While We’re Waiting… Cavs Fall, Seneca’s Struggles, Matt Flynn Rumors, Grady’s Engaged
January 5, 2012Cavs Fall Victim in Their First Back-to-Back of 2011-12 Season
January 5, 2012
Yesterday in the comments of a post someone wondered if I had lost my patience for the Cleveland Browns. Â I guess something in the tone of my post led RyInCBus to wonder if I had changed my stance on the team and its leadership. Â I’ll admit the more negative tone, but for me it is only a matter of timing rather than a change in philosophy. Â I’ve always had my doubts, but I was willing to take a wait-and-see approach without prematurely reaching judgments. That stance hasn’t changed, but now is the time for criticism and reflection on this horrendous season.
I have said all along that Mike Holmgren, Tom Heckert and Pat Shurmur have made mistakes along the way and I have identified many of them throughout the season. Â There was always a chance for the team to turn it around a bit and start to play better during the year, so I always was willing to leave that door open. Â
Plus, I couldn’t see the point of criticizing Tom Heckert in week 10, for example, about personnel decisions that didn’t work out from the off-season. Â He shares a lot of the blame for how this season turned out, but it isn’t like he can magically fix the team in free agency or on the waiver wire in the middle of the year. Â So now’s the time for constructive criticism, reflection and strategy in hopes of somehow putting these thoughts in the ether so that this team improves itself.
I am not totally discouraged by this team or the direction it is heading in, but there is certainly a lot of work to do. I believe what Pat Shurmur says is true about teams making their most significant jump from year one to year two. I am looking forward to all these rookies and newcomers who played this season to get a full off-season and come back to a familiar playbook.
Maybe there is a tangible change in tone because the hard tasks are closer at hand now that the playing season is complete. Â To say that I don’t have major doubts about how this team will upgrade its roster would be a lie. I’m concerned about finding the right QB at the right time. I am concerned about setting the priority list between solidifying the offensive line, importing a defensive playmaker, and adding a legit offensive threat even aside from QB.
I think it can be done, but the waiting makes me anxious as we wait to see who they hire as offensive coordinator, sign in free agency and draft on draft day. I think my overall tone probably displays that anxiousness. Â And as I said in the article yesterday, I don’t expect to get a lot of answers from Holmgren and Heckert today. Â Their actions will speak louder than their words as the saying goes, and it is premature for actions to be taking place in the off-season schedule.
Step one is identifying the problems. Step two is doing something about them. This whole season turned out to be step one. Step two is really difficult sometimes, especially when you have a head coach who also needs to make a huge leap from year one to year two. Â Especially when you have major questions about who will quarterback your team going forward. Â Especially when your front office hasn’t been together as a unit for very long with a track record for both drafting and free agency.
27 Comments
Hopefully Shurmur is right about the team making an improvement from Year 1 to Year 2.
And hopefully that jump is more significant than the “jump” the Browns made under Mangini between Year 1 and Year 2 or else we’re looking at another 4-12 season.
Prediction: Browns go 5-11 next year. Holmgren takes his Randy Lerner buyout and goes back to his Seattle radio show. Lerner hires somebody from the mailroom at the NFL offices because “he was highly recommended”, who promptly fires Heckert, but keeps Shurmur.
No faith in “Shurmur” for me.
(Editor’s note: you know better than to try and get away with that kind of nickname for Shurmur.)
I think the biggest shot at improvement we have is hiring an offensive coordinator. If Shurmur was just absolutely overloaded and drowning in responsibility, but is actually a decent coach, next years browns will be much improved.
If shurmur just sucks and the offensive coordinator doesn’t help… God, I don’t even know. Honestly, I feel like I’m so close to done with Cleveland football.
I’m willing to stick this out for the long haul. I believe in the people at the top (Holmgren and Heckert) and if they say Shurmur is it then I can live with it.
I found myself looking back over the past decade this morning and wondering, with all of the FO instability, the GM and coaching change overs and the subsequent player change overs; who can say with any certainty that those “regimes” wouldn’t have turned it around given proper time. I know that isn’t a popular stance but everyone has had a three year leash or shorter, given that time frame and the constant change in offense and players, I’m not sure how many successes you could hope to have. If this group is going to fail I would like it to be a legitimate “we had our guys all in place and it didn’t work” failure. If that makes sense.
