Daily Doses with Steve King
YES, OF COURSE, NEW COACH MUST BE A FIT FOR MAYFIELD
By STEVE KING
A little bit of this and a little bit of that as the Browns begin to get ready for Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Falcons at FirstEnergy Stadium:
*REALLY BELABORING THE OBVIOUS – It goes without saying that the next Browns head coach must be an absolutely perfect fit for rookie franchise quarterback Baker Mayfield. I mean, what other player would the Browns even consider pairing up their next coach with, the free safety, the left guard, long snapper? Come on. It is the No. 1 criteria for the coach. So I was shocked – to put it mildly — to see an analysis piece stating that, as if t were some kind of revelation. Should the weathermen pen analysis pieces stating that people in North Dakota need to prepare for snow this winter?
*INTERESTING THOUGHT – Beat writer Steve Doerschuk of the Canton Repository did a good piece — and an intriguing one — from a conversation he had last Sunday in the press box with Bruce Arians, who was in Cleveland to serve as the color analyst on the CBS telecast of the Browns-Kansas City Chiefs game. Arians, who most recently was the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals and previously served as offensive coordinator of the Browns from 2001-03, said the Browns job would be the only job for which he would come out of retirement. Arians knows quarterbacks as well as anyone in the game.
*HARD TO FIGURE – The Detroit Lions fired their special teams coordinator after the 24-9 loss to the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday. Their special teams have been horrible all season. The Browns special teams, of course, have also been horrible all season, including getting a punt blocked that sealed the 37-21 loss to the Chiefs. In fact, this is the worst special teams the Browns have ever had. Yet, special teams coordinator Amos Jones somehow keeps his job. Why? How? I have no idea.
COULD THIS BE THAT 1992 OILERS GAME ALL OVER AGAIN?
11-8-18
Are you listening, Browns head coach/defensive coordinator Gregg Williams?
It was exactly 26 years ago to the day, on Nov. 8, 1992, when the Browns, in an extremely similar situation to what they find themselves in now, somehow found a way to make it work.
The Browns were all banged up in the secondary, having to sign cornerbacks and safeties off the street in the days leading up to their game against the Houston Oilers at the Astrodome.
These were the great, offensive juggernaut Oilers, with Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon operating the run-and-shoot and throwing to a variety of talented wide receivers. The Oilers, in the AFC Central with the Browns, Cincinnati Bengals and Pittsburgh Steelers, were in the midst of going to the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons. Going into the game with Cleveland, the team now known as the Tennessee Titans was 5-3 and headed toward a final regular-season record of 10-6, good enough to earn a second-place finish in the division behind Pittsburgh and rookie head coach Bill Cowher, and a wild-card berth into the postseason.
The Browns, in the second year of a major rebuilding effort under head coach Bill Belichick and defensive coordinator Nick Saban, were 4-4 and coming off a 30-10 blowout loss to the Bengals.
The Browns were already decided underdogs at the beginning of the week of preparation. As key defensive backs kept falling, being replaced by a bunch of seeming nobodies signed off the street, the Browns became even more of an underdog (11 points, and that was being kind). A lot of people watching on TV back home in Cleveland were just hoping the Oilers didn’t put up 40 points or even 50 and blow the Browns out of the water.
That didn’t come close to happening. The winners got just 24 points.
That would be the Browns.
They held Moon to just 70 yards passing – 70! – and backup Cody Carlson to but 111. The Browns bolted to a stunning 17-0 lead after three quarters en route to a 24-14 win.
You had to see it to believe it.
With the Atlanta Falcons, featuring a prolific passing attack led by quarterback Matt Ryan and with great wide receivers led by Julio Jones, in town on Sunday and the Browns signing defensive back-seven players off the street trying to fill the holes left by injured players, the fans in Cleveland are just hoping that their defense doesn’t give up 40 points, or even 50.
Can Williams figure something out – find a way to patch things together to pull off a miracle and shock the world – just like Bill Belichick, Nick Saban and those 1992 Browns did?
