This is a hard article for me to write because a) I’ve been at the bar since 10am LA time and b) I’ve generally been in support of the Mangini regime…but it’s beginning to look like the organization is in deep trouble.
Yes, it’s only been two games, and yes, I do really want to be optimistic and positive and progressive in my way of thinking…but Mangini and the Browns are making it incredibly difficult for me to do so.
As I’ve said before, Alpha Dog has adapted a method of coaching that’s polarizing and inevitably is going to alienate certain players. The key to its success is winning. When the team doesn’t win - and doesn’t appear to improve from week to week, as today’s effort would suggest - the entire coaching system is in danger of falling apart. Reports came out today that Mangini had fined players for not paying incidentals at the team hotel. This will not fly on a team that looks like it’s about to lose 10 games at the very minimum.
When the Browns lose - and lose badly - here’s what we, as fans and analysts, are forced to do: question everything.
We’re forced to question his program of discipline. We’re forced to question his choice of quarterback. We’re forced to question his decision to not draft Mark Sanchez (who beat the Patriots today), trading down to pick Alex Mack who created a turnover today with a pathetic snap…we’re even forced to question Randy Lerner’s decision to hire Mangini over Jim Schwartz, who - with a rookie QB and an 0-16 team - played the Vikings at least as well as Mangini’s Browns did last week.
Mangini’s method invites criticism - and that’s a significant problem with a team that isn’t winning.
And this is year one. How do you build a program if your first year is as bad or worse than the previous year, which was spearheaded by a coach who was fired?
To answer that I’ll just say again that the Browns and Eric Mangini are in deep sh*t.
Mangini has already turned over half of the roster - he needs a large majority of the players who are on the team now to buy in to his system in order to achieve future, continued success. How is that possible if he keeps losing games?
It’s not.
Which is why Mangini is now in an awful position. Because of his antagonistic, disciplinarian style, he has a very short leash - employees don’t want to work for a mean boss if that boss doesn’t produce results. How much longer does he stick with Brady Quinn, whose Total Yards Per Attempt this week (1.97) was worse than it was last week (3.45) and based on 2008 year-long statistics ranks at the very bottom of the league (in 2008 QB Ryan Fitzpatrick ranked 33 with 2.94 TYA)?
Note: If you don’t credit Quinn with a fumble for the bad snap of Alex Mack, as the box score did, then Quinn’s TYA is 2.76, which of course still sucks.
The problem Mangini has is that we were all ready to begin asking questions the second the Browns started losing games…and now they’ve started to lose without even being competitive.
The questions and the doubts are here. And they seem to be here to stay.
This, obviously, is a dramatic problem.
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