I said yesterday there was NOTHING wrong in expressing how you felt toward the team. I hope you didn’t take it as me calling you out or anything Craig. I’ve come to look forward to and respect your takes about the Browns throughout the season as much as almost anyone. I could go to a litany of different chat rooms or sites to read the same regurgitated garbage spewn about the sad state of the Browns and in what disarray the team currently exists. I’ve come here to get an honest and refreshing approach because even you have talked me off the ledge once or twice and I respect the advice of someone as passionate, yet as level-headed as I can find. So again, no offense intended in my comment yesterday. I merely noticed a slight change in tone and I appreciate the time you have taken to pour yourself out there to you readers and fellow Browns fans. I hope we all get rewarded with a successful team sooner rather than later.
I find it much easier to have patience when there is a reason to do so. The “football” that we all watched this last year did not due one thing to inspire me for the future and therefore I have very little patience. If you add in the “football” we’ve watched since the Browns reincarnation it only further illustrates why there is so little patience in Cleveland. Holmgren should be cognizant of this and give us reasons to be patient instead of treating us like children and simply saying, “Because I told you so.”
@ stin:
I’m with you, and you make complete sense. I am almost as tired of the constant turnover in the coaching staff as I am with the losing record – but I think these tow things are directly correlative. We MIGHT go 4-12 or 5-11 next year with Shurmur, but we most certainly WILL with the next guy and his brand new system and staff. We’ve seen it too many times in 12 years – in fact, every time. I was a “keep Mangini” guy last year, and I’m no huge fan of Shurmur, but I’m definitely willing to let Holmgren, Heckert, and Shurmur have a couple years more to see if their plan will work – especially if we hire a good OC to assist the rookie head coach (who frankly performed like a rookie head coach).
Thus far, they have done little/nothing to show improvement from week 1 to week 16. They have made error after error in various forms and blunders. Maybe they haven’t exactly made the same error twice, but that means little. The propensity for this regime, especially the coach, to make major mistakes which effect the present season and the future are too great for me to think it is just a fluke and it’ll change.
They would have to demonstrate something that shows a level of improvement for me to think they are capable of changing, and so far all we get is “You’re either with us or you’re not.” This kind of hard-line stance further cements the notion that they are unwilling to change.
What they have tried for the entire season isn’t working. What would make anyone think they could fix it? Because they are good football guys? Shurmur wasn’t on anyone’s radar as a head coach and was from the nation’s 29th ranked offense. Is he a good football guy? Holmgren was a great coach, of course; but he was kicked out of Seattle for failing as a manager. Maybe he’s no good at that. I like some of Heckert’s picks, but others (I’m looking at your Hardesty) don’t make sense with our team.
Bottom line: expect more of the same. And, sadly, Boomhauertjs may be right about what will happen after the 2012 campaign. I predent 5-11 or 6-10 at the very best. God help us if we go 4-12 again. At that point, everyone who is preaching “patience” (code, I suspect, for ‘I won’t lower myself to ranting about this team like other fools’) will begin to lose their facade.
IU agree with Stin & Garry. What is the fundamental difference between the Browns & Steelers organizations ove the past 30 years? Consistency, stability & a plan. They have had it and we have not. I am as agitated as the next guy about the state of the team since 99, but we must commit to a plan and stick with it. At least Heckert has shown he knows how to draft, given the selections of Ward, Haden, Sheard, Taylor et al. Shurmur has not shown me anything so far, but if he is the guy to implement the Holmgren & Heckert system then so be it. I do expect a major upgrade in 12 due to 3 picks in the top 36 and salary cap room to sign a few free agents.
For what it’s worth, a big reason why I’m okay “sticking it out” for the time being is I’m sick and tired of constant regime change. Between the Browns and ND football, I’ve seen something like 11 new coaches in the last 10 years.
I am very tired of hearing people say all we need is stability. Are you the same people who married the first person you dated? The Steelers have had very little turnover in their front office because the guys they picked WERE SUCCESSFUL; they were not successful because they kept the same guys in the front office for 30 years. Do the people who espouse the stability above all else line of thinking believe that next year the Colts will be awful? Because by your line of reasoning they should be after firing the Polians this year.
I said it when we hired Holmgren and I will keep howling it at the moon. The man was a terrible coach who barely limped into the post-season most years in the worst division in football, his GM in Green Bay gifted him Brett Favre and the system he “ran” in SF was developed and executed by Bill Walsh. The one year he took his team to the Superbowl wasn’t even really under the WCO, it was Shaun Alexander carrying the whole crappy organization on his back all the way to it. Holmgren has nothing to hang his hat on, no leg to stand on, clearly doesn’t want to be here and thinks himself better than the media, the fans and the organization.
