The Here We Go Yet Again "New and Improved" Browns Coaching Search Thread

YAY! I missed that....whew!

 

Either the senior or junior Kubiak could be joining the staff -- although dad (Gary) is more of a consultant at this stage in his career and the son (Klint - QB coach in Minnesota) could be tapped to replace Stefanski. Either way, Stefanski is a Shannahan-line coach, so someone from that tree would seem to be a fit.

Also bodes well for the offense since he (Stefanski) made chicken salad out of chicken s**t (Dalvin Cook).

Again... no assumptions about what the offense here will look like, but from just a personnel group comp:

Baker >>>>>> Cousins
Chubb >>>>>>>>>>>>> Hunt >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cook
Beckham >>>>>>>>>>> Diggs
Landry >>>>>>>>>>>> Thielen
Njoku >> Rudolph

 

^^^^^
Dead serious, although I'm embellishing a bit just in case old showy is out there lurking like a Bears fan.

 

I'm not thrilled, but willing/unable to do anything else anyway, to give him a shot.

What's disturbing is the rumors that Slam wants a "gameplan" presented to him weekly. Is that normal? It feels like Slam is pulling a complete 180 and wants a say in stuff he has no business being involved in.

That concerns me deeply. The analytics guy on the headset doesn't bother me so much. I think having that perspective can be valuable to a coach, who may be so caught up in the moment, he loses perspective. It can also slow down the play calling though, and that isn't helpful.

I haven't heard much about how Stefanski wants to handle the O. Will he hire an OC and let him call the game, or are we still looking at our HC splitting time as HC/OC on game day?

I'm hoping he steps away from play calling. His value as a contributor to the O game plan is real, and should be a big part of how we choose to attack, but calling plays takes you out of the "big picture" mindset an HC has to have.

Does it strike anyone else that Cleveland waiting 4 days to make the public announcement is odd, and so very Cleveland?

My two cents for the day.

 

Oh, and by the way, their website still doesn't reflect the hire. Still showing the coaching search tracker.

Yup, a well oiled machine

 

Now that the HC job has been filled, we can turn our attention to who will become the GM. Regardless of the "who reports to who" structure, this is the point in time where the GM's responsibilities and subsequent decisions are (or should be) at the forefront.

• Assisting Stefanski in coaching staff vacancies.
• Existing roster evaluations.
  • RFA's, ERFA's, Tags (if any), contract extentions, etc.
• Current and future Salary Cap ramifications.
• Draft preparations.
  • Scouting presence at collegiate All-Star games (with emphasis on personal interviews).
  • Review of existing collegiate scouting reports.
  • Development of (at least) a preliminary "Draft Board".

That's a shit load of work to be done in what's now not a lot of time to do it with some degree of effectiveness. So, my question to the group is this:

What's wrong with simply promoting Eliot Wolf to General Manager? At one time he was anointed as the next high potential GM candidate in the NFL. What's changed?

( @Tim , feel free to weigh in on this. )

 

Has he withdrawn his name and/or been ruled out for the job? If they're conducting interviews outside of the organization, it doesn't mean Wolf is out... could just be again a thoroughness of search conducted.

 

Again... that's not to say he'll do the same thing here. In fact, maybe we've tried way too hard to emulate the Patriots Way, or the Seahawks Way, or the Packers Way and never really thought about the Browns Way.

 

I don't know about you but, if I had spent a billion dollars on an NFL franchise, I would probably want daily reports on what's going on. How soon we forget that, for a period of time, he backed off and let the inmates run the asylum and he was criticized for being too hands off. How did that work out?

See my next response.

Very few experienced Head Coaches can handle the duties of the Head Coach - and - call plays. We just witnessed what happens when an inexperienced HC attempts to do that. Based on that, we will never know but I would be shocked if hiring an Offensive Coordinator that will call plays wasn't a condition of the offer to Stefanski.

Not at all. What was the need to rush? We were the only suitor left. There was no one to compete against for any of the final top candidates. For all we know, it could have come down to who became available immediately after the divisional round playoff games.

 

Bingo!

There were countless reports of Kitchens and Monken not on the same page last season with gameplans -- including outright ignoring the one put together throughout the week. Jimmy likely wants to be involved to help maintain accountability -- something he stressed a ton in his conference.

 

Fair points, but getting reports and wanting game plans are very different things. I can only imagine the response from an experienced coach would be to that request.

I sincerely hope you are correct on the OC hiring being a part of the conditions of hiring. That "would" be something an owner could and should ask for (as opposed to a game plan).

I feel like a traitor in bringing this up, but......
On Pro Football Talk, Chris Sims just said "I don't know why the Browns hired Stefanski, Vikings HC pretty much told anyone willing to listen that Kubiak was the reason for their offensive success".

He went on to criticize the analytics first strategy, calling the Browns a "dumpster fire". Check it out if you're interested. Not saying Chris Sims is some kind of coaching savant, but he's also usually pretty measured in his criticism, and this stood out to me.

 

How would he hold the coaching staff accountable for the game plan if he didn't know what the game plan was?

 

We are talking about the owner? Right?

I'm sorry Lym. I just don't see that as any part of his responsibility and more importantly, his base of knowledge. I doubt any owner asks to be part of a gameplan review.

If he is, and doesn't approve, then what. Go make a new game plan? Sounds just like the analytics guy on the headset, too much time wasted on periferal / secondary priorities. time lost from the primary goals.

 

I haven't seen a single report that says Haslam wants to be part of putting together the game plan or that he wants to approve it. Just that he wants to know what the game plan is.

 

Perhaps I am mis-interpreting what "game plan" means in Slam's mind.

As I understand it he wants a game plan and wants the analytics dept to get it too. Not inherently bad, unless it indicates they will have a say in it, then we got problems.

I believe analytics has an important role in any NFL organizaion, but it doesn't belong in play selection on game day. It belongs in play recomendations, worked on with the HC and Coordinators prior to the game, about probabilities under circumstances. In game decisions should incorporate those recomendations, but not be bound to them.

 

If Slam and co. want a "broad" plan for the upcoming opponent, fine.

 

I think one point that @kenibals has is one that I’m not sure has been clearly mentioned.

It does create the possible issue of a coach feeling pressure to stick to the plan even if it’s clearly not working in order to appease the owner.

Also, it opens the door for the owner to give his opinion on game day planning.

 

If they hire Andrew then they will have a bastardized version of what I would have liked.

I won’t hate it, but I won’t feel nearly as confident in it because of the nature of the power structure.

 

If the game plan that was adopted for use isn't working, wouldn't that be obvious . . . even to an owner?

This particular owner has 1 billion reasons to give his opinions on a game plan presented to him. I see two possible scenarios:

• He asks questions (based on his opinion) in order to broaden his knowledge of the game plan and/or how it was developed.
• He uses his 1 billion reasons to force changes to the game plan.

If the second one comes to pass, then he can't hold the coaching staff accountable for the game plan. Either way, the coach wins.

 

I'm too lazy to go look but I gather your concerns are not so much with the names but more with who reports to who?