Covering the Browns like no one else....Hiko, with The Browns Outsider
The season was over a couple weeks ago, but, now, everyone finally realizes it. We can all just relax now and let the healing begin....The Cleveland Browns are in far greater trouble than even unrepentant pessimists such as I could have imagined.
Hiko reviews the Denver game, and concludes, among other things, that...
564 yards is a lot of yards to give up to a team without its top 17 Running Backs.
Lots of good Browns stuff at the Hiko link. Check him out.
I officially joined the 'Romeo Must Go' club when, after two consecutive collapses at home, the 4th-year head coach told the media that, on defense, his personal specialty, he would be "going back to the drawing board." I suspect that's not what Randy Lerner wanted to hear him say either.
Let's stipulate for the sake of conversation that Romeo is gone at the end of the year, and he is only now being spared the humiliation of being fired in mid-season.
What I have not wanted to see happen with the Browns is a complete housecleaning. I have held out hope that GM Phil Savage might survive a purge of Crennel. It's just that I can't go through another five-year plan. If the owner brings in a big name like Bill Cowher, the new guy would be unlikely to co-exist with Savage as the top football man in the organization, and Savage would be understandably reticent to take a demotion back to a strictly player personnel role.
One awful idea I've heard floated is that Savage (Lerner) will fire Crennel and bring in his old friend and former Browns assistant Kirk Ferentz, currently coaching the long-term mediocrity known as the Iowa Hawkeyes. Ferentz has been out of the NFL for 13 years, and it's arguable that on balance, the Iowa program has regressed since he took over in Iowa City. Ferentz is a good guy, but not the answer for the Browns.
I'd take the housecleaning as the lesser of the evils, (the other being accepting an inexperienced, unproven placeholder) as long as the organization brings in someone to coach this team who has current NFL credentials, and hires experienced NFL people in the front office. The fact that this runs counter to the way the Browns have conducted business for 40 years is enough to frustrate even the unrepentant optimist.
Posted by dan at November 14, 2008 10:47 PM