Browns fall in Pittsburgh-Shurmur,Heckert axed...

The Cleveland Browns were not expected to do much entering the Steel City for the season-ending game against Pittsburgh, considering that they were starting a third-string quarterback in Thaddeus Lewis and were without the main cog of the running game in Trent Richardson.
Cleveland surprised me by hanging in for the entire game before falling to the Steelers 24-10 on a day filled with snow showers.
Thaddeus Lewis tossed a seven-yard touchdown pass to Greg Little early in the third quarter to tie the game at ten and the game was still in doubt into the late fourth quarter when a Steeler score put the game away.
The Browns finished the season at 5-11 and fired head coach Pat Shurmur and general manager Tom Heckert earlier this morning.
I'll be back later today or tomorrow with a more comprehensive look at the firings and either in that post or the following one, I'll take a look at some of the rumored candidates...

Brownie Bits

1) Thaddeus Lewis was better than expected, although those expectations were not very high.
Lewis finished with over 200 yards passing and threw just one pick.
The interception was a bad one as Troy Polamalu baited Lewis into throwing the ball and stepped in front for the easy grab.
That ended a drive that might have ended in a score, but all things considered, Lewis was more than adequate...

2) Lewis used Ben Watson as his safety valve as he caught seven passes, but Lewis had issues throwing the ball deep or even medium length as only one pass was completed for more than twenty yards on the afternoon...

3) Brandon Jackson made a rare appearance from the Pat Shurmur doghouse (Being demolished as I type) and rushed for over fifty yards on eight carries.
Jackson collected a lot of money for a lot of time spent on the injured list and being deactivated, so this was about what the Browns got for two years of salary.

4) Jabaal Sheard finished up a disappointing second season with a nice game against the Steelers O-line.
Sheard finished with two sacks in his return to his college home.
I hope Sheard is able to return to his rookie form and I believe that he will as this often happens to rookies as players learn and "get a book" on players.
How that player bounces back is how one looks at that player's career.

5) The Lewis interception was big but just as big was the Travis Benjamin catch and rise, which then resulted in a strip of the football.
Benjamin has become a larger part of the offense and I hope to see improvement next season...

6) Pat Shurmur showed more fire in this game than he has in two seasons.
We are all human and perhaps the knowledge of his coming release had him on edge?

7) Nice to see James Harrison show up with another helmet to helmet cheap shot.
Harrison is rumored to not be returning to Pittsburgh next season.
Baltimore would be a nice fit for this thug...

8) Nice day for the defense as they held the Steelers to just 212 yards on offense.
They were handicapped by field position, but it was a good effort on the whole...

9) Rumors have three college coaches at the top of the Browns list- Oregon's Chip Kelly, Syracuse's Doug Marrone, and Penn State's Bill O'Brien.
None do much for me.
O'Brien might be jumping the Penn State ship after getting the best mileage from a suffering program and has the Belichick stain (no Belichick assistant has succeeded as a head man). Kelly will be bringing a gimmick offense and makes me think of the failed Atlanta tenure of Bobby Petrino and Marrone is interesting with his success in New Orleans as their offensive coordinator, but Syracuse was not exactly a power.
Color me uneasy...

10) This started yesterday and never was finished, so sorry if this reads a bit disjointed!
My Apologies...

Photo Credit: Cleveland Plain Dealer

Jimmy Haslam in,Mike Holmgren out

The official word on Jimmy Haslam began as the NFL approved Haslam as the new owner of the Cleveland Browns yesterday.
Haslam quickly announced that Mike Holmgren resigned as team president and former Philadelphia Eagles executive Joe Banner was in Holmgren's former position after a transition period.
Haslam announced that there would be no further changes in personnel until the season concludes, which means that Tom Heckert as general manager and Pat Shurmur as head coach are safe in their jobs for a few more months.

So, now the worrying and wondering begin about the changes in a few months for the Cleveland Browns.
Ranging from personnel on the field, to personnel in the front office, to uniforms, to domes over the stadium, and who knows what other potential changes are on the mind of Jimmy Haslam?

As much as uniform changes are important (Keep the jerseys, move to orange pants), the top decision to be made has to be on the future of Tom Heckert and Pat Shurmur.
Tom Heckert worked with Joe Banner with the Eagles, which could be a plus or a minus, but an undisclosed source reports that Heckert is "not optimistic" about being retained.

That would be unfortunate for Browns fans, as I think Heckert has drafted very well, and I think his record would be even better had Mike Holmgren not intervened in the draft twice to insist on quarterbacks being selected (Colt McCoy in the 3rd round in 2010 and Brandon Weeden in the last draft) when better players were available.
Heckert could do a better job in free agency, although that might have something to do with the budget/saving Randy Lerner's money, so I am even open to that possibility.

