Just when you thought that the Browns couldn’t get any more ridiculous…
It was obvious to anyone with a brain, including owner Randy Lerner, that the team was hopelessly screwed up thanks to the not-so-brilliant Eric Mangini . It’s their bye week now, so it was a good time to do something. The good news is that Lerner did do something about it. The bad news, at least for Browns’ fans, is that what he did is hopelessly stupid and almost entirely without a chance of success.
Instead of cutting his losses and getting rid of the hopeless Mangini, Lerner has instead fired GM George Kokinis. That’s not going to fix anything. Kokinis only joined the team this year, and was handpicked by Mangini. The things that have happened so far clearly aren’t his fault because he hasn’t really had time to mold this team in his image. It’s Mangini who has mismanaged the talent on the field and has consistently failed to have his team ready to play. Not only that, but now Lerner is handicapped because he not only has to find a guy who is capable of fixing the hopeless mess that the team is, but also one who is willing to take the job when Mangini is the coach. You’d have to be an idiot to take the job in those circumstances. Also, by firing Mangini’s GM you are making it clear that Mangini is on a short leash and doesn’t have much credibility left. He already has to be losing his players given what has happened so far, and this certainly isn’t going to improve anything. I will be far less than surprised if this team ends up at 1-15. What a mess.
Mangini doesn’t turn 39 until January 19. That means that there is a pretty good chance that he will have been fired as a head coach twice before he turns 39. How is that possible?
It will be interesting to see who does end up taking over. Whoever it is will want to negotiate a long term contract because there is no quick fix for this team. There isn’t much to work with in the long term – Joe Thomas, Joshua Cribbs , and only a couple more keystone pieces. The rest needs to be started pretty much from scratch – from the quarterback on out. I’ve said this before – it’s like starting an expansion team without the benefit of an expansion draft.
Like I said, chaos.
