Cleveland Browns fans are a curious lot. Most fans were unhappy with former Eric Mangini, but it seems they were only dissatisfied with him if former Oakland and Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden replaced him.
When team president Mike Holmgren hired Pat Shurmur, they became unhappy again. Shurmur wasn’t an offensive coordinator on an elite offensive team, he was only a coordinator for two years, no one heard of him prior to the Browns’ coaching search.
It seems like the fan base is against Shurmur before he’s been in charge for one mini-camp. That’s not fair to him.
First, the guy he replaced didn’t exactly bring playoff contention to Cleveland. He was 1-11 in his first season, and lost the last four games of his second year. The best thing you could say about the Browns under Mangini is that they were inconsistent.
Now the fans are in an uproar over the hiring of the offensive and defensive coordinators, and if Shurmur, GM Tom Heckert and Holmgren don’t hire the guy the fans want, well once again, the supporters of the team will be angry.
They did hire Dick Jauron, an experienced defensive coach, who also was the head coach of the Bears and Bills. The team needed to hire someone who knew his way around the NFL in this capacity because Shurmur has already hinted that he will spend much of his time on the offensive side of things.
Jauron was the first defensive coordinator for the Jacksonville Jaguars under Tom Coughlin from 1995-98. That team went 4-12 in their expansion year to a pair of 11-5 finishes in Jauron’s last two years there. The highest defensive rank achieved in his tenure was 15th in yards allowed in 1996.
After five years as the Bears’ head coach, which included four seasons under .500 and a 13-3 division winning season in 2001, he was the Lions defensive coordinator for two years before taking over in Buffalo. Again, his defensive ranks were not very impressive.
In three full seasons as the Bills’ coach, he went 7-9 every year before being let go during the 2009 campaign.
However, people seem to be excited because he’s been around the NFL a long time.
Look, Jauron might work out well here in Cleveland, this is not to suggest he’s a terrible defensive coach. However, you need players. Heckert will need to bring in a great deal of defensive talent here because outside of NT Ahtyba Rubin, CB Joe Haden, and S T.J. Ward, there is a lot of age on that side of the ball.
LB Scott Fujita is a keeper, and LB Marcus Benard and Matt Roth should be able to fit in with Jauron’s schemes. What this says is most of the front seven have to be overhauled from a talent standpoint. That’s what fans should be concentrating on instead of worrying who will be the offensive coordinator and does Dick Jauron represent an upgrade from Rob Ryan.
As for the offensive side of the ball, Shurmur said he is going to call the plays, so it isn’t a critical as the guy in charge of the defense. The Browns need to find someone who shares the new west coast offensive philosophy of the organization, rather than finding the next offensive genius.
Browns fans need to relax and be patient. It’s difficult since they haven’t won a title since 1964, and haven’t made the playoffs since 2002, but they need to let Pat Shurmur coach a game before being critical.
They need to stop thinking every move made by a sports team in this city is the wrong one.
JD
Cleveland Sports Perspective 