Another January, another search for the next head coach for our beloved and beleaguered Browns. Hiring a new coach often offers fans a ray of hope of better things to come. But their recent remodeling history makes even the most optimistic Browns backer quite skeptical of seeing any light at the end of this trainwreck-filled tunnel. Here are the win loss-results of the off-season hirings since the Browns return in 1999 (as well as each coach’s previous job):
1999 Chris Palmer, Jacksonville Jaguars offensive coordinator: 5 wins, 27 losses (.156 winning %):
2001 Butch Davis, University of Miami head coach: 24 wins, 34 losses (.414)
2005 Romeo Crennel, New England Patriots defensive coordinator: 24 wins, 40 losses (.375)
2009 Eric Mangini, fired New York Jets head coach: 10 wins, 22 losses (.313)
2011 Pat Shurmur, St. Louis Rams offensive coordinator: 9 wins, 23 losses (.281)
2013 Rod Chudzinski, Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator: 4 wins, 12 losses (.250)
2014 Mike Pettine, Buffalo Bills defensive coordinator: 10 wins, 22 losses (.313)
First Energy Stadium has not exactly been the cradle of coaches. More like a crypt.
For this seventh round of Who Wants to Be Our Football Coach, owner Jimmy Haslam seems to be taking a vastly different approach. Just hours after their season-ending loss to the Steelers, Haslam not only canned Mike Pettine (along with general manager Ray Farmer), but also announced a new front office structure where little known Sashi Brown was promoted to executive vice president of football operations.
A graduate of Harvard Law School, Brown was initially hired by Cleveland in 2011 as executive vice president/general counsel. He worked alongside Farmer, dealing greatly in salary cap management and salary negotiations. Brown had a similar title when working the previous seven years in Jacksonville, putting lawyer skills to heavy use.
His fancy new title has given Brown final say on the Browns’ 53-man roster. His very limited player evaluation experience makes this hiring perplexing, to say the least. But Haslam now wants a structure that emphasizes collaboration, and sees Brown being the ringmaster among a team of various titles (head coach, general manager, scouts,…) that will discuss their thoughts togethe on potential roster personnel decisions.
Three days after the hiring of Brown, the franchise announced the hiring of former Harvard wide receiver and graduate Paul DePodesta for the title of Chief Strategy Officer. He spent the previous 19 years working in various Major League Baseball front offices.
Huh?
Many of you know by now that DePodesta’s biggest claim to fame is that he is the basis for Jonah Hill’s brainiac stat-geek character in the baseball movie, Moneyball. He, along with Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, revolutionize baseball by making personnel decisions that are primarily driven by various statistical and data analyses.
Speaking of that movie, who got the best Hollywood movie make-over???
Choice A. DePodesta
played by Hill…
Choice B: Manager Art Howe
played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman…
Choice C. General manager Billy Beane
played by Brad Pitt…
Ummm, I think DePodesta and Howe got the short end of the stick.
The hiring of DePodesta to go along with the promotion of Brown stresses a new emphasis for the franchise on…
TECHNOLOGY and TEAMWORK
Haslam obviously hopes to get ahead by revolutioning the NFL in data analysis and application.
As the holder of a college degree in mathematics, I respect and appreciate number crunching more than most. I hate to burst Jimmy’s bubble, but the NFL has been driven by numbers for years. Teams break down game film in great detail to find tendencies in themselves and their opponents, while also grading the performances of their players play by play. And the NFL combine, as well as the draft, places an enormous emphasis measuring and testing players in more ways than NASA probes potential astronauts.
And current NFL data analysis goes far beyond what the typical NFL fan knows. In the past three years under Haslam, the Browns have placed great emphasis on this facet. In fact, legendary Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Terry Pluto just wrote of the analytics department that the Browns already have had in place.
This emphasis by the franchise on technology and teamwork has surely factored into the Browns’ coaching search so far. They would want a man that is gonna buy into the company line. But it would be a be an enormous mistake to overprioritize these factors in picking a head coach.
So what should they be looking for? Many want a great tactician, possibly grabbing the next Bill Walsh that can revolutionize the offensive side of the ball. Or maybe finding another Bill Belichick, a defensive mastermind that is always one step ahead of his opponent.
