Mike Holmgren's Here!: What Now for the Cleveland Browns?

With the title of Team President, Mike Holmgren officially is a Cleveland Brown.

The ramifications of this front office change, without the slightest bit of overstatement, are huge. Owner Randy Lerner either finally found the right man to turn this franchise around and start winning championships or the fans will be demonstrating in the streets in a few years demanding he sell the team.

While the elusive Lerner didn’t speak publicly (he almost never does), the team did release a statement noting Holmgren will not be coaching the team next year. As I said yesterday , this is a good thing.

If Holmgren is kept focused on front office duties and not trying to do it all, this team finally has a chance to stop being a punch line in the NFL. Holmgren can assemble a roster, define the teams’ objectives and give the team an identity.

Then he can sit back and let the head coach do his job.

The first, and most obvious question, is the future of the man currently holding the title of head coach, Eric Mangini.

Mangini is an enigma and a cancer when it comes to public relations. On one hand, Mangini tries really hard to be likable in his interviews and approaches his press conferences in a very professional manner.

That being said, he’s the master of giving filibuster answers to pretty mundane questions and his attempts at being likable often come off as disingenuous.

When you look at Mangini off the podium, he also is a hard guy to figure out.

On one hand, Mangini certainly has changed the culture in the locker room, and this team now looks more ready to win than it ever did under Romeo Crennel. The penalties almost are non-existent and the personnel changes over the last few weeks have paid huge dividends.

On the other hand, Mangini is a bit of slimeball. He doesn’t hesitate to throw other people under the bus to cover for his own failures and he’s been very reluctant to admit his own mistakes while demanding perfection out of others.

So he’s a bit of hypocrite.

If there’s any reason, other than the losing, why a lot of the fan base soured on Mangini almost immediately, it’s that scuzzball factor to his personality. He went out of the way to hire his friend, George Kokinis, as the team’s general manager, and then, according to the lawsuit filed yesterday, apparently told him to sit down, shut up and let the adults do their work.

That Kokinis was marginalized is now not an arguable point, the question is, how culpable is Mangini in this whole scenario?

The answer to that question will determine Mangini’s fate. If Holmgren thinks Mangini will just pay lip service to Holmgren and try and subvert the process to hold onto as much power as he possibly can, then Mangini is history and I won’t shed a tear.

If Mangini truly believes he screwed the front office up by trying to do too much (and focusing waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy too much on ex-Jets) then there will be harmony in the Berea, Ohio, complex and the team can get focused on the 2010 draft.

Mangini needs to truly believe his comments about wanting to bring in and work with anybody who can help his “process” move along. At the end of the day, twelve straight weeks of abject failure wasn’t progress, it was just failure.

But for arguments sake, since we’re here, who would Holmgren possibly bring in to replace Mangini?

Jon Gruden: Holmgren has a nice history with Gruden. Holmgren gave Gruden his first job in the NFL as a quality control coach with the San Francisco 49rs in 1990. Holmgren liked Gruden enough to hire him as a wide receivers coach for the Green Bay Packers.

Along with the positive work history, Gruden then went on to become the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002. The team never was as good again and Gruden now works as an announcer for Monday Night Football.

Despite the last few years, Gruden does have a Super Bowl trophy as a head coach, and he was born in Sandusky, Ohio, growing up a Cleveland Browns fan.

Gruden did sign a new contract with ESPN, but that’s called a “bargaining chip” in the business. I give the odds of Gruden being the next head coach at 3-1.

Bill Cowher: Cowher was the fan favorite to be named head coach for the 2009 season, but Cowher wasn’t ready to leave the comforts of the CBS Pregame show. While Cowher may return to coaching next year, he’s going to want more power than Holmgren probably is willing to cede at this point.

Cowher is a longshot, I give him no better than 100-1.

Mike Shanahan: Shanahan is another popular guy floating around the ether this year. However, he already has been contacted by several teams with the Washington Redskins the latest rumored love interest.

Anything can happen in the next few weeks, but Shanahan’s odds are no better than 50-1.

Marty Mornhinweg: For some reason, this guy’s name keeps coming up. He coached two bad seasons for the Detroit Lions. Admittedly, nothing good came out of Detroit while Matt Millen ran the franchise, but Mornhinweg decided to kick off after winning an overtime coin toss because he didn’t like the way the wind was blowing.

That is one of the worst decisions in the history of the league and you don’t deserve to ever be a head coach again after a decision like that. His odds should be no better than 1,000-1.

Seriously.

Steve Mariucci: Mariucci has coached both the 49rs and the Lions. Of course, the Millen corollary applies to his Detroit tenure, so let’s just look at his 49rs record. He had a 60-43 record in San Francisco and was fired after losing a power struggle with the general manager.

He’s spent the last few years as an analyst on the NFL Network and has shown no interest in returning to the coaching ranks. Once again, though, anything is possible. Mariucci and Brett Favre have a good relationship, and that might play well with Holmgren, who raised Favre to his Hall of Fame status.

With that in mind, Mariucci probably has about 15-1 odds of being the Browns next head coach.

While there may be other candidates out there, those names seem the most likely. Expect the Browns to play hard for Mangini the next two weeks. If there’s one thing this season has done, it has united this team under Mangini with a “never say die” mentality.

It’s that kind of mentality that wins Super Bowls and why I believe Mangini deserves to stay another year.