Mangini's character gestapo

I recently heard a story, from a reliable friend, about a current Browns player who will remain unnamed. This key star very recently took part in a rather wild party and engaged in party animal behavior that bordered the limits of good character.

Look for the Browns current management team to be a bit less naive than Eric Mangini when it comes to using character to filter out bad apples. Mangini went too far when he got rid of players like Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow because of character issues, and this lack of playmaker talent in the end, cost Mangini his job. The final irony is that one need not put his ear too close to the ground to hear stories like the above about some of the current Browns. There were numerous players that were on Mangini's team that in fact "passed" his character test but are, like all the rest of us, just human beings with some of the same character flaws that drove Mangini to cut others. In reality therefore, Mangini didn't filter out all of the players with bad character, he simply got rid of the guys he did not like. Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow are most certainly jerks, but some of those close losses in 2010 could have been wins had we had some more talent in the receiving corps last year. My guess is that Mangini himself is already starting to realize the significance of the fact that his "character gestapo" was in fact both stupid and naive.

Meet Pat Shurmur

here is an in depth article that presents Pat Shurmur. One conclusion is already certain, Shurmur is a convinced disciple of the West Coast Offense and a conventional thinker. The Browns are going to use a traditional West Coast offense and a standard 4-3 defense. They will try to beat opponents by putting a better team on the field and by outplaying their opponents.

My worry is the Browns may now be in another 5 year plan that neither the fans nor the front office have patience for. Perhaps it was false hope, but there were moments last season in which Rob Ryan's crazy defensive formations or Eric Mangini's trick plays made one wonder if the Browns were ahead of the NFL in tactical innovation. I think one could reasonably argue that in 2010, especially on defense, that the Browns schemes allowed them to get far more results than the talent they had should have allowed. In particular, the use of 0, 1 or 2 man defensive lines allowed the Browns to mask the fact that they had no depth on the defensive front and in many cases, using up to 7 linebackers at a time, created massive confusion for the opposing QB. Just ask Drew Brees or Tom Brady. Moving forward, the Browns are clearly going to simply seek better players and play conventional football and that will require that the Browns make a major upgrade, especially on the defensive line.

On offense the Browns will go with the West Coast offense together with young QB Colt McCoy. The book on McCoy is out in the NFL, and we saw the results in the last two games this season: 6 intercepts in 2 games. I believe in McCoy but he still has to gain some experience and the West Coast offense needs strong wideouts for it to work. The Browns have the weakest receiver corps in the NFL so that is another position that requires major upgrade. Look for the Browns to work the free agent market aggresively and to draft to fill those position needs.

Pat Shurmur is going to have to clean house on talent to find new players to fit his approach and that likely means one step back to take two steps forward. Problem is that the Browns are about 5 steps from a Super Bowl. We believe Mike Holmgren but if Holmgren truly wanted to use his West Coast offense and a traditional 4-3, would it not have been better to cut the ties to Mangini one year ago?

Coach Shurmur?

Here is a good article on the man rumored to be the Brown's next head coach. Fritz Shurmur's son, Pat Shurmur.

Goodbye Coach Mangini

Onto the next episode

BL Live Blog: Goodbye Coach Mangini

If the effort of Browns players today is any indication, then it seems that they are voting in favor of Mangini's ouster tomorrow.

The NFL Politburo: Comrade Jerry Jones speaks!

Comrade Jerry Jones speaks out about the NFL labor situation in the below video from 60 Minutes Overtime.

Comrade Jones mentions in the video that "the model we have doesn't work." The current model between NFL owners and players involves a socialist revenue sharing scheme. Comrade Jones does not want to move back to a free market, what he does want is to further reduce the players share of the revenue.

Let's see if I have the facts correct. Owners previously agreed to share revenues with players, something players actually fought against in the last negotiation. Players want a completely free market but it angers the 32 NFL owners that in a free market the players command over 50% of revenues. One could argue that a good capitalist owner would not spend money beyond his means, but NFL owners are famous for their lack of control and all it takes is one big spender to drive up salaries for the others. That stated, is the solution to force players into a communist system because the owners cannot control themselves?!?!

