Following up briefly on Mike’s post about Mangini’s job security, it’s worth pointing out that in the past 48 hours, the man known once known as Alpha Dog has gotten a significant amount of help from some of his friends in the head coaching fraternity.
In particular, I’m referring to the great Mike Shanahan and the…uh, gainfully employed Brad Childress.
How exactly did these two luminaries of the NFL aid Mangini? Easy. By each pulling a stunt so stupid and utterly indefensible that it has to force Mike Holmgren and Tom Heckert into saying, “Jesus, at least we know Eric’s smarter than THAT.”
Mangini has taken his fair share of abuse for his handling of the team’s quarterbacks over the course of the past two seasons: not drafting a QB in the first round in 2009, yo-yoing Derek Anderson and Brady Quinn last season, playing the always-popular board game “I Don’t Know Yet Who’s Going to Start This Week” practically every week since he took over.
However, he has never done anything so completely baffling and destructive as pulling his (supposedly established) franchise QB in favor of letting Rex Grossman try to run the two-minute drill with his team down six points. That guy would be Shanahan, whom I would like to thank for once again proving my point that winning championships in a past era doesn’t mean you have any idea what the hell you’re doing in the current one.
Similarly, Mangini was the architect of some questionable personnel moves last season while he was pulling the strings during the short reign of ManKok. His haul for the Mark Sanchez pick would seem to be Exhibit A in the case against him. His deal to ship off Braylon Edwards mid-season to the Jets for a 3rd rounder, a 5th rounder, Jason Trusnik, and Chansi Stuckey could be Exhibit B—though in retrospect that doesn’t seem like a glaring failure.
However, even if you frown on the Edwards trade, it’s plain to see that Mangini has never done anything so totally foolish and insane as trading a third-round pick to rent a famously mercurial wide receiver for 4 weeks before waiving him because of his attitude. That guy would be Brad Childress, whom I’d like to thank for assembling what could be the biggest train wreck of a team playing football in 2010. (Not that they’re the worst talent-wise, just that they’re arguably the most colossal disappointment to their fan base.)
This reminds me of the old adage that when being chased by a bear, you don’t have to be faster than the bear to survive; you just have to be faster than the slowest camper. Even though the Browns were on a bye week, Mangini improved his standing thanks to these other morons’ moves, I believe. I still Mangini is going to have to coach the Browns up to another 5 victories to save his job, but at this point he certainly seems to be more competent than the guys running two of the more hyped teams of the season.
Whether or not he can carry this odd momentum into this Sunday’s game against the Patriots is an entirely different matter. But I know this: I feel better about the Browns’ chances with Mangini at the helm than with Shanahan or Childress. And for at least this week, I feel like the majority of Browns fans—and possibly the majority of NFL fans across the country—would actually agree with me.
-T
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