While We’re Waiting… Sizemore signs (!) and to trash talk or not
January 23, 2014Thursday Tribe Notes
January 23, 2014According to Bleacher Report Browns columnist and local sports personality Will Burge, the Cleveland Browns have selected Buffalo Bills’ defensive coordinator Mike Pettine to be the new head coach of the Browns. Burge began a sequence of Tweets early Thursday morning with all the details:
Sources confirm #Browns have chosen Pettine as next HC. Say meeting today is not interview but contract neg. If deal is reached he is coach
— Will Burge (@WillBurge) January 23, 2014
Pettine lands at Hopkins airport (yes commercial flight) at 12:32. One source said deal could be done by 5pm today if all goes well #Browns
— Will Burge (@WillBurge) January 23, 2014
#Browns source mins ago: Only things that could derail Pettine hiring are contract or Malzahn suddenly showing interest. Neither likely
— Will Burge (@WillBurge) January 23, 2014
Pettine, who was a linebackers coach for the Ravens before serving terms as defensive coordinator for the Jets and Bills, is 47 years old and this would be his first head coaching gig. While little may be known about Pettine among many Browns fans, Pettine seems to be well thought of in New York and Buffalo as well as by coaches and analysts throughout the NFL. The question remains, of course, whether he will be able to succeed where Rob Chudzinski failed and last longer than 11 months on the job.
126 Comments
Haven’t seen much of the diva attitude from Gordon, and Watkins (the little that I saw of him) looked like a worker and team player. I’d be willing to give Hoyer a year to see if he could make it work. (But those other guys would be fine, too.)
well, just tell me. who did you want more than Pettine?
http://profalbrecht.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/meh-graphic-buckle.jpg
Of all of the teams that hired new coaches this year, I don’t think anyone is in a better position than the Browns (just in terms of the coach) – and a few may have made themselves worse (yes, Detroit, you).
Lovie Smith is the one guy who I would have rated above. And, he’s putting together a very nice coaching staff as well.
We’ll get a much better idea of our status/direction when he hires his coordinators.
I can see that.
They are. But people are going to complain because the coaches don’t have a popular or “known” name.
I certainly don’t loathe Carr.
This isn’t exclusive to the Browns. I will never understand why, or how, people take press conferences so literal and serious.
Never, ever, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever, never, ever.
burn
On a side note I heard a little while ago on a local radio sports talk show that the front office contacted McDaniels again AFTER the Patriots were eliminated and once again he turned them down. Clearly Pettine was on their minds!
Ultimately the “short list” when this process started doesn’t matter to me, personally. The argument of the effect on PR does matter – a point I’ve hammered at many times here lately – and will affect how some evaluate Pettine and the FO from this day on. But now it is performance in terms of assembling a staff, scouting, drafting, and finally on the field that matters. And I don’t see how it could be considered outside the realm of possibility/credibility that the team might have seen Pettine as a perfectly legit candidate, but did want to do their due diligence in terms of guys like Quinn and Gase, who were tied up by the playoffs. Even with Gase stepping out, Quinn was still on your list, so you wait. That interview convinces you that you can’t get him on your terms or that Pettine is the better guy. You talk of that possibility as if it is somehow a sign of incompetence and damn the FO for looking foolish. And the overall process did make them appear unfocused to be sure. But that detail of “well you could have talked to/hired Pettine without delay
Sorry, ipad didn’t want me to finish that thought. So here:
That detail of “well you could have talked to/hired Pettine without delay” ignores the fact that they obviously wanted to talk to Gase and Quinn before deciding. I see nothing wrong with that part.
Chris Carter and Randy Moss
On the DC front, I’ll keep anyone who wants to play the 3-4 (just so we don’t have to flip personell again, not because I have some belief in the effectiveness of that versus the 4-3).
I’m encouraged by Pettine’s track record that we won’t scrap our defense at least.
Well, they did wait to interview coaches that were in the playoffs: Specifically, McDaniels, Gase, and Quinn. It didn’t work out the way we all imagined it would, but that doesn’t make it a lie. McDaniels and Gase weren’t interested (though didn’t McDaniels actually interview?). That left Quinn. Maybe they *could* have interviewed other playoff coaches (SF has a couple of good ones), but I can’t criticize what I don’t know. Regardless, they did actually wait, they did actually go through a long process (and got hammered for it from everyone locally and nationally).
I don’t see this hire as a travesty, slap to the face, or an “all right, guess we’ll go with Pettine” move at all. It actually looks like they were really interested in a number of guys, with Pettine being one of them. They kicked the tires on the ones that they could (McDaniels, Quinn, and Pettine), cut bait on the ones that they couldn’t get (McDaniels and Gase), and made a decision that of the other two, Pettine was the best.
The letter was after the McDaniels interview (and withdrawal), so it’s really just Gase. But that just says Gase saying no was real, and that it was just him they were waiting on and didn’t even get a chance to interview. That’s a big ouch.
Being that Pettine is a defensive guy, I think it becomes key that they find a really good QB coach or at least an OC that has a background in coaching up QBs
I don’t see it that way. They were also interested in Quinn, and interviewed him yesterday. Isn’t it possible that they had arrived at 3 options when the letter was written: Gase, Quinn, or Pettine? Just because Gase withdrew from the process doesn’t mean they got played, or played us. Even if they really liked Pettine early on, they would be foolish to not wait until they could check out Quinn.
They did interview Quinn again yesterday? I thought that was false. If true, I retract somewhat.
Possibly Anquan Bouldin and Larry Fitz?
Well, that’s the “rumor.”
Ugh. Rumors.
The “front office” in that situation may just be Mike Lombardi, checking to see if the guy he has a rager for is still not into him.
I will move this comment to the new post about Pettine being hired as that is going to go up soon.