In the original agreement, owners sold the communist salary cap as "cost certainty" and the players relutantly agreed to the owners salary cap proposal because they were able to negotiate a share of revenues that was almost in line with their expectations in a free market. Today owners simply want to reduce players share from the amount that the NFL Politburo previously agreed to.

It is a highly distasteful irony that NFL owners made their fortunes in the greatest economic system the free world has ever witnessed, the free market system. Comrade Jones in his private political life professes to be an American Republican however the NFL Politburo's actions speak louder than words. The NFL Politburo wants us to believe that further use of communist principals are needed to manage the NFL so therefore bring on new rookie salary limits and reduce the players percentage of the salary cap.

Karl Marx would be filled with joy at Comrade Jerry Jones approach, but I suspect that Ronald Reagan is turning over in his grave. The real solution to the NFL's issues are further market freedom by elimination of the anti trust exemption that the NFL has. Let free markets rule. Only a communist could disagree with that statement.

Interesting to note that CBS chose not to air these comments on the nationally broadcost portion of 60 Minutes.

Coach Holmgren?

One of the reasons I think it would be a mistake to replace Eric Mangini is that an owners lockout of NFL players in almost a certainty. A new coach would be severely disadvantaged should the lockout last months, as he would not be able to work with new players and implement his approach.

Therefore if Mike Holmgren decides to replace Mangini, look for the new Browns head coach to be... "Mike Holmgren".

There is no mistaking that the Browns are on the right path since Holmgren took over. We have competed all year long thanks to players brought in under Holmgren. If Holmgren decides he is tired of waiting for Mangini to mature, he will have the full support of all long suffering Browns fans as long as he names himself the new head coach.

Colt McCoy: First chink in the armor

Colt McCoy had his first bad line score in last weeks game vs the Ravens. His 3 intercepts were critical in the Browns loss and all of them came on long passes.

It's clear that Baltimore had studied McCoy on film and made some adjustments. What the Ravens did was to dare McCoy to throw long by increasing their coverage underneath. The strategy worked. McCoy was unable to hit the 15-20 yard passes that he is so incredibly accurate with but when he went long, his weaknesses were exposed. Colt struggles to get the ball downfield on longer tosses.

Time to give up on Colt?? No way. However in the poker game of adjustments, Colt and the Browns clearly need to step up. First and foremost, the Browns need to find some outside receivers capable of getting open long. Colt can thread the needle on short passes but on the bomb, Colt McCoy is no John Elway. There are two problems here. First, the Browns have no receiver who is consistently able to get open, especially on deep routes. Second, Colt can throw the pigskin more than far enough, he is however not nearly as accurate with his deep throws as an Elway or Kosar were. Hence, Colt, like Brian Sipe and many other QBs not blessed with strong arms, will need to recognize earlier when a receiver will come open deep. If he can get to that point, his arm strength will be a non issue.

Don't forget that Browns great Brian Sipe sat on the taxi squad for his first two full years before he started to get playing time. Once Sipe started to play, he showed immediate flashes of brilliance and like our Colt, he never wavered on leadership however if you sort through some box scores in Sipe's first years of playing, you can find some awful games that more than match the bad game Mr. McCoy had last Sunday.

I personally remain convinced that Colt McCoy has the work ethic to improve his game and above all, the intangibles needed to be a Super Bowl QB.

Bl Predicts: Season ends vs Pittsburgh

The Brown Log attempts to top off our season record at .500 in the last week of the season. In what may be Eric Mangini's last game, it will be interesting to see how the Browns come out and play. If the team plays with heart it shows that they believe in Mangini.

Look for the Browns to give a respectable performance, but the Steelers simply have too much at stake Sunday.

BL Predicts

Browns 17
Steelers 26

The BL are 7-8 in predicting the outcome of Browns games year to date.

The Mangini question

The Brown Log has often been critical of Eric Mangini, who, at 39 years old, has too often made mistakes that a more mature coach would avoid. Today's clock mismanagement at the end of the first half was a prime example. Mangini often lacks what I refer to as "the intuition of experience.".