It will be extremely hard to do so, but at least there’s a precedence for it.
IN SEARCH OF AN ANSWER IN BEREA
11-9-18
I’m still not sure – far from it, in fact — that General Manager John Dorsey will be the one making the final decision on the Browns’ search for a head coach.
Yes, I know, the team’s public relations chief, Peter John-Baptiste, came down to the Dino Lucarelli Media Room at Browns Headquarters in Berea the other day and made the announcement that Dorsey will lead the search.
Hmmm.
Hmmm.
Dorsey will LEAD the search?
That’s great. It makes total sense. It’s an absolute no-brainer, really. The GM should be leading the search. If he’s not, then what the heck is he there for?
But more importantly, will he lead the final decision-making process? Will he have the last say? In short, will Dorsey be PICKING the coach?
It doesn’t sound like it.
According to the Browns, Dorsey will be collaborate with ownership – that would be Jimmy Haslam and his wife, Dee – to decide who to hire.
Ouch!
Double-ouch!!
Oh, my goodness, no!!!
If that is what it indeed appears to be – and there’s no reason to believe otherwise – then the process – the end-result, at least, and that’s all that really matters, isn’t it? – has unmitigated disaster written all over it.
Let’s examine this.
The Haslams hired Dorsey, who, according to everyone you talk to, is an exceptional football man, to head up the football part of the organization. Since this is, after all, a football team, that would make Dorsey the most important man on the Browns, no matter what side of the organizational flow chart you look at.
I understand that it’s the Haslams’ team and they pay all the bills, but why in the world would a guy who owns service plazas along the interstate, and his wife, have any say at all – and perhaps even a big one – in who the Browns hire as coach? They don’t know football like Dorsey does – not even close to it.
What if Dorsey finds his man, then, when he tries to sell him to the Haslams, Mr. and Mrs. reject him? Then what happens? Does Dorsey keep working down his list of favorites until he finds one the Haslams like, too?
Let Dorsey – by himself after consultation with the football people he trusts – make that call. The Haslams need to sign off on it, but it should be just a rubber stamp.
If the Haslams really want to win as they claim they do, then they’ll get the heck out of Dorsey’s way and keep their mouths shut and their unneeded opinions to themselves.
But why do I get the sneaking suspicion that they’ll be sticking their noses in there at every turn?
NOT JUST ANY HEAD COACH, BUT THE RIGHT ONE
11-10-18
The Browns need to hire an offensive head coach. That’s a given. Everybody knows that.
But it can’t be just any offensive head coach.
And it can’t be an offensive head coach whose only plus is that he gets along well with franchise quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Yes, that – knowing offense and bonding with Mayfield — are key, of course, but it has to be the right offensive coach.
He has to be good. He has to know what he’s doing.
And he has to be head coach material. He has to be a good head coach.
That box has to be checked, too.
All this is why Browns owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam need to get out of the way and let General Manager John Dorsey conduct this search. The Haslams don’t know what – or who — they’re looking for. Dorsey does.
That the Haslams will collaborate with Dorsey on this search is stupid. It should be Dorsey’s job, and his alone, not just searching for the right man but picking him, hiring him. The Haslams just need to nod approvingly.
The New York Giants’ hiring of Pat Shurmur as head coach last offseason is what happens when people who have no idea what they’re doing get involved.
Shurmur is a nice man. He really is. He is a great offensive mind and a wonderful coordinator. He works well with quarterbacks, especially young ones.
But he is not a head coach in any way, shape or form, and the people – the media people – who covered him when he was head coach of the Browns would tell you that. Whatever that extra something that you need, along with everything else, to be a head coach, Shurmur lacks it.
And that is why the Giants are 1-7 as they head into their Monday Night Football game in several days against the San Francisco 49ers – and head coach Kyle Shanahan, the former Browns offensive coordinator who seems to be head coaching material.
So this is a tough job – a meticulous search – and the Browns absolutely have to get it right. They already have their quarterback and GM. Now they have to find their head coach – the right head coach.