Pat Shurmur's future looks a bit grimmer.
As excited as Browns fans are about last week's win over Cincinnati and a possible win this week against the Colts, the schedule then gets tougher for a while before weakening in December.
Shurmur's dull play-calling makes one wonder if he will survive even with a few more victories.

Considering the lack of on-field success, the less-than-fan-friendly Shurmur has to wonder about his chances of returning as well!
Short of winning at least six of the last ten games, I would think that it is a foregone conclusion that Pat Shurmur will be terminated, or I would hope someone would not be "Manginied", which is a term I just coined for being deluded that progress is being made for a few meaningless late-season wins over mostly other bad teams.

If Shurmur goes, and I believe that he will, the biggest question is this-Does Haslam make a huge splash with a big-name coach that is proven as a winner? Or does he select another assistant like the Browns usually do?
That selection can either inflame the fan base, as the Browns Backers can realize that change is finally here by the lake, or take away the enthusiasm that is being generated right now.
I like Tom Heckert and I think that he has done a good job, but not a great one as GM, but if landing a Jon Gruden or even a (Bleech) Bill Cowher type of winner means sacrificing Heckert, then I would be in favor of that, even reluctantly so.

Mike Holmgren leaves Cleveland as a failure.
Holmgren appeared to me to be disinterested (other than a few personnel decisions that he was involved in) and will be remembered mainly for rarely being seen, along with his two major decisions- the retention of Eric Mangini despite the clear philosophical differences after the 2009 season and the hiring of Pat Shurmur.

Keeping Mangini, when it was clear that the two men's ideas for football were never going to mesh, was the worst decision that Holmgren could have made.
That decision lessened the excitement of Browns fans for Holmgren (Take note, Mr.Haslam) and his ability to turn things around when hopes were still sky high.

The hiring of Shurmur after a lost season under Mangini was the knockout blow, as it appeared that it was more important to hire a crony at a lower cost than it was to hire someone with a winning background.
Those two decisions were the major calls of the Holmgren era, and both proved to be wrong ones.

Jimmy Haslam has brought hope and excitement to Cleveland as the Browns now have an owner who will not tolerate mediocrity, let alone bad football.
Changes are inevitable for both good and bad, I am afraid, under the new ownership.
Let's see how long this lasts for fans of the Cleveland Browns.

Photo Credit:Chuck Crow- Cleveland Plain Dealer

Pat Shurmur hired as Browns head coach

The selection is a less than sexy one and every time that I think of this,I keep seeing the androgynous Saturday Night Live character "Pat" in my vision,but the Cleveland Browns hired the offensive coordinator of the St.Louis Rams,Pat Shurmur as the latest head coach in what seems to be a parade of thousands.

Shurmur is a less than inspiring pick to me,but at least he isn't Marty Mornhinweg and that is something in his favor.
It appears that Shurmur's main attraction to the Browns was his background in Mike Holmgren's beloved West Coast offense having been trained by Holmgren's top protege' Andy Reid and since Shurmur came up through the Eagles organization,GM Tom Heckert has plenty of familiarity with Shurmur as well.

My main issue with the hire was the overly conservative offense that Shurmur ran with the Rams.
I watched both Rams games against Seattle and wasn't overwhelmed with his play calling in either contest.
In the final game of the season against Seattle,a game that truly was the playoff opener,Shurmur ran Steven Jackson just eleven times in a 16-6 Rams loss and seemed reluctant to let Sam Bradford go down the field very often.
Does any of this sound familiar to you,Browns fans?
Some of this sounds very similar to the Brian Daboll disaster,doesn't it?

Shurmur does seem to have set a strong foundation for success with Sam Bradford and looks to be an excellent choice to be the coach tutoring Colt McCoy,which is a key to the success of the team for both next season and beyond,but I have questions mainly due to his lack of experience.
Experience is not always a end game for a good/bad coach,but I am saying that Cleveland is once again in the position of being the entry level position for head coaches.
First time head coaches are such pot luck and with the West Coast guys,the pot luck has been even more so as they have ranged from successes from Andy Reid and Jon Gruden to middle of the roaders such as Steve Mariucci and failures such as Marty Morninweg.
My main complaint on the WCO coaches are that they have one consistent thread through them all-all of them think they can turn crappy QB's into great ones just by inserting them into their scheme,but as long as McCoy gets to play the full season,I can live with whatever backup is brought in.

All in all,I am pretty non-plussed with the hiring.
However,I trust Mike Holmgren's judgement for the most part and I am willing to give his choice the benefit of the doubt.
Holmgren needs to be right on this one as considering the limb he crawled upon for the selection of Shurmur is a short one.
Browns fans are open minded enough to give Pat Shurmur a chances based on the credibility of Mike Holmgren,a failed Shurmur tenure would take much of that away from this front office...

Photo Credit-Chuck Crow-Cleveland Plain Dealer