Yes, all good things must end for Eric Mangini as he has been fired as the head coach of the Cleveland Browns after two 5-11 seasons. But did he deserve to be let go after the team showed so much progress this season?
Well, after watching Mike Holmgren's press conference yesterday, I really think he made the right decision. The Browns players made the decision that much easier, I'm sure, when they went out and laid an egg against the Steelers on Sunday, but after losses to Cincinnati and Buffalo it was probably going to happen anyway.
I could say more about how Mangini beat the Patriots and Saints this year, and the Browns played in a lot more close games, but you know all that. The bottom line is this, it's true that Mangini instilled a lot of quality values into the current Browns players, and changed the culture in Berea from chaotic to disciplined, but I just don't believe that he was the coach to take us to the next level.
Not that it really matters what I believe anymore, since he's gone.
A Look At...
This is a new series I'm starting for the Browns coaching search, where I'll take a look at some (not all, because that might really take a while...) of the candidates for the job and I'll let you know what I think of them. In addition, not all of the posts will be this long, but I felt like it would be a good idea to start off with a bang. With that, the most attractive choice out there is obviously Jon Gruden, but is he really as qualified as people like to think he is?
Gruden took over a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team in 2002 that had been coached the previous six seasons by Tony Dungy, and had made the playoffs four of the previous five. Dungy was fired because Buccaneers ownership felt that he couldn't take the team to the next level, but the talent was clearly there. Enter coach Gruden, who came to the Buccaneers through what I think was a pretty bizarre trade with the Oakland Raiders because their owner and general manager Al Davis didn't like the type of offense he ran. Gruden ended up taking what many people call "Tony Dungy's Buccaneers" to the Super Bowl and won it over the Oakland Raiders, a team he knew very well as he had just coached it.
But I think that Gruden's time with Oakland also tells about his ability as a coach, especially since they reached the Super Bowl the year after he left. For the first two seasons with the Raiders, the team went 8-8. Then, they went 12-4 and made the AFC Championship game, and followed that up with a 10-6 campaign where they lost in the divisional round of the playoffs. To me, that means you could say "Jon Gruden's Raiders" made the Super Bowl, much like "Tony Dungy's Buccaneers."
After the Super Bowl victory, the Buccaneers only made the playoffs twice in in six seasons, and only once did they have at least 10 wins. That being said, they did bounce back in 2007 with a 9-7 record after a poor 4-12 showing in 2006.
In my estimation, the Buccaneers were a pretty consistant team with Gruden at the helm, and I guess they fired him because they lost their final four games of 2008, his final year with the team. But his strong qualification for the Browns head coaching job comes more from the fact that Holmgren was his mentor when they worked together in San Francisco and Green Bay, and Holmgren asked for Gruden's advice on drafting Colt McCoy.
I know people like to think there are "more attractive jobs" out there for Gruden, but if he came to Cleveland he'd be working with a front office with whom he shares the same philosophy on just about everything, and he'd clearly have a lot of pull to get the players he wants. You add the fact that Gruden grew up in Sandusky as a Browns fan and how his son recently tweeted that Gruden would maybe be interested in the Cleveland job, and I think we might have a better chance of landing Gruden than many people are giving us.
Keep checking back for more of the "A Look At"s, as I'll be posting them periodically until we find, as Holmgren put it, the one coach who can lead us to a championship.
~MAS
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