NFL Week 17 - The Final Countdown

[alfred russel]

I tend to think head coaches are figureheads.  The OC and the DC have to call every single play.  What does a head coach do?  He pats everyones's ass and he makes a handful of crucial decisions like go for it or punt on 4th.

The Browns are supposedly keeping the assistants and coordinators. 

They can't be doing that...Who would take the head coaching job in such a situation?

[Neil]

Schwartz was the worst coach.

I don't think he was the worst.  I think he deserves some credit for taking a disaster of a team to respectability pretty quickly.  It is pretty clear that he isn't a top level playoff coach though.  The complete lack of discipline in all phases has to be put on him and that is the Lions' biggest problem now; they are very talented they just need to clean things up to become a dangerous playoff team.

He also made a lot of coaching errors, time management errors, all kinds of nonsense.  He made this year's Lions a worse team by being there.

[MadBurgerMaker]

They can't be doing that...Who would take the head coaching job in such a situation?

Josh McDaniels. 

Really, it's the same list of people who would want to take over knowing they'll get fired if they don't win, with the fucking Browns, in their first year.

E:  There had to be more there than W/L records as the reason he got shitcanned.  It's not like Cam Cameron where the guy took at least an okay-ish team and ran it straight into the ground.  He managed to keep it about the same as every other recent Browns season while installing his new system and everything else that went on this year for that horrific franchise. 

E2:  Also, the apparent argument that coaches don't improve with experience is strange.

[PDH]

Hire Kiffin!

[alfred russel]

E2:  Also, the apparent argument that coaches don't improve with experience is strange.

Why is it strange?

Yes, you would think a guy that does something gets better at it with experience. But these guys have been coaching their adult lives. Once they get over the newness of being a head coach they work such long hours they also have to burn out a bit.

Also, a new coach can come in and take a fresh look at a roster and how things are being done. He also has a fresh message for the players. These are benefits that fade in year 2.

[alfred russel]

E:  There had to be more there than W/L records as the reason he got shitcanned.  It's not like Cam Cameron where the guy took at least an okay-ish team and ran it straight into the ground.  He managed to keep it about the same as every other recent Browns season while installing his new system and everything else that went on this year for that horrific franchise. 

They have a new GM. Can you really explain to me, based on his resume, why Chud is an NFL head coach? If I'm a GM, and I want to start building a long term successful franchise, why would I stick with a guy that I probably don't think is head coaching material to begin with?

[Admiral Yi]

His cool name.

[MadBurgerMaker]

They have a new GM. Can you really explain to me, based on his resume, why Chud is an NFL head coach? If I'm a GM, and I want to start building a long term successful franchise, why would I stick with a guy that I probably don't think is head coaching material to begin with?

I'm not the Browns.  If the Browns front office don't think dude is NFL head coach material, why did they hire him in the first place?  It isn't just the GM involved in this sort of thing. 

Also, the fact that there's a brand new rookie GM (who was most recently an NFL.com columnist, as far as I can tell, and hadn't been "in football" for something like 5 or 6 years) means it's probably a good idea to see if the new HC and new GM work well together.  You know, instead of just throwing them together in the middle of what appears to be a firesale/rebuild type season where they're getting rid of a lot of the guys from when Shurmur was HC.  Shurmur, who's W/L record improved in his second year btw, was the guy who was fired when the new ownership came in and picked up Chud and Lombardi (replaced Heckert).

E:

Why is it strange?

Yes, you would think a guy that does something gets better at it with experience. But these guys have been coaching their adult lives. Once they get over the newness of being a head coach they work such long hours they also have to burn out a bit.

Also, a new coach can come in and take a fresh look at a roster and how things are being done. He also has a fresh message for the players. These are benefits that fade in year 2.

Why is it strange that people tend to get better at something the more they do it?   I mean, some do, some don't, but the point is there's no way to really know if you don't actually give them a chance.  You keep saying this guy Chud isn't head coach material, or something similar, but how do you know?  He was given one year to do it, in a shitty dumpster fire organization, with a new GM, and whoever the fuck at QB, etcetcetc. 

[Neil]

E:  There had to be more there than W/L records as the reason he got shitcanned.  It's not like Cam Cameron where the guy took at least an okay-ish team and ran it straight into the ground.  He managed to keep it about the same as every other recent Browns season while installing his new system and everything else that went on this year for that horrific franchise. 

They have a new GM. Can you really explain to me, based on his resume, why Chud is an NFL head coach? If I'm a GM, and I want to start building a long term successful franchise, why would I stick with a guy that I probably don't think is head coaching material to begin with?

Yeah, that's the sort of thinking that would have ensured John Harbaugh never got hired.

But seriously, what if you aged Chud?

[alfred russel]

Why is it strange that people tend to get better at something the more they do it?   

I just posted some reasons they may not. 

It seems like this is something there is enough quantitative data to answer. Take every coach hired since 2000, and see if they improved or regressed in year 2.

[alfred russel]

But seriously, what if you aged Chud?

Projecting that a 20 year old Andre Johnson will be an all pro receiver at 25 is one thing.

Chudzinski is 45. If you age him much more he is liable to have alzheimer's, and I doubt that will make him a better coach.

[Neil]

It's not a simple question of data though.  That makes it more difficult.

[MadBurgerMaker]

I just posted some reasons they may not. 

It seems like this is something there is enough quantitative data to answer. Take every coach hired since 2000, and see if they improved or regressed in year 2.

You're going to have to look at more than just a W/L record if you want to do it like the Browns apparently didn't.  There's simply no way to know what this guy Chud would be like in the future, given what he had to work with in that one year. 

[Neil]

But seriously, what if you aged Chud?

Projecting that a 20 year old Andre Johnson will be an all pro receiver at 25 is one thing.

Chudzinski is 45. If you age him much more he is liable to have alzheimer's, and I doubt that will make him a better coach.

Belichick was a better coach at 50 than he was at 45.

[Neil]

I just posted some reasons they may not. 

It seems like this is something there is enough quantitative data to answer. Take every coach hired since 2000, and see if they improved or regressed in year 2.

You're going to have to look at more than just a W/L record if you want to do it like the Browns apparently didn't.

Seriously though, who do you think knows better how to run an NFL franchise?  A bunch of Languishites, or the people who have led the Cleveland Browns as of late?