@Hopwin – Holmgren is a terrible coach? Man, what a lucky guy to have hugely successful offenses at BYU, SF, GB, and Seattle and make championship games with each of them (including BYU and Seattle’s only championship game appearance in this histories).
Just a lucky, lucky guy who is a terrible coach and obviously was not a factor in making Steve Young, Joe Montana, Steve Young (again and a big reason SF brought Young to backup Montana), Brett Favre, Mark Brunell, Aaron Brooks, and Matt Hasselbeck as successful NFL QBs.
Man, thanks. I needed a laugh this morning. Your post did the trick 🙂
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also, I understand some people don’t like Holmgren-the-GM. That is fine. But, he’s not GM here. Heckert is GM. Jury is still out on Holmgren-the-Team-President.
@ Hopwin:
No, in fact, I did not marry the first person I dated. I got married, at least in part, because having 5 unstable girlfriends over 12 years just wasn’t working. I could not be happier with the 12 years of stability since.
I’m optimistic for the future of this team. I think Heckert is a great GM and an incredible upgrade over any other talent evaluator the Browns have had – maybe in their history. No, he isn’t going to hit on every pick…that is impossible…but his average is light years ahead of what we’ve had in the past. Like the FO says, it is a process (meaning it will take time). I think we’ll be watching a much more competitive team next year and all the following years as long as Heckert is GM.
What scares me is Cincinatti – they are better now, and have 2 first round picks in 2012 too. It will be tough to win any division games next year, just like this year.
BAJ22 nailed it. Our division kills us. When you’re division record the past 4 years is 3 and 21, you can’t really expect to be anything but pathetic.
@ Garry – Well put!
The reason to have some faith in the Browns’s new system is because although the record was as bad as ever, the flashes were much better than in previous “rebuilding” years. In previous years, we never saw a conversion on a big third down. We never saw a big sack from the defense on third and short. We so rarely saw a young player go from being a prospect to being a player.
This year, we’ve seen some of all of that. Three of this year’s picks are turning into legitimate players. Add Haden, Thomas, and Cribbs (and Hillis, knock on wood) to that, and we will soon have 8-10 players that the announcers did not have to look up before the game.
That is one success in the bag for the Holmgren regime. Next year they need to take the next step.
@mgbode
Since Aaron Brooks was drafted after Holmgren fled to Seattle… no.
If your definition of a great quarterback is a career 60% completion rate and TD/INT ratio of 1.37 then Hasselbeck is fabulous.
If your definition of a great quarterback is a career 59.5% completion rate and TD/INT ratio of 1.7 then Brunnell was a stud.
If you want to give credit to Holmgren for Steve Young even though it was Walsh who traded a 2nd and 4th round draft pick for him that is fair. If you want to credit Holmgren for making Steve Young a great QB instead of the fact he sat behind Joe Montana that is fine too.
@Garry
Does your wife know the reason you married her isn’t because she was right for you but rather because you had 5 previously crappy girlfriends?
@ Hopwin:
Whoa, brother. You just completely threw that whole “reading comprehension” baby of this discussion out with the bathwater of your original argument! Are you trying to get me into trouble with Mrs. Owen?? Please give the proper meaning to the words, “at least in part.” It’s not the reason I married HER, but it was, at least in part, a reason for my choice of the stability of MARRIAGE.
But, to answer your question directly: She’s the one that pointed it out to me!!!
[And who said my ex-girlfriends were crappy, anyway? That’s a low blow to some ladies (I hope) you’ve never met! I said, “unstable.” Maybe I was the crappy boyfriend that made them unstable. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility/probability. Maybe not, though.]
To recap: Stability = Good. Instability = Bad.
@mgbode – regarding Holmgren as GM, there have been a couple instances where he’s overtly asserted his influence on the roster. I’m thinking specifically of Seneca Wallace and Colt McCoy.
So I don’t think it’s unfair to say his personnel decisions have been questionable at best.
@humboldt don’t forget Jake Delhomme @ the bargain basement price of $7M.
@Hopwin – Sorry about the Aaron Brooks snafu (thought that was his last draft – whooops). I said successful QBs, not great. But, hey that’s fine. Holmgren is apparently just the luckiest SOB-coach that ever lived.
@humboldt – Seneca is a fine backup. Jake was a disaster either injured or throwing pick-6’s (he talked about Jake but not sure if he influenced that signing or not as Hopwin suggested). The book doesn’t look good on Colt, but he was just a 3rd round draft pick. And, that book isn’t closed quite yet (it is closing).
I’m with Garry and others in this post who are for stability.
