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As the Browns continue their search for a head coach, I ran across something pertaining to it that is both interesting and important, and needs to be considered by the club, I truly believe, as the process plays out.
It comes from Mike Florio at Pro Football Talk on his morning show on Sirius radio. He said he talked to a NFL general manager who mentioned to him the need to, if possible, hire a head coach with an offensive pedigree. So much focus is being put on offense, and rightfully so since that side of the ball has an incredible impact on the game, especially in the NFL. As such, then, if a team hires a defensive-minded head coach who, in turn, hires an offensive coordinator who does well and then moves on to a head-coaching job after a couple of years, the offense could well struggle going forward because that defensive-minded head coach will likely have a difficult time finding a competent coordinator to fill the opening. And instead of continuing to hum, the offense takes a step backward.
That’s exactly what happened to the Browns nearly 40 years ago. They hired Lindy Infante as offensive coordinator in 1986 and he took an offense that had been just average the year before and turned it into a juggernaut. He did so by building a pass-centered attack around franchise quarterback Bernie Kosar and a trio of young, talented receivers in Webster Slaughter, Reggie Langhorne and Brian Brennan. The dramatic change, and improvement, became even more impressive when you consider that he took two running backs in 1985 who both gained 1,000 yards rushing in Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner and turned them into great pass receivers coming out of the backfield.
That offense carried the team to the AFC Championship Game in both 1986 and ‘87, with the Browns suffered heartbreaking losses to the Denver Broncos both times. Infante became an attractive head-coaching candidate after doing all that, and was hired away by the Green Bay Packers to be their head coach following that 1987 season.
Browns head coach Marty Schottenheimer, whose coaching resume had been built on defense, struggled all that season to find somebody or something to keep the offense working at a high level. In fact, he took over the playcalling duties. The offense was still pretty good, but nowhere near what it had been the previous two years. After this season, Schottenheimer resigned after a frustrating stalemate with owner Art Modell.
The current Browns offense is far from a finished product, obviously. It needs a complete makeover. If a coordinator can come in and get that offense back on track and make it productive, then he will likely use that as a catapult to get consideration for a head coaching job somewhere.
But we first must know who the head coach of the Browns will be. Then we will look to see how this all shakes out over the next couple of years, but at least this dynamic of what could be, or might not be, is something to think about going forward.
Steve King
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