May 16, 2012

Why Waiting for the Browns Offensive Coordinator isn’t Such a Bad Thing

January 24, 2012 By 71 Comments

To say the Browns are going slowly in their search for an offensive coordinator is an understatement.  Really, compared to what I hoped for when Shurmur was hired, the Browns are a about a year late already.  I digress.

Even if the Browns didn’t get it right the first time around, I don’t mind this process taking a long time now because it means the Browns are searching for a strong candidate of the level that is considered for head coaching gigs in the NFL.  That was my dream when the Browns hired Shurmur.  I wanted him to have extremely experienced coordinators on both sides of the ball to support him on his maiden voyage into the head coaches headset.  Maybe the Browns offense would have struggled just the same with an offensive equivalent of Dick Jauron running the offense.  We’ll never know for sure, but the hope is that some of the gameday gaffes might have been avoided without an overwhelmed first-time head coach.

The delay in hiring hopefully means good things for the Browns hiring process this time around.  When the word first came down that the Browns would be hiring an offensive coordinator this year, I half-expected them to just hire a new quarterbacks coach and give a promotion from within.  That kind of move would leave any of us skeptical I think.  I don’t want to speak of it as if it isn’t a possibility because you just never know, but right now I’m hoping for the alternative.

So we wait.

Mike Sherman is interviewing with the Bucs for a second time.  Brad Childress is pretty heavily linked to Indianapolis right now, at least on Twitter.  The Browns previously hired 56-year-old Sherman disciple Nolan Cromwell to coach their receivers.  So, we’ll see.  I am still holding out hope for a strong candidate that can allow Shurmur to grow in his second year on the job.

He needs to.  Shurmur had a suspect rookie season in the job.  There were some built-in excuses, but those will have expired long ago by the time we get to training camp this season.

–

(AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

Filed Under: Browns Tagged With: , , , ,
← Older Comments
  • Anonymous

    what?  how so?

  • http://twitter.com/bbo13 B-bo

    Well now there’s an actual football point that we can agree on–not bringing in some WR help was a mistake. The difference between you and I, I think, is that I can see it as a forgivable offense (why not try out what we had–Mangini and Co. sure didn’t provide us much evidence on their effectiveness), whereas you see it as yet another in a long line of failures–evidence of ineptitude. That’s just a fundamental difference we have here, and I understand that. I try to look at the situation as if I were the one having to call the shots and start from scratch, and so I can see where the FO was coming from. Of course, I’m not an NFL executive, so what do I know. But then, you aren’t either, are you? We’re each just fans of a struggling team, crawling Andy Dufresne-like through 13 seasons of foulness toward what we each hope will be eventual success, no? Just want to make sure.

    Oh, and feel free to continue ignoring my first point about what talent level has to do with it in terms of your argument. Wouldn’t want to be a bother to you.As to my powers of deduction (not to brag, but I did read the part of Sherlock Holmes in a class reading of “Hound of the Baskervilles” in ninth grade English–my teacher said I was very convincing), were it that I had only your comments here to evaluate your motives! Unfortunately, I have ample evidence in the form of most every Browns-related post you’ve made over the past several months. Now perhaps this single point really WAS your attempt at sarcasm. In my defense, I dare say it’s quite the challenge to separate your snark from your serious points, as they have a habit of appearing rather similar. But if I was incorrect here, then my mistake. A mistake worthy of your epic condescension and blinding smugness? I should think not. But they are YOUR condescension and YOUR smugness, and you may disperse them as you see fit. This is America, after all.Just don’t go worrying on about my feelings, friend. Takes a bit more than a little venomous Interweb toughness to leave a mark here.

    Go Browns

  • http://twitter.com/oribiasi oribiasi

    Thread hijacking? 

    Apologies accepted.

  • http://twitter.com/oribiasi oribiasi

    Thread hijacking?

  • Wow

    Oribiasi seriously needs a hobby. His feud with Craig and Browns hate is getting ridiculous. 

  • http://twitter.com/oribiasi oribiasi

    I’d love to get a hobby.  Here’s an idea:  watching the Browns win!  Oh wait, that’s not possible…ok, better yet, I’ll write for this site!  Oh wait…I won’t earn anyone any playoff tickets that way.

    Sigh.

  • Hopwin

    Here is why I am not good with waiting for an OC. There is not an infinite number of good coaches in the NFL (example: Shurmur). The longer we wait, the more likely we are to end up with the dregs/leftovers of the league.

  • Wheel

    Holmgren’s/Shurmur’s search for an OC is nothing but a farce.  Shurmur is not sincere in his desire to hire a quality OC, and will want to retain control.  In the end, they will come out and say ‘after a long and exhaustive search, we’ve decided to promote Mark Whipple to OC.’  Not much will change.  This will be ANOTHER failed decision by Holmgrem

  • http://twitter.com/oribiasi oribiasi

    Hey, Holmgren did an exhaustive, three person search for the head coaching position, whatchutalking’bout? 

