Pat Shurmur: 15 Moves He Must Make to Rebuild the Cleveland Browns
Pat Shurmur is the new head coach for the Cleveland Browns. The move was announced shortly after 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. With the interviews over, most media were reporting it was only a matter of time, and the deal is done.
Shurmur has a formidable task ahead of him continuing the rebuild of the Cleveland Browns begun by former Head Coach Eric Mangini. Mangini got the team headed in the right direction, but he made several mistakes that still hamper the team's progress. It was those mistakes that cost Mangini his job.
You can only do so much in one offseason, and the Browns still most likely won't be a playoff team next year, but with a good draft, good free agency moves, and with the right internal moves, the Browns can be contenders again in a few years.
Here are 15 moves Shurmur needs to make in his first year as head coach. These moves assume the front office is on the same page and that there is labor peace for the free agency moves to occur.
While hope springs eternal, the reality is the Browns can't keep changing head coaches every few years and expect to be successful. With these moves, the Browns not only can begin winning more games in 2011, they hopefully will lay the groundwork for long-term success.
15. Fire the Entire Offensive Coaching Staff
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Arrogance and incompetence are the two words I'd use to describe Offensive Coordinator Brian Daboll and his offensive staff.
Daboll and Co. came with Eric Mangini from New England via New York.
Within an hour of Mangini being fired, word began leaking out to the press that Daboll did not want to listen to any offensive advice they tried to give him.
Given the Browns lack of touchdowns the last two years, inability to adapt to in-game situations and lack of overall imagination, the very first move Shurmur must make is to fire every single coach on the offensive side and start from scratch.
Team President Mike Holmgren has left the fate of the staff up to the new coach, so this should be decision No. 1.
Mangini was far too loyal to a guy who quite clearly was in over his head, and Shurmur will bring instant credibility back to the Browns offense.
14. Retain Rob Ryan and the Defensive Staff
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Rob Ryan wasn't perfect, anyone who watched the last two years knows that.
However, when you look at the entire body of work, you could see that Rob Ryan's overall schemes tended to be smart, even if they weren't being executed properly by the lack of talent on the field.
The difference when watching the defense versus watching the offense for Cleveland the last two years most of the time is that when the defense was on the field, you could see what they were trying to do, even if they weren't doing a very good job of it.
I still have no idea what the Browns offense was trying to accomplish the last two years because it certainly wasn't trying to score points.
13. Retain Special Teams Coach Brad Seely
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If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The one unit on the Browns other teams didn't like to face was the special teams unit. Brad Seely takes the talent given him and gets everything he can out of them.
It doesn't hurt to have Joshua Cribbs, either, but this is one area of the team Shurmur should not mess with.
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12. Encourage the Front Office To Keep Phil Dawson
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Phil Dawson is one of the best kickers in the league, and no one can kick the ball better in the AFC North than Dawson.
Not giving him a new contract prior to this season was a mistake, and the reasons for that still are unknown.
Shurmur needs to encourage Holmgren and General Manager Tom Heckert to keep this guy on the roster, because if they don't, there's a good chance he ends up in Pittsburgh, and that would be disastrous for Cleveland in the long run.
11. Find a "Troy Polamalu" or a "Clay Matthews"
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The Browns defense needs an identity. They need a player every other team fears. The Steelers have it in Troy Polamalu, the Ravens have it in Ed Reed.
The Browns could have had it in Clay Matthews, but for some reason, Eric Mangini decided the Browns didn't need a guy on their defensive line who looked like he leaves everything on the field and could be as dominant as any Top 10 pick that year.
This isn't a knock against Alex Mack, but passing on Matthews set this team back in the developmental process. The Browns could've found a good center in the second round.
There's another Matthews ready to come out by the name of Casey, passing him up could be an equally big mistake. The Matthews bloodline is a proven winner.
10. Find a Pass Rusher
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While the Browns should have a healthy Scott Fujita back next season, that doesn't mean they should sit back and hope Fujita doesn't get injured again.
The Browns need some youth and speed on the line, and they need another good pass rusher to complement Fujita.
