(Maybe it wasn't the best idea to mandate daily coach worship sessions in practice)
Eric Mangini announced in a press conference today that he has made one of the most difficult decisions he will ever make. He announced that the Cleveland Browns will attempt to go 0-and-16 with Derek Anderson under center, in favor of 0-and-16 with Brady Quinn.
Hey, it's progress I suppose. At least we found out today instead of 2 hours before game time. Fantasy owners rejoice! Now you can sleep in a couple extra hours and have to worry about picking Anderson off waivers right before kickoff. Although, it might be more beneficial to leave that roster spot empty than to risk negative points.
But fear not Browns fans, hope for this team may be just a pink slip with Eric Mangini's name on it away. Of course, constant change isn't always good for a team that is/was struggling, but in this case, change on the sidelines might just be the miracle cure.
I hated the move when the Browns announced the "Mangenius" as their new head coach. What did Eric Mangini ever do as a head coach that made it impossible for the Browns to resist hiring him? He was under .500 as the head coach of the Jets, and his big claim to fame was beating the Patriots in the regular season (before being absolutely steamrolled in the playoffs). Other than that one 10-and-6 season in New York, his stay with the team was a full fledged mess. Stories were rampant that the players disliked the "Bill Belichick without the results" attitude, and it has apparently followed him to Cleveland. Between fining players thousands of dollars for not paying for water at a hotel, the smoke and mirrors act surrounding his starting QB for this season, and the atrocious 0-and-3 start, perhaps the Browns made a huge mistake this offseason.
Are Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson completely free of blame for the offensive struggles? Of course not; they're being paid millions to lead a fairly talented offense and the fact is, they haven't gotten it done. The same goes for Braylon Edwards, Jamal Lewis, and the other players on offense. But for Mangini to make a change at QB after committing to Quinn before the regular season, he's just asking for even more dysfunction from his offense. Did he fall asleep during the second half of the game against Baltimore? He must have or else he would have seen Anderson lob 3 picks in the second half and fail to lead the team to a score, a far worse showing than Quinn in the first half. To pull a complete about face at QB just 3 weeks in shows a complete lack of faith in his personnel, and an absence of control over his team on the part of Mangini. The locker room may already be turning against him, and make a huge change to the offense so quickly may only serve to push the fence riding players into the anti-Mangini camp.
It goes back to that old saying; "if you have 2 quarterbacks, you have no quarterback". Perhaps it's time to coin a new phrase, "If Eric Mangini is your head coach, you have no head coach".
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