Phil Savage Firing Sinks Cleveland Browns to New Lows

It was February 9th, 2002, and Jamir Miller's AFC squad had just finished holding off their NFC counterparts in a 38-30 shootout at the Pro Bowl. Miller, the outside linebacker for the Cleveland Browns, didn't play much, but it didn't matter: This was a celebration of the best players in the entire NFL at their positions.

Six years—six years—would pass before another man wearing the orange Cleveland helmet would have the honor of representing the American Football Conference in Honolulu, Hawaii for the league's annual All-Star contest.

Coaches would get fired. General managers would lose their jobs. New stadiums would be built while old ones would be torn down. But a Cleveland Brown would not go to the Pro Bowl.

It was as certain as death, taxes, and long, losing autumns on the shores of Lake Erie.

That was supposed to change in January of 2005. And by golly, it did.

That's when the Browns hired Phil Savage, the Baltimore Ravens' Director of Player Personnel, as their new GM. Savage had served as the right hand man for Ravens General Manager and former Browns legend Ozzie Newsome, and Savage's tenure had seen a parade of Pro Bowlers don the purple and black on the banks of the Chesapeake.

The Ravens had become everything the Browns were not: A star-studded team with playmakers and All-Pros on both sides of the ball.

Savage was being asked to duplicate that in Cleveland. In his first draft, he took Michigan wide receiver Braylon Edwards with the first pick. The 2006 draft saw him take Florida State outside linebacker Kamerion Wimbley.

But 2007 was when Savage made his big splash. He took Wisconsin left tackle Joe Thomas with the third pick, then traded back into the first round to tab Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn with the 22nd selection.

Edwards broke franchise records for receiving yards and touchdowns in just his third year in the league. Wimbley set the franchise record for sacks by a rookie with 11 in '06. And Thomas made the Pro Bowl as a rookie—the first of which could be a decade's worth of trips to Hawaii for the Browns' franchise left tackle.

The draft, however, wasn't the only place where Savage was making his mark.

Savage picked up quarterback Derek Anderson off the waiver wire in 2005 after his former employer, the Ravens, dumped the same guy they had spent a sixth-round pick on. He also signed undrafted free agent Joshua Cribbs, a quarterback from nearby Kent State who would go on to become a punt returner.

Anderson had one of the most prolific seasons in the history of Browns quarterbacks, throwing for almost 4,000 yards and 30 touchdowns in 2007. He joined Cribbs in the Pro Bowl after the '07 season after the latter became the AFC's answer to Chicago special teams extraordinaire Devin Hester.

The Browns sent six men to the Pro Bowl in February of '08 after a six-year hiatus from Hawaii. Four of those six—Edwards, Thomas, Anderson, and Cribbs—were brought on by Savage.

Even after a disappointing 4-12 finish this year—a mark that has led to Savage's inexplicable termination—the Browns were not devoid of star power. Thomas made the Pro Bowl again, and Shaun Rogers—the defensive tackle who Savage fleeced off the Detroit Lions for cornerback Leigh Bodden and a third-round pick—joined him in Hawaii.

In four seasons on the job, Savage had brought aboard five Pro Bowlers through his transactions for a franchise that had zero—zero—in six seasons.

And if the Browns' track record in the Pro Bowl wasn't enough, try this: When Savage took over in 2005, the Browns were on a streak of 20 years without a 1,000-yard rusher. Not 2,000. Not 1,500. Not 1,200. But 1,000, a milestone that is like breathing for any No. 1 running back on any team to topple.

The franchise that once had the great Jim Brown couldn't find a workhorse back in two decades. But Savage found two—in three years. Denver Broncos castoff Reuben Droughns was brought aboard in 2005 before he broke the streak of ineptitude with 1,232 yards.

A year later, Savage signed fellow ex-Raven Jamal Lewis, whose 1,304 yards in 2007 were the most for the franchise since Brown himself wore the no. 32 in the Cleveland backfield.

All that makes Savage's firing on Sunday all the more inexplicable and reflective of the Browns' organizational ineptitude. The franchise rewarded Romeo Crennel with a contract extension last offseason despite one good season in three years with the organization. Crennel finished his tenure 24-40—not winning even once against arch-nemesis Pittsburgh, against whom he went 0-8.

Savage wasn't the problem. He supplied plenty of talent. No GM gets every pick right, but Savage did what he was hired to do: Bring star power to a franchise that was completely devoid of it.

If there was any fault of Savage's, it was that he was loyal to a fault. When his job was on the line back in December of 2005 because of power struggles within the organization, it was Crennel's support that pushed Savage over the top in keeping his job. Firing that same colleague may have proved to be too difficult for Savage, but firing him, instead, is not the answer for the Browns.

Cleveland is already rumored to be taking a serious look at former Steelers head coach and legend Bill Cowher. There have been whispers that New England Patriots Vice President of Player Personnel Scott Pioli—who was one of the candidates for the job back in '05 when Savage was initially hired—will replace Savage as the team's General Manager.

If that's true, it will be Pioli who will have huge shoes to fill. Talent wasn't the problem in Cleveland. It was what the coaching staff did with the talent. Which is why whoever takes over the headset on the Browns' sideline—whether it be Cowher, Marty Schottenheimer, or whoever—will have nowhere to go but up.

The same can't be said for whoever replaces Savage. Because for Phil Savage himself, doing what he was hired to do still wasn't enough for him to keep his job.