Start Me Up—Browns at Steelers

Third-stringer Thad Lewis gets the start at QB for the
Browns today, making this game look a lot like
2008 and 2010. 

Here we are yet again—week 17 versus Pittsburgh in a Browns head coach's Swan Song. The organization has been in this position now three times in the last six years—2008 with Romeo Crenel, 2010 with Eric Mangini, and now 2012 with Pat Shurmur.

The thing about these games is that everyone knows the ax is coming. And usually Pittsburgh is fighting for a playoff spot.

The other thing about these games is that they're started by the Browns' third-string quarterback due to injuries. We watched Bruce Gradkowski muddle his way around the field in 2008 en route to a 31-0 thumping, in which the Browns only had eight first downs. Colt McCoy did a little bit better in 2010 since he put up some points, but the Browns still lost 41-9.

In terms of the game we're about to see today, Pittsburgh may not be going to the playoffs, but it'll still probably resemble that shutout in 2008. The aftermath should look similar too, as the Plain Dealer reports both Shurmur and GM Tom Heckert will be fired, much like Crenel and then-GM Phil Savage.

What do you watch for today? Well, if you're excited for Thad Lewis, you probably haven't seen him in practice. I know Shurmur loves the guy for some reason and likes to keep him around, but Lewis has a worse arm than McCoy, and the Steelers have the No. 1 pass defense for a reason. Remember those bounce passes Colt threw last week? Well get ready for more of those, and a few dying quails.

On a more positive note, Montario Hardesty has a chance to go out and maybe show that he was worth trading up in the second round to get him. The Browns offensive line has been pretty steady this year, with its only replacement coming because left guard Jason Pinkston had a blood clot. John Greco has done a pretty nice job filling in, and with all that continuity, the Browns have a much better chance of putting together a decent run game than anything else today.

Defensively, the Browns do have their work cut out for them. With a secondary ravaged by injuries—and the release of Dmitri Patterson—Ben Roethilsberger could have a very nice day passing the ball. It's probably also fair to expect that the Browns won't force the same number of fumbles they did against the Steelers in week 12.

And I'd really like to see Travis Benjamin get a chance to return the ball today. I know it's Josh Cribbs' "job," but what kind of team has a player make a record punt return and then never lets him return the ball again? It's truly absurd.

Really, though, it's sort of hard to imagine the kind emotions going through Shurmur as he goes through his normal gameday progressions. You've got to imagine he and Heckert have to be at the very least annoyed the news broke that they'll be fired—even if everybody did know. How that affects a pregame speech, I have no idea.

At this point, the players and coaches have just got to be thinking that they want this season to be over so that the chips can just fall where they may. But there's still a game to play, and thus a prediction to make.

The Prediction: Steelers 30 - Browns 9

Phil Dawson gets three field goals as the Steelers roll to an easy victory. Let's hope they won't be his last in an orange helmet.

I'll be back with more throughout the week as the Browns will probably make their moves to forward the organization very quickly.

~MAS

Could Josh McDaniels be the solution?

Josh McDaniels actually might not be such a bad
HC candidate, if you think about it. 

Why hello there, and yes it most certainly has been a while. Was this Browns season one worth blogging about? That's debatable, but there are still two games left and now that I'm all done with a busy semester at Columbia there might be time for some good ol' Sunday blogging packages.

One thing I can guarantee you, though, is that we'll be talking about some Browns coaching candidates as December turns into January. 

Speaking of those coaching candidates, ESPNCleveland.com's Tony Grossi published this story the other day, saying that a Mike Lombardi-Josh McDaniels GM-head coach duo is the "most realistic" possibility to be coming to Cleveland. 

Now, I was on record a couple years ago as saying I thought McDaniels would be a great hire for offensive coordinator to replace Brian Daboll so that the Browns could keep former HC Eric Mangini in place. Obviously that didn't happen as Holmgren hired Pat Shurmur and...well, you know the rest.

But here we are now two years later and McDaniels has once again put together a sterling Patriots attack as offensive coordinator. The numbers are eye-popping, to say the least. New England ranks first in total yardage (6054, 432.4 per game), and points (506, 36.1 per game). That's just under 30 yards per game more than second-ranked Detroit, and 97 points more than second-ranked Denver.

