Eric Mangini Much Happier With Cleveland Browns in 2010

Reading the last few transcripts of Eric Mangini’s press conferences has been a delight.

The detail he goes into is still great, but there’s been a subtle shift in his tone—nothing you can just put your finger on, but it’s there.

Mangini is a much happier guy.

We could sit here all day and speculate on the reasons, from personal to professional, but without Mangini involved in the conversation, it’s kind of pointless.

So, let’s focus on what we can speculate about, and that’s the Browns' performance so far in the offseason program.

Mangini has noted that two guys, Brian Robiskie and David Veikune, are much improved in how they're performing their drills this spring after underperforming in their rookie seasons.

This is the second time Robiskie was singled-out for unsolicited praise, so there's hope the young receiver will be in all 16 games this year, helping move the chains down the field.

Mangini also appears to be very happy about how the team is learning the system, noting the "retention" factor of the last few weeks when it comes to the classroom and translating that onto the field.

Mangini values smart players, so it appears he's getting his wish in spades this year, which should mean some of the more complicated schemes that failed last year might end up working in 2010.

Mangini talked a lot in his Thursday press conference about his desire to have linebackers who are versatile and able to move from the inside to the outside and vice versa, depending on the play, with no drop in production.

Mangini tried this several times last year a few times, but had limited success. If he's sticking with that idea, and it's successful this year, look for other teams to start trying to implement this kind of defensive scheme as well.

However, the biggest change in Mangini's comments from last year that you can put a finger on is that we have yet to hear the dreaded "It's all a part of the process," followed by a few minutes of coach-speak that doesn't really say anything.

For that reason alone, the future looks brighter for Mangini and Browns fans everywhere.