Shurmur hired to coach the Browns (1 Viewer)

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If I was a Browns fan, I wouldn't exactly be doing cartwheels. I admittedly know nothing about Shurmur, other than that he was the OC for the Rams.

But if you ask me, the Rams had a pretty boring, conservative offense. I realize that there were no receivers, and that they had a rookie QB.......But still, I never came away thinking that their offensive play-calling was anything special.

It's just a hire that makes me scratch my head. Maybe he'll be the next Belicheck, who knows. I just don't get it.

 

[gandalas]

I don't get it either...

I was hoping for a Gruden-type hiring....

 

[CletiusMaximus]

Likely meaningless, but his late uncle Fritz Shurmur won two NFC Championships and one Superbowl as Holmgren's DC for the Packers in the '90s. Holmgren liked Fritz a lot - brought him to Seattle to be his DC there when he left the Packers in '99.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

In 2014 the new head coach will be???

 

[shader]

In 2014 the new head coach will be???

That's exactly how I feel. I mean, this is one of those situations where you just know that 3 years down the road, the Browns will have just completed 3 seasons below .500 (MAYBE with one 8-8 sprinkled in if they are lucky) and will be looking for a new coach.It'd be hard to be optimistic right now if you're a Browns fan.

 

[dgreen]

If I was a Browns fan, I wouldn't exactly be doing cartwheels. I admittedly know nothing about Shurmur, other than that he was the OC for the Rams.But if you ask me, the Rams had a pretty boring, conservative offense. I realize that there were no receivers, and that they had a rookie QB.......But still, I never came away thinking that their offensive play-calling was anything special.It's just a hire that makes me scratch my head. Maybe he'll be the next Belicheck, who knows. I just don't get it.

We'll see how the staff and responsibilities play out, but he's being hired to be the HC. He's not necessarily being hired to be the OC, too. Maybe his personal, organizational, and leadership skills are his strong suits and his play-calling and offensive design are secondary skills.Too many people are named HC because of their Xs and Os skills. There's more to being the HC than that.

 

[nxmehta]

This hire just gets one big from me.

I mean, there are plenty of head coaching hires across the league that had little fanfare (Harbaugh, Tomlin, Mike Smith come to mind) but ended up working out well. What you think of this hire basically comes down to how much you trust Mike Holmgren. Personally, I think in general he knows what he's doing, so I'm inclined to be in favor of the hire.

But, like you said, we don't have much to go on here, so who knows how it will work out? Time will tell.

 

[shader]

If I was a Browns fan, I wouldn't exactly be doing cartwheels. I admittedly know nothing about Shurmur, other than that he was the OC for the Rams.But if you ask me, the Rams had a pretty boring, conservative offense. I realize that there were no receivers, and that they had a rookie QB.......But still, I never came away thinking that their offensive play-calling was anything special.It's just a hire that makes me scratch my head. Maybe he'll be the next Belicheck, who knows. I just don't get it.

We'll see how the staff and responsibilities play out, but he's being hired to be the HC. He's not necessarily being hired to be the OC, too. Maybe his personal, organizational, and leadership skills are his strong suits and his play-calling and offensive design are secondary skills.Too many people are named HC because of their Xs and Os skills. There's more to being the HC than that.

Good points

 

[DawgPoundNJ]

This hire just gets one big from me.I mean, there are plenty of head coaching hires across the league that had little fanfare (Harbaugh, Tomlin, Mike Smith come to mind) but ended up working out well. What you think of this hire basically comes down to how much you trust Mike Holmgren. Personally, I think in general he knows what he's doing, so I'm inclined to be in favor of the hire.But, like you said, we don't have much to go on here, so who knows how it will work out? Time will tell.

In the same boat.

 

[cvnpoka]

all browns fans can do is trust holmgren on this one. dont see an public or measurable credentials of shurmur to make this look like an encouraging hire. worse, it looks like the typical good ole boy incestuous nfl coaching retread.

 

[thriftyrocker]

Would you guys rather have Mornhinweg? Better to have a guy with an atrocious history as HC or someone green?

 

[Fensalk]

He stands out among the other head coaching candidates because Donovan McNabb was more productive once Pat Shurmur became the Eagles' QB coach. The Browns probably want to develop Colt McCoy, so that is a big plus.

Here's an old article from February 2005 that predicts Pat Shurmur will likely be a head coach in the future and why.

