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And it's doing everything short of saying he will hire a coach that has control over who plays in the games. As a matter of fact, it states that the HC may not have the final say of who will be playing in the games.

I didn't read every post on this thread but was wondering about a particular guy as a potential HC.

Brian Schottenhiemer! I mean, love him or hate him, under Brian S. The Jets were a way better offensive team. I mean, they didn't make the dumb mistakes when he was there.

So, is this his time? Could we be that place where he can fulfill a dream his father had of bringing a SB to Cleveland?

I'm looking at Trich, a couple of receivers that look good, a QB that needs some time to grow but has some of the talents and skills you want. What if we had a guy like Schott to run the show?

Any thoughts?


If I'm repeating a question someone else asked, sorry, Like I said I didn't read all the posts on this thread

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Cleveland Browns: Pat Shurmur has made some big mistakes late in games (another crushing loss Sunday when they were up). There is a new ownership group there and I expect new owner Jimmy Haslam and new CEO Joe Banner to be very aggressive in his coaching search. They need to finally deliver on offense and play some attractive football and get people excited about Browns football again.

Possible replacement: Chip Kelly is probably leaving college now, he is going to be coveted and this regime won't be concerned about Brandon Weeden -- he's probably not their guy anyway. Haslam won't be afraid to spend, and Kelly brings excitement -- it would be a bold hire. Josh McDaniels could be interesting here as well, depending on some possible front office moves and whether Kelly ends up elsewhere (Philadelphia and Carolina, among others, could be suitors).

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Is Kelly a real possibility in Cleveland? I didn't think there was a chance.

Kelly is going to fall flat on his face in the pros. He's a decent coach with a great system, at the right school, in the perfect college conference for him to win.
I see a Spurrier type NFL showing.
I watch Ducks football. It's forced on us here in Portland. What I saw this week was exactly what concerns me greatest about him. His system wasn't working against Stanford. Stanford played very disciplined D. Chip had NO answer. His running game wasn't working. He made NO adjustments. The look on his face was priceless. It's like his brain couldn't wrap itself around the fact that his scheme wasn't effective. It's as though he was looking up at the scoreboard and seeing 55 points up there or something. He looked lost when he was put in a place where he had to actually coach. LOST. His team gets up so quickly on most opponents they looked shocked that they were in such a battle. Chip's team looked ill prepared to face the challenge of a close game. They looked to their leader and he just kept trying to pound that square peg into that round hole. And they lost because of it.
I don't doubt he's a talented college coach. His system works in the Pac12. Just like Rich Rod had it working at WV. I wouldn't want either of these guys near my pro team.

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Kelly is going to fall flat on his face in the pros. He's a decent coach with a great system, at the right school, in the perfect college conference for him to win.
I see a Spurrier type NFL showing.
I watch Ducks football. It's forced on us here in Portland. What I saw this week was exactly what concerns me greatest about him. His system wasn't working against Stanford. Stanford played very disciplined D. Chip had NO answer. His running game wasn't working. He made NO adjustments. The look on his face was priceless. It's like his brain couldn't wrap itself around the fact that his scheme wasn't effective. It's as though he was looking up at the scoreboard and seeing 55 points up there or something. He looked lost when he was put in a place where he had to actually coach. LOST. His team gets up so quickly on most opponents they looked shocked that they were in such a battle. Chip's team looked ill prepared to face the challenge of a close game. They looked to their leader and he just kept trying to pound that square peg into that round hole. And they lost because of it.
I don't doubt he's a talented college coach. His system works in the Pac12. Just like Rich Rod had it working at WV. I wouldn't want either of these guys near my pro team.

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I tend to agree with you 100%. The look on his face says it all. It's like he's so shocked that they don't have a lead that he cannot even fathom how to adjust. I do think that if he wants to make the jump, now's the time. His star will only fall from this point on. This was a great shot for him to win a National title. I truly hope he stays in the NCAA because I don't want him to be a temptation for the Browns.

Spurrier wasn't willing to work long hours. Kelly will. Also, Kelly seems smart enough to know that his exact scheme won't work in the NFL.

It didn't work on Saturday and he didn't adjust. I'll let another team figure out if he can adjust on Sundays. I don't want the Browns to be that proving ground.

He didn't adjust because that is his system in college and it has worked well. I'm guessing he would have a different system altogether in the pros.

How about we grab a DC from somewhere that plays really good D...

Not Chicago (its Rod Marinelli)
Az has Ray Horton
Seattle has Casey Bradley
SF has Vic Fangio
Miami has a pretty good one.
Jack Del Rio in Denver

Also, Dirk Koetter, Mike McCoy, Tom Clements are some good coordinators on the O side of the ball...

Only point I'd like to make is that failure is valuable.

I'd rather have a guy who failed once before, then reflected on his failures, try again...than have a first time HC.

From my own personal experience I've found failure, and then time away to reflect, as the best learning experiences of my life. The second time around I approached the situation from a much wiser perspective.

My prediction is Josh McDaniels.

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He however, probably wouldn't use Trent anymore than Shurmur does.