That said, Mangini's weaknesses are all flaws that will get better with time as he lives through this school of hard knocks. His weaknesses are in game management where he makes misjudgements under pressure. Decide not to call a timeout because maybe just maybe the other team will have too much time left and might score??? Oh yeah, the Browns need time to score too...

Leave an injured QB on the field?? We lost 2 games we should have won because of this misjudgement. Tampa Bay could see that Delhomme was useless due to his injury as did Jacksonville with McCoy. As a matter fact it was so obvious in those cases fans like myself watching on TV could see that the QB was hurt. So while Tampa and Jacksonville blitzed on passing downs and defended the run on running downs, the Browns went down the drain in games they should have won. Why couldn't Mangini decide to pull the QB? Fear and indecision, in other words inexperience.

Mangini's strengths on the other hand are that he has shown a genius for game strategy and he has demonstrated the ability to create formations and gameplans that are ahead of the rest of the NFL pack. Strengths, if you may, that one does not easily find in a coach. Ask the New Orleans Saints if Mangini can put a fantastic gameplan together. Ask Tom Brady if Mangini can confuse an all-pro quarterback with previously never seen defensive formations.

Mangini has shown himself to be well organised and on player personnel decisions where he has a few days to reflect, he shown shown himself able to stand on principle even in the face of pressure. He is an innovator. In 2010 the Browns often fielded defensive formations never before tried in the NFL such as a zero man defensive line. This permitted the Browns to field a dramatically improved Defense in 2010 and allowed the team to compete in every game. Credit Rob Ryan you say? Sure but the buck stops with the head coach and that gentlemen's name is Eric Mangini.

The offense stunk right? Yes but the Browns bet that Jake Delhomme was the mature presence needed to carry a weak offensive team. That bet failed and Mangini was left to manage the aftermath. The offense was bad but Hillis emerged as a force and our mediocre receiving crew was contributing at seasons end. That's a credit to coaching. Too conservative, maybe but if you don't have The firepower playing it safe is actually the right plan. Mangini has shown on D that if he has the talent, he has the moxie to innovate.

So should the Browns fire Mangini? I'm going to go out on a limb and state uneqivicably "no".

My estimation is that Mangini, who turns 40 next month, will start to trust his gut more in 2011 and avoid some of the bonehead decisions caused by outthinking himself under pressure. All that remains will be his strategic genius, a quality that is most often found in Super Bowl coaches.

In the end we've invested 2 years in building Mangini's experience. My vote is don't dump the guy right when he and the team are ready to repay that investment.

Merry Christmas from the NCAA

A Terrelle Pryor jersey on sale today for "only" $80.00!

"This is Cleveland"

Has any Browns player ever embodied the spirit of Ohio football more than Josh Cribbs?

Well if you have any doubts, read Tony Grossi's article from today's Plain Dealer.

On November 14th, Josh Cribbs sustained a serious foot injury against the Jets. Most players would have sat. Why does Cribbs keep playing? Read on:

The injury caused soft tissue damage to the plantar plate, or beneath the ball of the foot. He feels pain when putting pressure on that area. It limits his ability to cut and change direction. His kick returns are limited to running straight ahead.

The question is why doesn't Cribbs just sit and let the injury heal? The answer embodies the essence of Cribbs as a football player:

"I could easily sit down and be like, 'Coach, I'm gonna try to take care of myself for next year.' But I love football too much," Cribbs said. "Even one of my teammates said, 'If you're not good, sit down.' I can't sit down.

"This is football. This is what it's all about, pushing through injuries, going to work when you don't have to, and battling. This is Cleveland. What would I be, having a foot injury and not going to work? And make the money I'm supposed to make. People have to work with worse circumstances than me. So the least I can do is push through the injuries and try to do as much as I can for the team."

The Cleveland work ethic is part of what makes this town great. Countless working men and women in this town get up every day and have at it. Josh Cribbs is one of us and deserves this town's support, through good and bad.

BL Predicts: Game 15 vs Ravens

Injuries to numerous key players leave the Browns weakened and renders predicting results of games quite a bit easier.

BL Predicts

Browns 13
Ravens 27

The Brown Log are 6-8 year to date on the prediction front.