Type-A Free Agent > Starting Pitcher?
January 5, 2009Open Thread: 2009 Fiesta Bowl
January 5, 2009
We’ve already documented our feelings on the appearance of Randy Lerner being in a hurry to fill the vacant roles within the Browns organization. And while everyone and their recently-fired brothers have been given the A-OK to interview with the Browns, the Baltimore Ravens have other thoughts.
The Browns won’t be able to interview Baltimore director of pro personnel George Kokinis until Sunday at the earliest, said a source with knowledge of the situation.
Kokinis is involved in preparations for the Ravens’ divisional playoff game against Tennessee. The game will be played on Saturday. The Ravens don’t want anything to interfere with their game preparations.
I’m not sure if this hiatus instantly removes Kokinis from Lerner’s consideration. Obviously, Randy would like to fill the positions by yesterday, so it would not be surprising. If he is willing to wait a week for Kokinis, I assume that this all puts Mike Shanahan back in play? And by “assume,” I mean “really, really hope.”
22 Comments
Randy Lerner > Art Modell ??
So we are awaiting the finalization of the Mangini/Kokinis team, and a rush at that? So in Randy Lerner’s this is the team to lead and communicate and deliver a professional public relations culture to the Cleveland Browns fan base? So Mr. Lerner is not only prepared to hire Mangini with his arrogant gum chomping tight lipped demeanor but also provide Mr. Mangini with total responsibility including bringing in a GM of his choice? So George Kokunkis, he of the background of handling contract negotiations for the Ravens, becomes that choice? So, picking of the same New England and Baltimore trees that have failed you precisely before are your choices yet again? Why are you the only one seriously interviewing Mangini for your coaching position? So, it makes no sense to wait a few weeks to see what else shakes out in terms of brand name candidates who have the experience and exposure to bring credibility back to your organization? (ie Mike Shanahan).
Mr. Lerner, do you understand anything in regards to building a face of a franchise in order to both communicate and deliver to your fans (customers) a top flight professional product? Have you analyzed and or/spoken with Dan Gilbert and his organization? Have you spoken to any of your season ticket holders? (not this one-I’ve never even gotten a response in five years from your organization on any inquiry). Mr. Lerner, do you know the consequences of failure to your own personal agenda if this doesn’t work out?
I also give all of you something to think about-almost every FIRST-TIME head coach who has been fired has gone back into a coordinator position before redeeming themselves in order to regain the standing to become again a head coach. What is it about Mangini that not only does Lerner rush to hire this guy, but give him the keys to control everything by bringing in his own personel in the front office? Here are but a few examples of such fired first time head coaches who had to go back to being coordinators (and I’m sure you can think of far more):
Bill Belichick
Mike Shanahan
Jim Fossil
Dom Capers
Mike Mullarkey
Wade Phillips
Mike Martz
Eric Mangini????? (what gives with this one…..why is he the exception?)
This list is endless………..this is the norm, the exceptions are far fewer.
If this goes down as Mary Kay is reporting, this season ticket holder is finished putting heart and soul on Sundays into this organization, as it has shown me and the fan base that it couldn’t care less about things that are important to it’s customer’s. If this goes down, my season tickets are immediately for sale.
It saddens me that people would be so quick to stop being Browns fans and get rid of their season tickets. I have heard of far too many people who are ready to jump ship, and frankly, its embarrassing. Why should the team consult season ticket holders about who the want to hire? What do we know? We all like to act like we know whats best, but we really don’t.
Why is everyone against Mangini? Was it his fault that his front office went out and got rid of a quality starting QB in favor of a aging QB that fell apart down the stretch? If any of you watched that last Jets-Dolphins game, you would know that Brett Favre literally and figuratively threw that game away because of how poorly he played. Mangini simply played the cards that were wrongly dealt to him. He might not work out as a head coach, but for everyone to be so sure that he won’t is surprising to me
Don’t hold your breath for Mike Shanahan folks, he isn’t going to coach anywhere until 2010 at least. We wanted to interview him, but he just doesn’t want to coach for us.
As far of this Kokinis guy, I’m slightly concerned. Our front office needs a leader, someone to be a voice of reason within the franchise, with experience, this guy doesn’t have it. Is McKay not interested in the job?
