| 13 January 2011
I could be way off here, but it sure looks like the Cleveland Browns did nothing to upgrade themselves in the coaching department with the hiring of rookie head coach Pat Shurmur.
Not only do I not believe Shurmur is an upgrade over Eric Mangini (who isn’t good, but isn’t terrible), this means the Browns are going to lose defensive coordinator Rob Ryan. The latter proved he was one of the better assistant coaches in the NFL in 2010 in my opinion with some of the schemes he put together against explosive offenses such as the Patriots and Saints.
Shurmur was the Rams’ offensive coordinator the past two seasons and one could argue he did about as well as anyone could expect with such a young roster. However, the Rams were 29th in total offense in 2009 and 26th this season, so it’s not like he was working miracles.
The real kicker here is that Browns team president Mike Holmgren (and others in the Browns’ front office) have the same agent as Shurmur. This reeks of a hiring out of convenience/helping out a friend.
Was there any other NFL team even interested in interviewing Shurmur for a head coaching position? If so, I certainly missed it. And the whole “we all have the same agent” thing really makes you shake your head. Maybe it means nothing. Or maybe it means guys in high-powered positions in the NFL are giving other high-powered NFL jobs to people that are not qualified for the position.
In other words, good news for the Bengals.
And all this really doesn’t surprise me. Holmgren might be a good coach (and I think he will take over for Shurmur as the Browns' HC sometime within the next two years) but as he proved in Seattle, he’s not a good general manager. Only when the Seahawks removed him as GM did they finally get good during his tenure. I love that there is this myth that Holmgren knows what he's doing from a player personnel standpoint. Yeah, the guy that gave Jake Delhomme $7 million guaranteed this offseason? A quarterback no one else in the NFL wanted?
So, good luck with this one, Brownies. As Bengal fans, we can’t make fun of too many NFL teams. But thanks for being one of the few exceptions. (Also like to give a shout-out to the Lions.)
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