It's plain to see McNabb's improvement in the last few seasons, especially this season when he passed for 3,875 yards, 31 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He completed 64% of his passes and finished with a QB rating of 104.7, the 16th-best rating in NFL history. McNabb set career highs in yards, touchdowns, completion percentage and QB rating.

McNabb is talented and his stats are just the result of his development. But the role of the quarterbacks coach cannot be discounted.

"Pat's an important conduit to Donovan because he has his pulse on a day-to-day basis," Childress said. "He's sitting in meetings with him every day. Pat does a great job of relaying Donovan's thoughts to us and our thoughts to him."

There is valid criticism here. Yes, McNabb became much more productive with Shurmur as his QB coach in 2004. The problem is that it ignores the fact that the Eagles signed WR Terrell Owens in 2004. They are claiming it really was Pat Shurmur, not TO, that made the offense better.I'm skeptical. Are the Browns going to sign the 2004 version of TO next?

 

[PizzaDeliveryGuy]

Holmgren got his puppet. It was a mistake letting Mangini go.

 

[GreatLakesMike]

Holmgren got his puppet. It was a mistake letting Mangini go.

Pretty much the way I feel. I think it's obvious by now that Holmgren wants to coach from upstairs, so this makes things easier on him. Not all is lost though, Heckert is still on board and his first draft brought immediate returns. Hopefully Heckert continues to draft well and Shurmur surprises us.

 

[Bobcat10]

Holmgren got his puppet. It was a mistake letting Mangini go.

Pretty much the way I feel. I think it's obvious by now that Holmgren wants to coach from upstairs, so this makes things easier on him. Not all is lost though, Heckert is still on board and his first draft brought immediate returns. Hopefully Heckert continues to draft well and Shurmur surprises us.

I don't get the puppet comments I've been hearing around town. Shurmur's going to coach and lead the players that Heckert is going to bring in. Holmgren will probably have more persuasion when it comes to picking players and final say, since he's not coaching the team and probably puts extra time in that effort that Shurmur has less of. That doesn't mean Shurmur won't have a voice and won't be listened to. Hell Mangini was the supposed mastermind of the Hillis trade, so it's not like they shut him out totally. I don't think we have a bunch of #######s running the team like we used to. The potential beauty about all of this is all of these men are working from the same blueprint. They have the same ideas. Whether Shurmur can be a good head coach remains to be seen and I wouldn't rush to judgement (not saying you guys are neccessarily). I don't even know what the guy looks like. But, as much as I didn't mind Mangini, it's quite evident that everyone wasn't on the same page as far as philosophy and game management are concerned. Call me crazy, but if that's the case, which I certainly think it is, we're better off with Shurmur as head coach. Other than the Gruden dreams, I don't think any of us were that excited about the others they interviewed, but that's just because we have more knowledge of their history.As far as puppets go, Kokinas was a puppet. I don't see Shurmur in that vain with Holmgren and Heckert around.The interesting thing to me will be the DC choice (retain Ryan...Jauron already rumored among a few others) and whether Shurmur will be calling the plays with an AstOC or have a straight OC.

 

[Please See Mine]

If I was a Browns fan, I wouldn't exactly be doing cartwheels. I admittedly know nothing about Shurmur, other than that he was the OC for the Rams.

But if you ask me, the Rams had a pretty boring, conservative offense. I realize that there were no receivers, and that they had a rookie QB.......But still, I never came away thinking that their offensive play-calling was anything special.

It's just a hire that makes me scratch my head. Maybe he'll be the next Belicheck, who knows. I just don't get it.

We'll see how the staff and responsibilities play out, but he's being hired to be the HC. He's not necessarily being hired to be the OC, too. Maybe his personal, organizational, and leadership skills are his strong suits and his play-calling and offensive design are secondary skills.Too many people are named HC because of their Xs and Os skills. There's more to being the HC than that.

This hire just gets one big from me.

I mean, there are plenty of head coaching hires across the league that had little fanfare (Harbaugh, Tomlin, Mike Smith come to mind) but ended up working out well. What you think of this hire basically comes down to how much you trust Mike Holmgren. Personally, I think in general he knows what he's doing, so I'm inclined to be in favor of the hire.

But, like you said, we don't have much to go on here, so who knows how it will work out? Time will tell.

Harbaugh was groomed by Reid and he runs all of the day-to-day exactly like Reid does. Seems to have worked out pretty well for both of them. If Shurmur follows suit, then it shouldn't be to bad.

 

[Binky The Doormat]

Bummed big time once again. Absolutely hated the Mangina selection and was hoping for significantly more from Holmgren. Gotta just hope again.

