Cleveland Browns Coaching Hot Seat: Stay the Course With Eric Mangini in 2011

As the losses mount and hope is replaced with the reality that the 2010 season will be another losing one for our beloved Cleveland Browns, the inevitable momentum is growing which calls for a coaching change in 2011.

If history offers lessons for the future, the Browns would be better off staying the course this offseason instead of impulsive moves that will once again rock the foundation of the team. Facing similar situations following the 2000, 2004 and 2008 seasons, the organization chose to hit the proverbial reset button in hiring a new head coach.

Granted, this time around the Browns have the guiding vision of Mike Holmgren, a coaching change will yet again bring a mass overhaul of the roster with no guarantee of it translating to wins.

Haven't we seen this way too many times before? Does it ever work?

A coaching change does nothing to solve the lack of talent on both sides of the ball and actually helps perpetuate the lack of identity that has plagued the Browns since their rebirth in 1999. It is fair to criticize Eric Mangini for the teams 1-5 start, but considering the mess he inherited upon arriving in Cleveland, there is no question the team is headed in the right direction. We have a proven winner in Holmgren to oversee team operations.

We have a general manager in Tom Heckert to build the roster, brought in from a Philadelphia Eagles organization that mastered the art of maintaining talent in the salary cap era.

We also have, in Eric Mangini, a coach who inherited a toxic mess left behind from the previous regime and did the right thing in choosing character, discipline and team over talent and ego. There is no question that Cleveland is better off without the likes of Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow on the roster, but there is no doubting their talent. The fact is the decisions that had to be made require patience and a long-term approach in a city with a fan base desperate for a winner.

There is a reason that nobody wanted the head coaching job in Cleveland following the 2008 season. Our dreams of hiring Bill Cowher to magically turn the Browns into winners was replaced by the reality that no great coach was going to risk his legacy in a situation that called for a long-term approach in an atmosphere so desperate for immediate gratification. 

Eric Mangini may have his faults, but the fact is he was willing to take on these challenges head on. Anyone naive to believe Mangini thinks he can win in the NFL with a roster full of former boy scouts is mistaken. He made the decisions necessary to eliminate the personalities that ruin locker rooms for the good of tomorrow at the expense of today.

Moving forward, Randy Learner has hired the front office figures that will help replenish the talent with the right group of players, based off the foundation that Mangini has set in place. The Browns may only be 1-5 this season, but they have been competitive in every game (except one half against rival Pittsburgh this past week). They have also started to build an identity of playing physical defense and smash mouth football, which started over the last four games of 2009 and carried into the 2010 season.

Browns fans calling for a new coach need to take a step back and give Mangini a chance in 2011 because the organization finally has the pieces in place to be successful.

Allowing Holmgren and Heckert to continue shaping the roster and granting Mangini the opportunity to coach a group of character guys who possess talent will allow the Browns to finally turn the corner. Another coaching change will accomplish nothing other than pressing the reset button, abandoning any progress the team has achieved and prove once again the organization doesn't understand the concept of continuity.