While We’re Waiting…Browns Future, Staph Prevention and LeBron’s Twitter
October 21, 2010Terrelle Pryor’s Future
October 21, 2010
“I think I might.”
All it took was the above statement made by one Jon Gruden coupled with a one-win Browns team to get the rumor mill swirling.
Since his departure from the NFL coaching ranks, many have speculated that Gruden would ultimately return to the sidelines after a few years off. Alas, with each additional week without a headset, the questions grow louder and more frequent. And with each additional loss that is incurred by the Cleveland Browns, as well as the presence of one Mike Holmgren, Gruden’s name contiunes to surface as a possible longterm answer who would replace the revolving door of head coaches for the Orange and Brown.
Gruden’s answer above was in response to NFL Network’s Rich Eisen who asked if the current Monday Night Football commentator would entertain the option of another run at head coach. In a day in age when a lack of denial shows conviction toward the alternative, Gruden may find himself in a bit of a bind as the season wears on.
As Mike Florio from PFT notes, Gruden may not exactly be welcome into various camps if he would ultimately be working with the opposition within a 12-month window. Also noted by Florio, Gruden’s friendship with Holmgren (look, hugging!) – work with current Browns quarterback Colt McCoy not withstanding – will continue to force the rumor mill to peg the Super Bowl winner as the heir apparent to one Eric Mangini.
Also working in Gruden’s “favor” is the fact that he is from Sandusky, Ohio. And if it’s in Ohio, it obviously has ties to Cleveland. Snark implied.
Gruden did follow up the statement above with some verbal assurance that he is very happy with his current role as a broadcaster, one in which he feels he has improved drastically. Unfortunately for Gruden, and perhaps Eric Mangini and the Browns, the rumor mill may not let the sleeping dog lie as the coaching hot seats begin to heat up. Only Gruden can put any speculation to rest, and as of now, it appears that former head coach is choosing to keep his options open.
As of October 11th, Sportsbook.com had Mangini listed with a 17 percent chance of being the first NFL head coach fired this season. One can assume that these odds have increased with the Browns adding another loss to the season’s tally since the published date.
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(Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
23 Comments
In my opinion, this guy has already made Monday Night Football nearly unwatchable with any volume. I’m not sure what everyone thinks this guy brings to the table, because this guy only won 1 freaking year with Tony Dungy’s guys, then this guy never won another playoff game again.
Let me tell you something about this guy, this guy is not the answer.
I love Jon Gruden so much, its a man crush at this point. I love listening to MNF only to hear how intense this man is. Im pretty sure if hes hired, I am going to try and intern for the Browns coaching staff. Haha. He was a decent coach in his time, won a Super Bowl with Brad Johnson and turned Rich Gannon into a star. Also had some pretty good Defenses in Oakland and Tampa (albeit, Dungy made the team in Tampa, couldn’t take em to the Bowl though).
Oh, the Dungy thing already started. How many Super Bowls has Dungy won? He had one of the best QB’s of our generation and had to beat Fumbles McGrossman in a rainy Super Bowl. Lets not make Dungy out to be the genius everyone thinks he is too. Gruden is a definite upgrade from Mangini, I think we should be able to agree on that.
Speculation about speculation!
“All it took was the above statement made by one Jon Gruden coupled with a one-win Browns team to get us to write a post about Gruden coming to coach the Browns.”
/fixed
Something is “swirling,” for sure.
Who said Dungy was a genius? I said Gruden could not (and absolutely did not) win without Dungy’s guys.
Not one playoff win in 6 years after that first year run they had.
I don’t like you Cleveland Frowns…
/stewie voice
Yeah, well, it’s like Grandma Frownie always said, you can’t please all the people all of the time.
(Which, unfortunately, doesn’t mean some people won’t try.)
Agreed that this is ultra speculation. But I like it.
Not gonna like I just like Gruden as a guy. Watching the QB camp things was pretty cool minus the Drew Brees one….I just kinda find him annoying. He’s got a SB ring but people are correct to infer that much of that had to do with having a quality staff (which most of the time it does anyways).
To me this comes down to the staff. I wouldn’t mind Gruden if we could retain guys like Ryan as the def coordinator and fill in the rest of the weak *daboll-cough* spots.
Put me down for a definite maybe!
I think we will lose Ryan after this year. Oakland will probably fire Cable and Ryan has an itching for the Oakland job. So unless we fire Mangini during the season, and promote Ryan to Interim and eventually Head Coach, Ryan will be gone. Which sucks because I want to retain Ryan AND bring in Gruden. But that will be impossible.
