Mike Holmgren was pretty useless during his time as president of the Browns.
Because he knows football so well, he could have made a really significant impact on the organization both on and off the field. But that didn’t happen because he was the laziest employee the Browns have ever had.
You think wide receiver Dwayne Bowe, who is cruising down Easy Street as he accepts $9 million for doing absolutely nothing, is a veritable thief? He’s a workaholic – the employee of the year – in comparison to Holmgren.
“Money” Mike Holmgren was getting paid millions — millions – to be the credible football man that Randy Lerner so desperately wanted to run his team, but he instead took the then Browns owner to the cleaners. He came in late, left early and enjoyed a long lunch in between, and he did it every day. What he did when he was allegedly working is anyone’s guess, but it’s good bet that he didn’t exactly break a sweat.
In Browns Headquarters in Berea, a building where everyone works overtime – and then some – trying to do their jobs as well as they can, that was a bad, bad look. It caused a lot of unrest with the employees. Trust us on that one.
So, then, in terms of what he earned per hour, Holmgren was the highest-paid employee in the NFL – maybe in NFL history. Of that he can be proud.
In fact, Holmgren’s work habits were so bad and made Lerner so irate once he figured out what was going on, that when he sold the team, he put it into the agreement that buyer Jimmy Haslam had to pay off the remainder of the robust Holmgren robust’s contract in the purchase price. Lerner was bound and determined that Holmgren wasn’t going to get another penny out of his pocket.
Lerner got $1.05 billion in the deal — $1 billion for the value team and the rest of it for Holmgren.
But Holmgren did provide something of worth, and that concerned his specialty, quarterbacks. He said any number of times while with the Browns that he strongly believes a team should draft a quarterback every year. As he explained – and correctly so – quarterbacks are so hard to find, the position is the most important in team sports and quarterbacks are always getting hurt, that you need to add a drafted passer every year, regardless of what other QBs are already on the roster. It’s like in baseball when teams that are rich in pitching draft a lot of pitchers every year. You can never have enough pitching, just as you can never have enough quarterbacks.
Holmgren also pointed out that you don’t always have to use a first- or second-round pick to get one. You can get one later in the draft. Just get one, somewhere. You have to.
We bring you to Russell Wilson, who will quarterback the Seattle Seahawks against the Browns on Sunday.
Wilson was drafted by the Seahawks in 2012, not in the first or second rounds but in the third round, at No. 75 overall.
The Seahawks gave Matt Flynn $9 million in guaranteed money in 2012 to be their starting quarterback. But he fizzled, which could have been disastrous for the tenure of head coach Pete Carroll, who had been hired just two years before. But Carroll got the break of his life when Wilson, who had had a good senior season at Wisconsin but wasn’t considered a top prospect because he was “way too short” at just 5-foot-11, came out of nowhere to be an immediate star.
Don’t tell Browns head coach Mike Pettine, but Wilson has led the Seahawks to two consecutive Super Bowl appearances, with a championship following the 2013 season and a near-miss last year. In his four-year career, Wilson has completed 64.7 percent of his passes, throwing for 13,239 yards and 98 touchdowns with just 33 interceptions for a 101.3 quarterback rating. In addition, he has done what quarterbacks don’t do anymore – that is, excel also as a runner with 2,333 yards and 12 touchdowns.
As such, Wilson was a real bargain – a steal – in coming via a middle-round pick. The Seahawks sorted through the bargain bin and found a real nugget. Sometimes that happens. It happens more than you might think, actually.
Let’s hope the Browns, who have had so much trouble finding a good, long-term, productive quarterback in the expansion era, start drafting at least one passer each year.
Regardless of what Johnny Manziel does these last three games, it’s expected the Browns will use their first pick, which will be at or near the top of the draft, to get someone they perceive will turn into their future franchise quarterback. But if they use that pick on a player at another position, they still need to take a quarterback somewhere in the draft.
Mike Holmgren said so. And we have to listen, because it’s the only thing he got right when he was in Cleveland.