From what I’ve heard about McKay, the people in his circle are attempting to keep him out of Cleveland. They’re siting the lost draft picks this year, the huge contracts of Rogers et al and locker room chemistry that is a notch short of toxic…
Been a long time reader of this site and I finally can not hold back any longer. I am just completely sick of the attitude that seems to come from (almost) every Browns fan. I find it a total and utter joke that anyone would think that the Browns were going to get a HOF coach to come to Cleveland. Bill Cowher was never, never going to come to Cleveland with Pitts being in the same division. I even read some genius thinking that we might be able to get Bill Parcells to come there in the same role he has in Miami, more delusional thoughts.
I consider this blog the preeminent place to get news and opinion on Cleveland sports so I am finding it a little surprising some of the ridiculous things being written here. I live in Atlanta and let me tell you the people down here wanted Rich McKay’s head on a platter for almost every year he was here. He can’t draft and he signed the some of worst free agents of this decade. Pearless Price anyone? How about Ed Hartwell? If memory serves correct he only picked 2 pro bowl players his entire time he was in charge of the draft, Vick and Keith Brooking. Come on. Even before that the people in TB wanted him out. Gruden knew the guy was an empty suit and things only picked up there after Gruden started doing all the drafting. Please no more Rich McKay talk.
All of the Mike Shanahan talk is also ridiculous. The guy is done. The average life for a coach to make difference is 10 years and he is way past his prime. The guy just went through one of the biggest choke jobs in recent memory and you all want to bring him here? What has he done since Elway retired? Nothing. He is a name and that is all he has left.
At first I could have bought in on Marty but the guy is 66 years old and that is not going to get us anywhere. Please don’t get me started on Brian Billick, the so called offensive genius who could not even coach up a QB worth a hill of beans. That team was Ozzie’s picks and Ray Lewis leadership.
What this team needs now is a no BS coach who can tell all of the ego’s on the team it’s his way or the highway. Mike Singletary would have been perfect but that was not in the cards. The GM and the HC have to be on the same page and this is why we have to give this pair a chance if in fact it is them. You can’t tell these guys it’s my way or the highway if you don’t have a GM backing you up. Mangini is going to have two pluses coming to the Browns. He is not going to have an organization walking on egg shells so they don’t upset a 40 year old has been and he won’t have the NY media up his you know what. Give these guys a chance; I think it’s going to surprise us all.
Keep up the great work on the blog. Thanks
(applauding RandyOSU…)
Ricky, doesn’t it concern you that we are hiring the two guys that took over for the two guys we just fired? The other thing on Mangina is if Favre was playing so poorly, why didn’t he make a good decision and pull him? If Mangina was so good, why hasn’t he interviewed anywhere else? So we are in a hurry to hire two guys that don’t really have any other options. McKay, or Reese would be nice. Two guys that have experience.
Seems to me that season ticket holders have a right to the organization doing their due diligence. I wouldn’t buy season tickets to watch a steaming pile decompose year in and year out. Neither should anyone else. What did Mangina accomplish with the Jets? Nothing.
@Ricky: You’re right in that the organization would be crazy to take fans’ advice on who to hire, but they have a serious PR issue right now, and doing anything to make the fans/customers/season ticket holders feel better about this team would go a long way.
As for Mangini, he may be a great HC his second go-round, he may not. I tend to grant a lot of leeway on those decisions since it’s not my job to spend 40+ hrs/week recruiting or scouting NFL/HC/GM talent. Personally, though, my biggest concern with Mangini is that Lerner appears to be the ONLY owner who wants to hire him, or indeed, has even interviewed him. That says quite a bit to me. Mangini might be the second coming of the NE version of Belichick, but the probabilities don’t appear to stack up in that direction.
Regardless of who Randolph hires as HC, though, I think the thing we all need to be concerned about is the fact that he refuses to hire experienced NFL execs. I like that Lerner wants to be a hands-off, out-of-the-spotlight owner–but that is never going to work if he doesn’t have capable people running the organization. The bottom line is that since he’s taken control of the franchise, one is hard-pressed to identify one good decision the man has made, and he appears unwilling to learn from his mistakes.
Brad, Thanks for the comment. Glad to hear/read your thoughts.
FWIW, I’m not terribly opposed to Mangini. I would just rather have Shanahan. I think a lot of the resentment is based mostly on the fact that no one really jumps out as the be all-end all coach that we need… it’s almost like ranking based on the lesser of evils.
