Written by Brian McPeek

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What a glorious week! The Browns identified an elite head coaching candidate that no one else in the NFL had even considered on Tuesday, and two days later they locked him up to run the team! What a coup! All that misinformation regarding the cowardly Chip Kelly and some sham interviews with guys like Ken Whisenhunt and Mike Zimmer to throw teams off their scent and then, BAM!!, the Browns had the courage and creativity to hire as head coach the same guy they fired as offensive coordinator just four years ago. Talk about misdirection!

It’s The Weekend Wrap.

Mr. Brightside

I will say this about Rob Chudzinski being hired as the Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns: if you’re going to give Brandon Weeden another year to prove whether or not he can play in the league, going with Chudzinski and with Norv Turner as offensive coordinator is about the best possible scenario. Weeden looked like a fat man in a Speedo trying to run the WCO of Pat Shurmur last season. It was that ugly. Now, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Weeden was a statue in the pocket, wasn’t the sharpest pencil in the drawer and the aforementioned Shurmur did nothing to play to what strengths Weeden does have. I will now list those strengths in order:

1. 1.He has a strong arm

 Chudzinski and Turner will play the vertical passing game they have employed for years (more on that in a bit) and attempt to utilize some big, fast and young WRs and let Weeden sit in the pocket and find them. If Weeden shakes off the deer in the headlights play that plagued him last year and can stand tall in a well-formed pocket he can potentially be successful on plays called that require no audibilizing, no looking off receivers, no scanning the whole field, no recognizing blitzes and hitting hot reads and no checking down and taking something off his fastball to deliver balls with touch and accuracy.

So, this offense immediately will suit Weeden’s skill set better than the WCO. And again, I’m not using ‘skill set’ in the plural form. You can refer back up to #1 above for that skill he possesses.

I actually like Norv Turner the OC. I, like most others, am seriously frightened by the ineptitude of Norv Turner Head Coach, but Turner the OC is fine with me. Is there a chance his methods and philosophies are a bit outdated in a league that grows more complex offensively seemingly every day? Yes. But he’ll look like a creative genius when compared to Shurmur. Turner and Chud have seen some success with their vertical philosophy. Chud milked 10-12 good games out of Derek Anderson in 2007 before reality set in for DA and Chud also was creative enough to develop an offense that Cam Newton utilized really well in his rookie season in Carolina.

Turner has had success with the philosophy as an OC. If Weeden really wants to be a NFL QB he would do well to study the Dallas Cowboys and Troy Aikman specifically, of the early 90’s when Aikman, Michael Irvin, Alvin Harper and Emmit Smith dominated the league using Turner’s offense. That offense might be the blue print for what the Browns will try and do here next season with Weeden, Greg Little, Josh Gordon and Trent Richardson playing the roles of those previously mentioned Cowboys.

Whether or not Weeden is ever Aikman causes serious, serious doubts in my mind, but that will be the plan.

On the Other Hand

I have a really hard time understanding the Chudzinski hiring and, especially, the timing of the hiring. There are some really good OCs and young coordinators that the Browns could have talked to after this weekend. Denver’s loss Saturday means Mike McCoy is available to interview again. Greg Roman in San Francisco is another guy I wanted the Browns to sit down with.

That doesn’t mean Chud won’t ultimately be a better head coach than either of those guys, but why not wait a few days to talk to all of them? Chudzinski had not interviewed for any other head coaching gigs and, by all accounts, he wasn’t high on anyone’s list to interview any time soon. He was going to be there tomorrow and next week and for the foreseeable future. Why not talk to McCoy who crafted successful offenses around Kyle Orton, Tim Tebow and Peyton Manning in the last three seasons? These guys are all different yet McCoy led Orton to his best season as a pro, got to the playoffs and won a game with Tebow and was smart enough to let Manning be Manning.

All Roman has done is re-made Alex Smith into a really good QB that came within a muffed punt of a Super Bowl last season and then transitioned from Smith (who was off to a great start in 2012 before getting hurt) to Colin Kaepernick, who has been brilliant for the 49ers.

Meanwhile, Chud presided over offenses that watched DA melt down in the latter part of 2007 and completely fall apart in 2008 and he was in Carolina when Cam regressed noticeably in 2012. All I’m saying is that if the Browns were truly committed to the ‘process’ they talked about so much, wouldn’t it have made sense to wait for some of these coordinators to become available, talk to them all, compare notes and offer the job to the one they felt best about?

That’s what upsets me about the Chudzinski hiring. It’s not so much the guy they got but rather about the process by which they got him. It reeks of panic. Chud would have been there regardless. Now, if they can convince me their process determined that Chud and Turner were better than McCoy or Roman plus whomever they were going to bring in as OC then I can understand a bit more. But that’s not what they said and that’s not how it feels.

What’s Next?

What’s next is probably an influx of a whole lot of coaches with Turner and San Diego roots. That’s how it works in the NFL with friends and acquaintances and Chud will want to be surrounded by people he’s comfortable with who run schemes that he believes in. Chudzinski said Friday that he wants to attack on both sides of the ball which means Dick Jauron is gone. Jauron likes a fundamentally sound defense that takes multiple plays to beat you.

The problem for the Browns is that Jauron implemented, and the team built a roster, based on a 4-3 defensive principle. If Chud changes that the Browns are ill-suited as it stands to run a 3-4 as their defensive roster currently sits. Phil Taylor and Ahtyba Rubin aren’t going to see much time together in a 3-4. Maybe you can use Jabal Sheard and Billy Winn as DE if they condition themselves for that spot (especially Winn) but the Browns are deep in interior 4-3 type linemen and thin at some key spots like DE and LB.

Ideally I think a guy like Ray Horton would be great at DC. He went from a 4-3 in Arizona to more of a hybrid defense that utilized 4-3 and 3-4 principles. Even if Chud and the Browns ultimately see this team with a 3-4 defense it might be best to transition slowly to it. More likely is that John Pagano, the brother of Colts Head Coach Chuck Pagano may get the nod. John Pagano is currently the defensive coordinator in; you guessed it, San Diego.

What will make it easier is about $45million in cap space to go out and get guys who fit Chud’s offensive and defensive system. I’d start spending it by raiding Cincinnati’s roster for defensive players. Manny Lawson and Rey Maualuga are both unrestricted free agents. It’d also be terrific to see a ball hawking safety like Jairus Byrd from Buffalo or a guy like Dashon Goldson from San Francisco at safety for the Browns though both are likely to stay where they are now.

The Bottom Line

The Browns can call it what they want and Mary Kay Cabot can shill for the organization until the season kicks off next September, but this can be seen as nothing short of another complete rebuild. The entire coaching staff will be different, a large percentage of the roster will be different and both the offensive and defensive philosophies and schemes will be different. If that’s not a rebuild I’m not sure what it is.

That’s another bitter pill to swallow for Browns fans but the last regime was untenable and a move had to be made. We’ve been through too many of these tear downs and rebuilds to be mollified into thinking this is the one that will stick and this is the one that will lead us out of the doldrums. And I can’t get past how the song remains the same regarding ‘process’ and ‘building an organization’ and ‘restoring the pride’ and all that crap that this new ownership and management group is spouting, much like every other group spouted before them.

But you know what? We have no choice but to hope this one gets it right. And we’ll keep watching and going and buying the tickets and jerseys either way.

It’s what we do. 

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