Like I said, eye-popping.

And it's not the first time this has happened with a New England offense with McDaniels at the helm. In 2007 when the Patriots went 18-1, losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl, they scored 589 points, which was 134 points more than second-ranked Dallas. That's what happens when Tom Brady throws for 50 touchdowns.

So yes, when he's been in New England with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick—two future first-ballot Hall of Famers—McDaniels has been wildly successful. But if you look at what he's done in other places, well...not so much.

Keeping in mind that former No. 1 pick Sam Bradford played just 10 of 16 games last season in St. Louis, the Rams ranked 31st in total yardage, 30th in passing, 23 in rushing, and 32nd in points in 2011. Other than rushing yards, McDaniels' offense ranked worse than the Browns in all of those categories. And—as I'm sure you remember—the Browns offense was arguably the worst it's been since 1999 last year.

The numbers are marginally better if you look at McDaniels' only full season as head coach of the Broncos in 2009. Denver ranked 15th in yards, 13th in passing, 18th in rushing, and 20th in points. It's important to remember, though, that this Broncos team started out winning its first six games, but then lost four in a row and ended up 8-8.

I think part of McDaniels' problem in Denver was that he was so young and had way too much power. He was only 33 at the time of his hiring, and that kind of youth brings with it a feeling of needing to compensate by being a control freak. That came through with his trading of Jay Cutler, as the two had some kind of personality clash and apparently couldn't make a coach-player relationship work.

But now that McDaniels has had that experience as a head coach, and he's proving once again that he knows how to create a successful offense, should the Browns take a chance with him?

Well, if they want to, then they've already made up their mind about it. If you take a look at the transcript from Browns CEO Joe Banner and new President Alec Scheiner's conference call on Tuesday, Banner said something that's made me change the way I think about the whole process for the Browns and the way Jimmy Haslam is going to put together the front office and coaching staff.

"Alec and I started talking last June, when it became public that I was looking for a new opportunity, about possibly joining each other," Banner said. "We had a series of meetings and then Jimmy, Alec, and I had a series of meetings together and just felt like it was a great fit."

Last June. June! That's two months before Jimmy Haslam was officially named the next owner of the Browns, and these guys were already talking about joining forces.

This team of Haslam and Banner know what they're going to do, and they're going to do it. That's why Heckert started getting his resume ready in August, and I hope Pat Shurmur did too—they're both out the door. If you spend $1 billion on something, you're going to hire the people you want to work with. And if that's McDaniels then he could very well be on his way here.

I honestly think that might not be such a bad thing—provided McDaniels has the right people around him for support. I'm not completely sold on Brandon Weeden, but I think he could be more successful in a vertical-style passing offense like McDaniels runs than he's been in Shurmur's dink-and-dunk West Coast offense. Greg Little and Josh Gordon are getting better at the receiver position, and if he's healthy, Trent Richardson has the potential to be a very good running back in the NFL. And who wouldn't want to see Josh Cooper become the next Wes Welker? I really feel the talent is here for McDaniels' offensive system to work.

But, like I said, the Browns would need to have the right people around him in order for McDaniels to succeed. They should either keep Dick Jauron as defensive coordinator or bring in someone who still runs the 4-3. Heckert has done a very nice job transitioning the personnel to that system, and going back to a 3-4 at this point would set the team's front-seven back two to three years.

They'd also need a GM to handle all those personnel matters, because McDaniels was incredibly unsuccessful at it in Denver. I mean, come on, the guy drafted Tim freaking Tebow in the first round with pick 25. Tebow can't even beat out Mark Sanchez to play in New York. What does that tell you about McDaniels' drafting skills?

So do I want McDaniels to be the next head coach of the Browns? The more I write about it, the more I'm intrigued by it and think it might not be such a bad idea. He has experience as a head coach, he's won with the best in the business, and his offensive schemes play to the strengths of the Browns current personnel.

If he's hired, he'd be the third former Belichick coordinator out of the last four Browns head coaches—Romeo Crenel and Eric Mangini being the others.

Maybe the third time's the charm?

~MAS