Hey Ricky…..I’m not suggesting I’m smarter or have knowledge that Mangini will or won’t fail. I am suggesting that Randy Lerner has NO business making these decisions, and his track record and past hires seem to mirror his current potential hires.
I’m a fan…….a customer of the Browns organization. If you take the time to investigate Eric Mangini you will find that he is a dour personality, terrible in front of a camera, and treats fans with disdain. Not acceptable to me…..not this time. Not when there are other options that would include building a professional organization with professionals who understand who their customers (and fans are) and act accordingly (aka Cleveland Cavaliers……). This is not your father’s Cleveland Browns organization.
Plus, no one points out that this Baltimore guy looks WAYYY too much like Andy Bernard from The Office. No way do I want AB running my pro football team.
My beef with hiring Mangini is this: yes, some coaches do improve in their second stint, but often it takes years back as a coordinator to digest the mistakes made. For my tastes, Mangini is a little too much Romeo Part Deux, and I think the team needs to move away from that.
I would like them to persue Shanny for two reasons: 1, he has experience. You may not like that he hasn’t won more than one playoff game since Elway retired, but he’s been IN playoff games. 2, his offensive pedigree is the best of all of the coaches’ pedigrees in their respective areas that are being mentioned. Look at what he’s done with Jay Cutler and tell me he wouldn’t do a good job coaching Quinn.
It’s a sad fact, but the Browns need to lower their expectations IN THE SHORT TERM. I don’t care about who has won more playoff games. I’d just like to see the Browns PLAY ONE, for the love of all things holy. Crawl before you walk.
But DP – Andy Bernard does not lose contests. He wins them. Or he quits them. Because they’re unfair.
DC …I just checked my laminated copy of the US Constitution, and couldn’t find anything about ticket holders’ “rights” to oversee NFL teams due diligence in hirings. The price you paid for your ticket gives you the “right” to put your fanny in a seat 8 times a season. If you don’t like what you’re getting for your buck, don’t renew.
I don’t understand why we would want Shannahan, he was the one the one who 1) drafted Maurice Clarett and 2) Took our horrible DL from the early 2000s off our hands.
While I would support Shanahan, notwithstanding some of his boneheaded moves that Jeremy cites, why are we even debating his merits at this point? Even if he would be successful in Cleveland, there’s absolutely no evidence that he is interested in coming here. If you’re truly interested in a job, you don’t hold off interviewing for it to take a two week vacation.
My take on Shanahan is that he’s either out of coaching next year or will coach the Cowboys who may fire Wade Phillips before this is all said and done. I would almost guarantee that Shanahan will NOT land with any team that currently has a head coaching vacancy.
Jeremy,
The issue is that we wouldn’t be hiring Shanahan as our GM… only as our coach. Dude can coach. Dude can’t pick players.
Andy Bernard plus 30 pounds
I agree with just about everything DP has said. and I think that Shanahan will coach this year, and with the teams that have a vacancy, i would say the browns would be on his list. Lerner needs to go for a GM first, preferably getting a little more west then new england or baltimore
With all due respect to those bemoaning Browns’ fans lack of enthusiasm for Mangini, ask yourself this question: If Lerner hires Mangini AND his hand-picked GM, what happens if/when Mangini fails? Fire both of them? Start all over AGAIN?
I honestly don’t care who the new coach/GM is going to be. I’m a Browns fan. Thru thick, and mostly thin, I’ve supported them. I just want this team to win so bad. This city deserves a winning football team. With all due respect to the Cavaliers, who I adamantly adore and cheer for on a daily basis, Cleveland is a football town. Our highs and lows go on a weekly basis from Septmber to December. Just give us a team we can be proud of, players we can cheer for, and this city’s disgust of it’s football team will heal again.
I would rather we hire someone who didn’t just get fired honestly. I was the one who was referred to earlier as the moron who stated maybe Parcells would come here if he opted out. I actually heard that as a possibility on two different ESPN podcasts, so maybe I am not such a big moron.
I just think we wait and do the coordinator try again. Just because it didn’t work last time doesn’t mean Spagnulo or whatever his name wouldn’t be a good coach. I just want someone with some fire, with an attitude, to hold butts to the fire when people screw up or underachieve. This team was flat and apathetic many times this season. I just want a coach, who has no GM duties, and who has some fire. Is that too much to ask?