It appears the rumors are true and it is likely the Cleveland Browns will have a press conference tomorrow to announce Pat Shurmur as the team’s next coach.
Already, the paranoid fans of the team are upset with the hire because Shurmur has no previous head coaching experience. The Browns’ last coach, Eric Mangini, had three years experience as an NFL head man. How did that work out?
Some people are still pining for Jon Gruden, who said he wasn’t ready to come back to coaching.
Others are complaining about the choice made by team president Mike Holmgren. Why should trust be put in him? Shurmur is the same kind of hire as Chris Palmer or Romeo Crennel. Except that he’s not.
Why?
Because the hire is being made by a football man. Owner Randy Lerner signed off on the last few head coaches: Mangini, Crennel, and Butch Davis.
Lerner is a guy who is passionate about the Browns and has a boatload of money, but he really only knows the game as a fan. He’s hasn’t spent the majority of his life coaching football players the way Holmgren has.
That’s a huge difference. It’s also why it was important for Lerner to hire a guy like Holmgren.
He’s brought in a guy like GM Tom Heckert, who based on last year’s draft, is off to a promising start in his Cleveland career. Holmgren has also brought in guys to handle the salary cap, new scouts, etc.
He saw what was here when he was hired, and decided to bring in people who have worked in the NFL before. This organization needed experience, and experience from other teams that have had success.
As for criticism regarding faith in Holmgren picking the right man for the job, it is true that the president has not hired a head coach before.
However, during his tenure as a head coach, he hired many assistants for his staff. Among those he hired in those roles were Gruden, Andy Reid, Steve Mariucci, Ray Rhodes, and Mike Sherman. All of those guys went on to be head coaches in the NFL.
Obviously, he saw something in those guys to indicate they could coach in the NFL. Why wouldn’t the same ability to recognize people who could be good assistant coaches translate into finding a good head coach?
Shurmur has coached under Reid in Philadelphia at the pro level, and he was an assistant at Michigan State under Nick Saban, who won two college national titles. He’s been around winning.
So, part of the allure for The Big Show is that the new coach comes from his coaching tree. That means everyone in Berea will be on the same page when it comes to how to win football games.
It will be important for Shurmur to bring in offensive and defensive coordinators with experience. That’s the formula for success used by Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Atlanta when they hired younger guys who had never been head coaches in the NFL.
Look, Mike Holmgren is the first successful football man the Cleveland Browns have had running the show for a long time. We have to trust the decisions he is making.
It’s the nature of sports fans in this city to look at the downside of any move made by one of its teams. Whether or not Pat Shurmur is the guy to lead the Browns back to the playoffs, only time will tell.
However, you have to trust Holmgren. He has a winning record as a coach, and he’s hired some assistant coaches who have done real well in the NFL.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 