 

[Frenchy Fuqua]

I thought Romeo might get another shot with the job he did in KC this year.

 

[Bri]

can't get worse.

All they have to do is sign arguably the best defensive player ever and a future hall of fame QB and Holmgren can be successful.

 

[Tanner9919]

Holmgren and Pat's uncle, Fritz Shurmur, worked well together in GB and Seattle, so maybe he finds lightning in a bottle with Pat?

 

[Donsmith753]

Expect Hillis to do nothing on the Goalline and Colt to throw a lot inside the five.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

In 2014 the new head coach will be???

At least the were the champs of Florida.

 

[Brunell4MVP]

Sneaky good hire IMO. Boring, but solid. The Browns have a ways to go talent wise though. Many holes to fill - DL, LB, WR. But they have all their draft picks and if their owner opens his wallet (unlikely), they could fix some bigger issues in free agency.

 

[Sweet Love]

Likely meaningless, but his late uncle Fritz Shurmur won two NFC Championships and one Superbowl as Holmgren's DC for the Packers in the '90s. Holmgren liked Fritz a lot - brought him to Seattle to be his DC there when he left the Packers in '99.

I know you said it is meaningless (and you stated what many were thinking), yet it reminds me of Jason Kendall and Brian Giles commenting on Jim Rome in 2001 in regards to the signing of Ramon Martinez, (failed brother of Pedro Martinez), where Kendall blurted, "Well, he's Pedro's older brother"...then silence followed by giggling. Just having some fun, but was the first thing that came to mind...way to go Cletius Kendall.

 

[wadegarrett]

Sneaky good hire IMO. Boring, but solid. The Browns have a ways to go talent wise though. Many holes to fill - DL, LB, WR. But they have all their draft picks and if their owner opens his wallet (unlikely), they could fix some bigger issues in free agency.

If there's one thing Randy Lerner isn't afraid of, it's opening his wallet.ETA: And consider me in the corner that I think this is a good hire by Holmgren.

 

[netnalp]

Expect Hillis to do nothing on the Goalline and Colt to throw a lot inside the five.

This frustrated Jackson owners all season. No clue why they wouldn't try to run it in.

 

[gandalas]

can't get worse.All they have to do is sign arguably the best defensive player ever and a future hall of fame QB and Holmgren can be successful.

Well, Asomungha IS available...

 

[Bobcat10]

Sneaky good hire IMO. Boring, but solid. The Browns have a ways to go talent wise though. Many holes to fill - DL, LB, WR. But they have all their draft picks and if their owner opens his wallet (unlikely), they could fix some bigger issues in free agency.

Maybe you could unpack this a bit?

 

[Bobcat10]

I thought Romeo might get another shot with the job he did in KC this year.

I'd take Butch Davis back as a head coach before Oh Romeo.

 

[KCC]

Honest question: Why is that when we know little about a coach, we automatically assume his hiring will be a

?

I'll go out on a ledge and reserve judgement until I see what he can do as a head coach.

 

[thetman]

Rams fans are so happy he is gone, but I think Spags really handcuffed him with the playcalling.

 

[babydemon90]

Andy Reid coaching tree seems to have a good number of positives... probably worth seeing how it plays out.

 

[ninerfanatic492000]

all read alot of good things on Shurmur. as he's got a good coaching bloodline and he's got the 'skillset' to be a good head coach. alot of the skepticism reminds me Mike McCarthy, Mike lead my niners offense a few years ago to one of the most abysmal offenses ever recorded but teams around the league knew Mike had head coaching skills nontheless

 

[redBourne]

Honest question: Why is that when we know little about a coach, we automatically assume his hiring will be a :whoosh: ? I'll go out on a ledge and reserve judgement until I see what he can do as a head coach.

That's because people want to be able to discuss topics. Having almost no information to go on, it's much easier for people to discredit a selection than it is to promote it. New head coaches have to come from some where as people eventually move on from coaching NFL teams for one reason or another. Why not Pat? Perhaps we expect a coach to have put in more time as coordinators before being promoted to the HC gig.However, I too will have to reserve judgment for Shurmur. Initially i was skeptical and thought it was a bad hire because I too knew little about him. When questioning my browns friend I laughed internally about his optimism in regard to his positive effect on QBs (or so they say) and the development of McCoy. After reading this thread the points on reserving judgment has persuaded me to do the same. I personally think the failures of the Browns organization is rooted at the top, but that's a different discussion.Good luck to the Browns and I hope that this hire is a positive one.