I was for keeping Mangini, and still believe he’d have turned this team into a good one, but that’s already done with. Now that they’ve chosen their path, I believe it will still be a successful one – given enough time.
(I live in NY, hence the following example) Look at the NY Jets and their “great” coach Rex Ryan. He primarily benefited from a Mangini-designed team, took that team to two AFC Championships (not going to take that aspect away from him), while he and Tannenbaum drafted far less well and signed big-name FAs (the opposite of the approach of Holmgren, Heckert, et al). Now, that same team has a ton of money locked up in bitter and otherwise crappy players (Sanchez, Holmes, etc.) and is probably going to have another average year next year before absolutely sucking for three to five years, during which they’ll likely fire Ryan and Tannenbaum.
I’d much rather have the stability and low-cost planning of the current Browns regime, which is setting itself up to be decent without having spent any real money, then has a ton of money left to pick up any remaining needs.
When I look at Cincy’s situation vs. the Browns, I see a huge difference. Cincy won the AFCN 2 years ago. They were a good team. Last year they had a few pieces go bad, like a race winning car that’s carb and distributor go south. They replaced those parts. Yeah, they still need a little tuning, but the basic car is still good.
The Browns, on the otherhand, were a basket case. We aren’t just retuning, we’re doing a body-off restoration while trying to slap the pieces we’ve found so far into some semblance of a running car to race each week. Can we really be surprised at our results while we are pouring through the pages of the Summit Racing Catalogue, wishing we had those shiny parts instead?
regarding patience. patience is earned through demonstrable indicators of progress. progress is measured against a plan. a plan has milestones.
* holmgren’s group haven’t shown us any signs of improved play on the field.
* we dont know their plan so we dont know if there have been milestones that have been accomplished not on field.
* in fact, the laissez-faire attitude shown in pressers indicates there is no plan and no one is being measured against anything. no one is on a hot seat.
because there is nothing to measure against (and i agree craig that straight win/loss record is not a be-all/end-all metric for checking progress), this leads to holmgren setting up absurd straw-man arguments to confound anyone trying to understand where the progress is. ‘you cant blow up the system everything two years.’ well, that seems fair mike. but no one has suggested that. here are some questions i have for holmgren and none of them involve blowing anything up:
* how did FB replacement become a priority personnel area
* why go with four TEs on the roster
* was giving a 5th round rookie OG 16 starts part of the rebuilding plan
* having lost the FA RB in camp and with the injury history of hillis/hardesty, was finding a waiver wire RB part of the rebuilding plan
* how would using some of the $30MM cap space on short-term veteran contracts retard a rebuilding plan
* with a starting OLB lost in camp for at least six weeks, was it planned that maiva’s development was more important to rebuilding than finding veteran depth
* we had an OLB who had 7.5 sacks last year; why couldnt marcus benard find the field
* how long does an offense take to be installed; is it installed yet; if not when can we expect it to be installed
* if the offense implementation was causing so many problems, why were all the starters given the 4th pre-season game off (belichick was 14-2 last year and played his starters including brady in the last pre-season game.. so it doesnt seem like injury prevention is a good reason to blow off that game. unless we’re saying that shurmur is smarter than belichick.)
* what leads you to believe that browns fans will always be browns fans
all of the bullets above show a lack of urgency.
if they didnt have urgency this year, if they werent tracking against a plan this year, why should we expect different next year.
‘when you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’
from where i sit, we’re being asked to be patient indefinitely without tangible progress.
when the leadership provides an amorphous ‘it takes time’ response and adds that no one is on a hot seat… smh.
holmgren is lucky fans are impatient. if we were as complacent as he seems to be, he need only look at the 20,000 unsold seats down the road in cincy to see what becomes of a fan-base who is asked to be patience for too long.
EXACTLY…Brilliantly stated!   It concern me also to see the starters sit during 4th pre-season.  As the season started out I then could see that the several games into the season were nothing more than pre-season games continuing!
 It’s troubling to see these 3 jokers sitting confidently at the microphone expecting us to buying their product.
 PLEASE, PLEASE if any reasonible person knows if it is total crap product your won’t sick ANY moneys into it! Someone has to keep the fire under these guys, and glad the fans are doing so!
 WANTED:  RESULTS not empty promises or pipe dreams!
 LOVE IT: “when you fail to plan, you plan to fail”
 The PRICE IS RIGHT winning cost to much of myself [browns].
 When I comes before team NO ONE wins! The 3 jokers trying to selling their lies confirm this clearly.  Stubbornness, pigheadness isn’t going to get you touchdowns, rather we make it a field day for your opponent!