    Yikes.

  • Wow

    OK that was funny. Well played.

  • Floydrubino

    i wish we would just get rid of holmgren and put heckert in control so he can put someone in place that actually knows how to coach and knows how to put together a staff. Look what happened to philly’s team when heckert and jauron left and I think some has to do with them leaving.(not all but some)  I am not saying jauron is a genius but he can obviously coach. If you look at holmgrens career he is a decent coach no doubt about it but he admitted that getting brett favre was ron wolf’s idea and he was against it. Before this he was with montana and young in san fran. He won because he was in a situation where he should win with the quarterbacks he had. Learning under walsh you have to learn something but decision making a lot of times your kind of born with and you either have it or you don’t. So holmgren’s career is based off some real good rosters with the best quarterbacks in history that he had no part of getting but he just fell into it. In seattle he had 1 good year with hasselbeck(pretty good) and alexander running the ball in a weak division. San fran was walsh’s offense holmgren was running. I am not saying holmgren is the worst coach ever or anything like that I am just saying maybe he is not good as people think. Now we have to watch him hire one of his friends who has no head coaching experience and watch him learn on the fly. Once again this basically falls on randy lerner not taking care of our franchise the way it deserves. It reminds me in the scene from tommy boy where he is explaining to the waitress why he stinks at selling. He takes the biscuit and rips it apart into little pieces. The browns are the pieces of biscuit and randy lerner is chris farley ripping us apart. Yeah chris farley(randy) is likeable and he means well but he is clueless. Hopefully this will be like the movies where farley saves the company by turning it around. Tommy like wingy. 

  • steve-o

    Why sit back and wait for the guy you really want to be hired by someone else? The need for an OC was identified long ago, so surely they have a short list. Target the best man for the job and go get him now.

  • Wheel

    Not sure I followed the flawed logic of waiting for the best candidates to be taken, then get sloppy seconds – or thirds.  The Browns are delusional if they think Childress or Sherman are coming to Cleveland to work under Shurmur.  If they were you, do you think that would be a good career decision?  

  • Anonymous

    Reasons that may not work out.

    #1 What if that guy is Mike Sherman?   He is still in the running for the TB-HC job.  He likely would prefer to the a HC than an OC.  If he will consider us for OC (if he doesn’t get the job), then we should know that now and may be waiting for that to fall out.

    #2 What if that guy was Tom Clements?   Well, we had to wait for his team to be eliminated from the playoffs and then the guy just ahead of him on the hierarchy got a HC job in Miami.  So, now he likely has a choice of OC for GB or Miami.  But, a week ago, we may have had him atop our list.

  • Anonymous

    I would like to point out that Childress interviewed for the Dolphins job last offseason and lost out on that job.  Brian Daboll won that job.  Combining that information with the littany of play-calling issues he had in Minny (and didn’t have in Philly because Reid called those plays) is why you don’t see him on my list.

  • http://www.clevelandtalkssports.com/ Kenyon

    Hey it is like my man LG said from Cleveland Sports 360 the Browns should have made a move on getting Schottenheimer before he ended up in St. Louis. Maybe Shurmur really is stalling so he can have some more fun as he calls it calling the plays next year..Oh Boy

  • Greg Marsteller

    WHY CAN’T WE GIVE BERNIE KOSAR A SHOT? HIS PRESEASON JOB SHOWED ANYONE WATCHING HE CAN READ A DEFENSE 98% OF THE TIME, HE CAN TELL YOUR QB IN HIS HELMET WHAT PLAY WILL WORK, GO TO A FAST OFFENSE LIKE MANNING IN INDY. HIS INTELLECT WILL NOT BE HELD BACK BY SLOW FOOTEDNESS  & POOR O LINE. JUST A THOUGHT. GREG,BIGGUY.

     

  • Anonymous

    New owner ?

  • Wheel

    Another reason the new OC will be Whipple: if you were Shurmur, would you hire someone who would be a great candidate for replacing you should things go south?  Er, farther south.

  • http://www.clevelandbrownsreport.info/ C.B.R.

    Given last seasons record along with an offensive performance that was dysfunctional to say the least, Holmgren after making what many considered a disappointing hire in Shurmur, is surely looking for a “home run” in hiring an OC. I expect a hiring of Childress along with play-calling duties, regardless of Shurmurs desire to call plays. The excitement of hiring Holmgren along with the hope of the “Big Show” pulling us from the depths of “loser-land” is weakening–it is time to set aside the “friendly hires” and put up or shut up! The hiring of Childress will take pressure off Shurmur and maybe allow the rookie Head Coach to grow into his position–the OJT has to stop–Cleveland can not be the NFL’s training facility.

  • Cponder

    Childress it is. He brings his much heralded KOA  (kickassoffense) to Cleveland from Minnesota. The blueprint: run, run, pass, punt. repeat. Also, might want to hire someone to count the players in the huddle.

← Older Comments