Browns Name Eric Mangini Head Coach

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The Cleveland Browns announced today that Eric Mangini is their new head coach. Coach Mangini was just fired by the N.Y. Jets last week, but by accepting the Browns’ head coaching position, he is, in a sense, returning home. Coach Mangini began his NFL career as a ball boy with the Browns back in 1994 under then-coach Bill Belichick. He then followed coach Belichick to New England in 2000 before eventually departing for New York in 2006.

I think too much blame was placed on coach Mangini when the Jets lost four of their last five games to miss the playoffs. Of course, he is the head coach and the responsibility of the team ultimately falls on his shoulders. But I think he got a bad rap. He’s a good football coach and will hopefully do well with the Browns. That being said, I must admit I thought the decision was very quick for a couple reasons. First of all, coach Mangini is a former defensive coordinator. He’s a defensive guy. If the Browns need to have a focus, it would be on the offensive side of the ball where they were second to last in the entire NFL and didn’t score an offensive touchdown in their final six games. Of course, their defense wasn’t much better (26th statistically) so maybe I’m making too much out of that. But I must say — typically (unless it’s the Browns), a team will hire a general manager before a head coach. And since firing former GM Phil Savage along with former head coach Romeo Crennel as soon as this regular season ended, the Browns were in the market for two key ingredients. They are still in the market for a new GM. It seems kind of backwards and obviously didn’t work too well for Cleveland the last time around. Coach Mangini will talk with the media in an intro presser tomorrow.

Source: ClevelandBrowns.com, Photo: Newscom