his first three seasons in Pittsburgh. He never would have made it today.
Hall of Fame coach Don Shula didn't win a playoff game until his sixth season as a head coach in Baltimore, and went 0-2 in the postseason during his first five seasons. He probably would have been fired before getting the chance to become Shula.
The rare teams with continuity -- New England, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, New Orleans, Philadelphia and the New York Giants -- are allowed to operate efficiently while taking advantage of competitors that are not. But the teams that give their head coaches time, patience and, of course, a quarterback are the ones that find themselves playing in this postseason.
In today's world, everyone loves eating the turkey, but no one wants to wait around for it to cook. They'd rather microwave it. Unfortunately, it's not as tasty or savory, much like the seasons some of these unstable NFL franchises continually experience.
Just last month, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said he intends to hire a "young Don Shula." Doesn't every team.
The problem is, few do. Or maybe they actually do, but don't take the time to find out.
********

First let me touch on the two examples these articles constantly throw out there. Tom Landry took on an expansion franchise in an era when free agency and waiver wires didn't exist. In that era you basically drove around to the local Colleges with a stopwatch and scouted players on their football teams, drafted the best of the bunch and tried to build a team through coaching those players up. It's not a good comparison yet BSPN continues to make it. You can't compare him to any of the current NFL coaches as the situations and the eras are vastly different.

Chuck Noll... The other posterboy for their point. He took over the Detroit Lions of the era, a team with 4 decades of losing. Of course what they leave out is he was horrible in most aspects until a thing called Anabolic Steroids hit the Pitt scene and his players were adding 30-40lbs of muscle between being drafted and their first OTC's. It's always good for a vomit watching them continually put Shitsburg on this fake ass pedestal of how to do things right. I'm pretty sure even Chris Palmer could have looked like a freakin' genius had Al Lerner had PH.D fanboys from Cleveland Clinic walking around the locker room juicing everyone up. That is what it is....

That said I disagree with their article. Now if a coach is showing SOME sort of promise? Yeah, you keep that guy around awhile. If they look inept in EVERY facet of the game, look overwhelmed at all times and spend their free time making excuses? You toss that coach out on his ass. Shurmur is that kind of HC. He's a guy you can look at and see that he's never going to pan out. The NFL is the 2nd most Alpha sport behind MMA and he's a beta male, it's not a fit.

Likewise you can see the same from his bosses who also need to be gone and should have been gone after the last year and ESPECIALLY after Holmgren's presser yesterday. Keeping this group around will do two things, 1: Set this team back and 2: Delaying the inevitable. They gotta go.

[nickers]

I wonder how long Elway will stick with Fox when he starts coaching not to lose games and does.

[hiwaygal]

Originally Posted by TheBestPlayersPlay

So now we hire a guy who clearly is 1/1000th of what our last coach was in almost every way, and we finally want to be patient and wait it out? Like I keep saying ...only in Cleveland.

Our own "football czar" just told us all he expected at least a .500 football team this past season, but now we're all going to be forced into watching this guy "grow" into his job, when we could have had guys who apparently didn't need to grow much, and had a past history of tremendous success. In Cleveland, we all get to watch a coach who hadn't even grown into an OC position now run our football team. Hiring Pat Shurmur as our head coach is akin to hiring Brian Daboll. Had Holmgren hired Dabs, all would be screaming bloody murder and calling for our football czars head before the season even started. But because it's Mike's nephew we all just have to kneel & pray that our football czar knows something nobody else in the league does about this guy.

I gotta agree with this (although I don't quite think it's 1/1000th lol).

Everyone saying we've got to give MMMurmur a chance is right, unfortunately. We can't keep changing directions. But we should have quit while we were ahead last year.

[Enigmatic Evil]

I am sorry but how can you argue that Mangini's flaws even scratch the surface of coming close to Shurmur's when Shurmur has:

- WORSE Media rapport/skill
- Not showing any offensive or QB prowess as advertised.

THOSE are two HUGE red flags when for the most part we got what was advertised with Mangini, not perfect but a tough coach who commanded respect and got the most out of the team of scrubs he had here. The MOST.

Period.

All the fucking orange and brown goggles in the world won't help smooth over the fact that Shurmur just does NOT have the ability to perform his job. I am happy some fans can cling to hope with Shurmur but I have all but given up on the guy.

[hiwaygal]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic Evil

I am happy some fans can cling to hope with Shurmur but I have all but given up on the guy.

I'm only clinging to hope because they're MY Browns...not because I have faith in mmurmur. I don't have any choice with him.

[Enigmatic Evil]

Yeah that's how I feel. -s- IF I can tough out Mike Keenan coaching the Vancouver Canucks (hockey), then I can handle Shurms the Squirms leading our Football squad.

I just don't like it Hiway and I want to throw a 6-ish year old tantrum in Mike Holmgren's office about it!

[DawgFan]

In my opinion Mangini got screwed...but with that said, we have NO WAY of knowing what Shurmer is going to be like.

He didn't have rookie camp, he didn't have OTA's, he didn't have a legit pre-season...and he was installing a new scheme on both sides of the ball.

He also had no WR's to work with (really, he didn't) and a RB situation that was just nuts (seriously, down to the 4th string at one point).

Now, I am not cutting him slack on some of his other blunders...but rookie HC's make a couple of those.

So, now it comes down to 2012. Heckert needs to show me he knows SKILL POSITION talent...and Shurmer needs to show me he knows how to learn and use it.