It would be great to find an X-and-O genius like those two legends, but those hirings come few and far between. Even Belichick didn’t appear to be anything special in his first head coaching job in Cleveland, going 36-44 in five years. And there have been plenty of tactical mastermind coordinators and college coaches that struggled as NFL head coaches. Buddy Ryan (55-55-1), Lindy Infante (36-60), Steve Spurrier (12-20), and the recently fired Chip Kelly (26-21) quickly come to mind.
Being a great strategist is definitely a plus, but most NFL coaches know their stuff. And unlike college football, the talent level between teams is relatively close. Tactics may give you a slight upper hand, especially if you have the right talent–and the right quarterback–to build your football philosophy on.
But there is one magical ingredient the recipe of head coaching success that the Browns should be scouring their candidates for…
T-O-N-E.
The biggest key to a team maximizing its potential (and talent determines the ceiling to a team’s potential) is the TONE that the head coach sets for his squad.
Tone?
Tone, as in the ‘refuse to lose’ attitude that he instills in his players not only on Sunday afternoons, but in every drill and repetition of every practice.
Tone, as in getting the defense to buy into the mentality of flying to the football on every snap.
Tone, as in getting the offense to strive to execute the offensive gameplan crisply to perfection.
Tone, as in driving and pushing both the offensive and defensive lines to be the hammer, not the nail, at the line of scrimmage.
Tone, as in holding players accountible for their effort and execution on the field.
Tone, as in holding players accountible for their actions both on and off the field.
Tone, as in getting players to hold each other accountible on and off the field.
Tone, as in getting each player to hold himself individually accountible on and off the field.
Tone, as in motivating players to put in the extra time and effort it takes to reach greatness.
Tone, as in inspiring each individual to buy into the idea that not only is he part of a team, but that he needs to give everything he has to support and protect his teammates–his brothers–on and off the field.
Setting the tone doesn’t mean being a tyrant. The tyrant approach has worked from time to time, but can often blow up in a coach’s face.
Setting the tone takes the right blend of motivating players, pushing them, supporting them, holding them accountible, giving them respect, earning their respect (through words and actions), giving them a kick in the butt, and giving them a pat on the shoulder, to name a few.
Here is a list of the Super Bowl winning coaches over the last 12 years: Bill Belichick (4 times), Jon Gruden, Tony Dungy, Tom Coughlin (twice), Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll, Sean Payton, Mike McCarthy, John Harbaugh.
Not only does each have at least one Super Bowl ring. Each coach has a team that has had pretty consistent success.
They were all helped by having very good to great QBs, but almost all of them give off an aura where they SET THE TONE for their team.
And each of the coaches sets the tone for his team in different ways, from the iron fist of Belichick to the soft speech of Dungy.
And if you didn’t notice, I intentionally left one coach off the Super Bowl list that is every Browns’ fan’s ultimate sideline dream…
Do you think Bill Cowher had any problem setting the tone for his team? I get chills just looking at that scowl!
The question is, how does Jimmy Haslam and his selection committee sift through the resumes and interview sweet talk to find the right tone-setter?
I would suggest that they to talk to those that played under those coaches. Players admired for their effort. You will get a clear idea of which coaches are the ones that their players would follow into battle. Certain players might not even like a coach very much, but they respect him.
As for my choice, I would love to see the Browns grab one of these two candidates:
1. Former Raiders head coach (and current Cincinnati offensive coordinator) Hugh Jackson.
2. Former Bills head coach (and current Jacksonville offensive line coach) Doug Marrone.
They both appeal to me because they have already been NFL head coaches with some measure of success. I am certain that each guy sees his previous experience is a great learning tool that they can build upon for their second head coaching rodeo.
And from the reports I have read, each guy SETS THE TONE.
And hopefully their children have trained them well enough that they don’t flunk any smart phone technology tests that Haslam and his Ivy League lads might pull out during an interview…
Question #1: How do you keep the screen from flipping when you turn your phone sideways?
Follow or contact the author on twitter: @macaljancic