I’m not sure why so many people are on the Gruden bandwagon. I like him on MNF but come on people. He has an actual record to look at. He went 7-9 and 5-11 in his last 2 seasons in TB. The more of imprint he had on the Bucs the worse they got. Yes, I know that’s a bit simplistic but he did get fired for a reason and no one seems to examine that. Browns fans have been begging for a stable QB situation and Gruden never was able to supply that in TB. I have concerns.
In Holmgren we trust.
[Assume lotus position. Close eyes. Breathe deeply]
@1chris rendered additional commentary unnecessary.
most excellent, dude.
Stay the course. Keep Mangini. Its working…slowly, but its working
Look at this guy, this guy right there made some excellent points. And that guy, that guy is someone I’m proud to post next to. And you wanna know something, if I were that guy over there, I’d put my head in a toilet and flush…
Gruden, Madden, McCarver… never-ending sources of comedy. Gotta love it.
I’m not ready to give up on Mangini yet. There has certainly been progress over the past 10-12 games. We are 5-5 over the past 10. Not great, but progress from where we were a year ago at this time.
Considering the absolute dearth of talent on offense, I feel he is doing a respectable job. Unless the whole thing implodes over the second half of the season, he should get one more year.
That being said…anything short of .500 next year and he should be gone.
Wow. No, no, a thousand times, no. Keep Mangini, don’t keep Mangini, whatever. But under no circumstances should Jon Gruden be the head coach of this team, period. The Tampa Bay squad that won the Super Bowl was not Gruden’s. Now, you can call out Dungy for having that talent and not getting over the top with it if you’d like–that’s a fair point. But he took a bad team, developed it, and led it to the verge of ultimate NFL success. Jon Gruden took an excellent team (by the time he got there) and got it over the hump. If the Cleveland Browns were an excellent team seemingly held back by their head coach (hello, Cavaliers of the last 2 years), then bring in Chucky and let him do his sourpuss face, cranky, potty-mouth thing to motivate us. But a team in perpetual rebuild–which is what he turned that Bucs franchise into, by the way–is the last place you want this guy. Poor talent evaluator, poor developer of young players, notoriously indecisive when it comes to QBs–most often deciding on big-armed has-beens as the solution, but keep 3 others around to see what develops–essentialy eveything you don’t want in our situation. Get over the fiery personality and the tough talk to the rookie QBs last spring: that might make for good tv, but it doesn’t mean a thing for doing the job of coaching. I for one am for letting Mangini have another season (3 should be a minimum), but if he goes, let’s make sure the next guy is worth it. Jon Gruden is not worth it.
Personally, given how much grit the Browns are playing with, and how well we hang in games even against superior opponents, I think we are virtually obligated to give Mangini a try with some real talent, provided we can get some next year.
Gruden is a solid coach but hes only won when had strong veteran players to lean on. Hes never been able to develop young talent. He won in Oakland with guys like Rich Gannon, Jerry Rice and Tim Brown. He won the Super Bowl in Tampa with Tony Dungys team, then only got back to the playoffs once after 2002. And that Buc team was 9-7 and just barely got in. He had Jeff Garcia and a bunch of other grey beards on that particular team.
With the roster as it currently sits, Im not sure Gruden would be an upgrade over Mangini. Gruden would be an excellent choice if they already had a solid foundation of veteran players in place. If they bring him in to build a team from the ground up, I dont think he will do any better than Mangini. Gruden has no patience and doesnt work well with young players. Maybe hes changed, I dont know, but this would be far from a slam dunk.
” …bring in Chucky and let him do his sourpuss face, cranky, potty-mouth thing to motivate us.”
Wins and losses aside, that might be nice for a while. Only corporate speak around these parts for years. Randy Wittman – sourpuss face. Hargrove – cranky. Charlie Manuel – potty mouth. Let’s get the whole package and start this party up.
I’m in favor of Mangini Year 3 if DaBoll goes. If you bring in Gruden you’ll see not only the overhaul of the offense but a switch in defensive schemes too so once again the roster will get turned upside down. I don’t think Gruden’s a bad coach but is he that much of an upgrade over Mangini? He only had one winning season in Tampa after the Super Bowl year.
I’d rather have Bill Cowher
Hey, for those of you who continue to point out the fact that the Bucs team was not his but Dungy’s seem to conveinently forget something. The Oakland team that they played that year was Gruden’s team. So in fact Gruden got two teams to the same SB and he won. Gruden is a huge upgrade over Mangini.