Da' Quan Bowers may be gone by the sixth pick, but finding a good pass rusher should be part of the offseason process.
9. No Coaching Doghouse
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The only possible reason Seneca Wallace didn't get back on the field when Colt McCoy got injured, and especially after Jake Delhomme continued to look diminished, was that Wallace was in Mangini's doghouse.
At this level, you absolutely cannot have a doghouse. That kind of petty coaching is why teams lose games they shouldn't.
Mangini didn't get along with James Harrison, and there went any kind of depth to the running game. This isn't to say Harrison didn't have his faults, but the results speak for themselves.
Wallace has admitted he didn't see eye-to-eye with Mangini, and that's the only logical explanation for why Wallace was on the bench when he should've been trying to help the team win.
While Mangini did a lot of things right, these kinds of situations contributed to his dismissal. Shurmur can't follow this example, he has to do what's best for the team no matter his personal feelings on the players.
8. Coach Up the Offensive Line
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Having a right side of the offensive line that just stood around and watched the game happen most of the time was good enough for the last coaching staff.
The same horrible players were trotted out two years in a row, except for brief periods of temporary insanity when there were some good players on the right side, and if a good player got injured, the bad player somehow still was on the roster to keep the cycle of suck going.
Shurmur needs to upgrade the talent, or coach up the talent that is there to keep things like high ankle sprains happening to all three quarterbacks on the roster. But that's just silly, three high ankle sprains could NEVER happen.
7. Dump Eric Wright
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Eric Wright rarely is in any pictures of the wide receivers he covers scoring because he's usually getting burned so bad the photographer can't get him in frame.
Wright was supposed to have a breakout year in 2010, but he got torched early on and his confidence never returned. He ended the year on injured reserve, a mercy killing as far as fans were concerned.
Wright may still be able to recover, but after the beatdowns he got this past year, only a change of scenery will exorcise those demons.
6. Use Joshua Cribbs Wisely
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Joshua Cribbs spent a lot of the 2010 season injured, but half the time he was on the field, he was being used in the least effective way possible.
Shurmur is an offensive guy, so hopefully he can find the best way to use one of the most talented and versatile players in the game.
5. Lose The Wildcat
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While Shurmur needs to find new and better ways of using Joshua Cribbs, the Wildcat packages need to be completely ditched.
The league has figured them out, and all putting Cribbs in the Wildcat did was get him concussed.
When Cribbs came in under center, there was no surprise forthcoming and, predictably, it usually didn't work.
4. Bring Wide Receivers into the Offense
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The Browns wide receivers were on the field in 2010, but not so you'd really notice. Whether it was schemes, lack of talent or just poor play, Shurmur has to stretch the field in 2011.
3. Develop a Real Running Game
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No running back was more misused and abused more than Peyton Hillis. Trying to run Hillis between the tackles every other play is not a running game.
Shurmur has to bring in another back, or hope Montario Hardesty heals and gets on the field in 2011. Hillis was getting killed in the second half of the season, and it was because the Browns' genius offensive minds couldn't use any other running back they put on the roster, and never got it through their heads that running Hillis through the same two routes won't work after the 300th time.
2. Develop Colt McCoy
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Colt McCoy showed the league he has a lot of the skills needed to be successful as a starting quarterback in the NFL.
The last two games showed that a poorly coached rookie is going to get eaten alive by good defenses such as Pittsburgh's and Baltimore's.
Shurmur's highest priority is to coach this kid up so that he plays to his fullest potential. All the intangibles are there, and all the raw skills just need some development.
1. Play To Win
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As the number of close losses will prove, the previous Browns coaching staff liked to pull the chicken switch at the first sign of victory.
The convervative offensive shell the Browns offense continually went into in 2010 defied reason. The Browns always seemed to be playing for the field goal rather than the touchdown, and Mangini frequently would say after a game that he "just wanted to get three points out of that."
When the other team is playing for touchdowns, you can't play for the field goal.
The Browns often weren't playing to win, they played not to lose, and that is a function of coaching that Shurmur absolutely must change if any rebuilding of the Browns is going to be successful.
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