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A lot of big names are being bandied about to be the next General Manager of the Cleveland Browns.
We have heard names such as Mike Holmgren, Marty Schottenheimer, Bill Cowher, and Mike Shanahan.
There certainly will be some interest on the part of owner Randy Lerner in each. So let’s look at the background, wisdom as a choice of each, and the chances that that they may actually have an interest in the Cleveland Browns’ position.
Mike Holmgren
Holmgren will be 62 by the time next season starts and last coached the Seattle Seahawks in 2008.
He is highly regarded as a quarterback developer, having worked with such All-Pro quarterbacks as Joe Montana, Steve Young, Brett Favre and Matt Hasselbeck as an assistant and head coach in the NFL.
He also worked as a quarterback coach with Brigham Young University at a time when they were putting up record passing numbers under head coach LaVell Edwards.
He won a Super Bowl as a head coach in 1996 with the Packers. After a highly successful stint as a head coach with the Packers, he left the team largely because he wanted control over personnel decisions (something he did not have in Green Bay).
His stint as a coach/general manager with the Seattle Seahawks did not go quite as smoothly, although he did manage to take the Seahawks to their lone Super Bowl appearance in 2005. The Seahawks record was 86-74 during his tenure.
The rumor is that Holmgren comes as a package with Jon Gruden as the head coach. A Gruden-Holmgren duo makes for a pretty impressive twosome, as Gruden boasts a pretty solid resume in his own right.
The downside to Holmgren is that his record as a general manager is not nearly as sterling as his record as a coach. If the Browns intend on keeping current head coach Eric Mangini, this would not be a match made in heaven.
The two come off entirely different coaching trees with completely different coaching philosophies. If Holmgren does become the next decision maker, Mangini’s days are numbered.
The guess is that it would not take much other than big dollars to push Holmgren out of retirement.
Mary Schottenheimer
Local sentiment is on the side of Marty Schottenheimer, who was the Cleveland head coach during what was unquestionably the franchise's best run of football since the glory years of the 1950s and ‘60s. He amassed a 44-27 record as head coach of the Browns.
How quickly fans forget that they once were calling for Marty’s head when he “couldn’t win the big one” against arch-rival John Elway and the Denver Broncos.
Schottenheimer followed up his Browns experience with a successful run as the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, finishing 101-58-1 in 10 years. But again, Marty just could not get his team over the top in the playoffs.
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