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I don't know if that is true. Shurmur learned from Andy Reid, who is notorious for not running the ball enough. McDaniels learned from Bill Belichick, who takes advantage of the strengths of his players.

McDaniels coached one full season as head coach of the Broncos, they had the 13th ranked rushing offense that season (not spectacular). He also drafted Knowshon Moreno in the 1st round.

I forgot he was there when they got Moreno.

All I can remember is him trading Peyton Hillis (who played well for him) for Brady Freaking Quinn..

If the Browns hire Josh McDaniels as the new Head Coach, I'm buying a Steelers jersey and calling it a career.

McDaniels was the idiot that thought Tebow would be a starting NFL QB...

After last night, I say Greg Roman, OC for San Fran, or Brad Seely, Special Teams SF. I've been hot on Seely since Shurmur looked like he was on the way out. My thinking on special teams coaches is they typically get the most out of the players that are on the fringe of the roster. They are motivators, scrappy and blunt. They can delegate the O and D side of the ball and be successful, see Harbaugh in Balt. Plus, we all know the guy is a helluva coach, as witnessed by our special teams plunge last yeat after he left.

As for Roman, he has built a successful balanced attack that utilizes the strengths of his players. Gore is going great under him, and he has built gameplans for both Smith and Kapernick that allowed each to showcase thier individual skillset. A coach that can tailor an offense like that, as opposed to one that relies too much on the run or pass is one that I'd like to see in charge here.

When it comes to Chip Kelly, I think his gimmick in the NCAA is just that; a gimmick. He is Steve Spurrier 2.0 and I want absolutely nothing to do with him. Look at the coaches that have made the transition from NCAA to NFL lately and they all have one thing in common, and it is that they either were coaches previously at the NFL level or they ran a version of the proset. Schaino was an assistant, Carrol was NE coach before Belichek and Harbaugh ran the pro offense at Stanford. I don't think Kelly meets any of those requirements. He's a hot name now because of what his offense does with speed at a level where speed is a premium. In the NFL everyone is fast, thus why Kelly's teams always fall apart against disciplined pro style teams on offense and defense. Look at the bowl loss to Ohio State, and the past few years against Stanford. That isn't a fluke, it's a trend that is fact!

I just saw this and thought it would add to the discussion.

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Breaking Down Chip Kelly's Offense and Where It Translates in the NFL
BY MATT MILLER (NFL DRAFT LEAD WRITER) ON NOVEMBER 19, 2012 1,897 reads 15

Oregon head coach Chip Kelly tops the Christmas wish list of fans in Cleveland, Philadelphia, Kansas City and maybe even Dallas. The Pac-12 genius looks poised to make a jump to the NFL, and he'll have no shortage of suitors if and when he's ready.

Kelly's allure to the NFL comes from his exciting, fast-paced offensive schemes. A regular Oregon game looks more like a well-dressed track meet than a traditional college football game. Skeptics wonder if Kelly's offense can translate to the NFL, and rightfully so.

Which aspects of the Oregon offense will aide Kelly once he makes the jump to the professional game, and which will have to be revised for the hyped college football coach to succeed?

The Zone-Read Option

Oregon's offense is based around the zone-read option, but unlike Texas with Vince Young at quarterback, Oregon's zone read is used as much as anything to set up the passing game.

With a dangerous running back and a quarterback who can run—but doesn't have to—the Oregon zone read freezes defenses. While Kelly does run a true zone read or triple option early in games, the Oregon offense shifts into a play-action attack off the zone read once they've established the run.

As seen above, Kenjon Barner (RB) comes across the face of Marcus Mariota (QB) to sell the run. This freezes safeties and defenders—as does the TE staying in to block. By all accounts, this is a run play to the defense. The beauty of Kelly's offense is that instead of this being a run, it's a vertical passing play with the two receivers to the left running a pair of posts—one deeper than the other—and the wideout to the right runs a straight "go" route.

This is an example of a play that can—and will—work in the NFL. The key is in freezing the defense and isolating your playmakers on the edge. It's no different than a play action by Tom Brady in the New England Patriots' offense.

Five Route Combinations

One of my personal favorites of the Chip Kelly offense is his five-route play combinations.

Oregon's offense can get away with sending five receivers into routes due to the scrambling ability of quarterback Marcus Mariota. Because Mariota is a solid runner, and one who can extend the play without scrambling, Kelly is confident in his offensive line and quarterback's ability to withstand a blitz or heavy pass rush.

Kelly's asking his quarterback to read one side of the field first—not uncommon even in the NFL. Mariota takes the snap and reads the safety. If the safety closes on the outside receiver, the ball goes to the running back in the flats. If the safety crashes to the running back, either of the outside reads (No. 1 or No. 2) will be open vertically up the sideline.

This is classic play-calling that shifts the strength of the offense to a numbers game on defense. Oregon simply outmans the defense with three receivers against two defenders.

How will this work in the NFL, where defenses are hypertuned to playing man coverage? This is definitely a play call against a zone defense, and with so much Cover 2 and Cover 3 being ran in the NFL, this play is still highly effective. And remember, USC (shown above) is coached by a former NFL defensive coordinator, Monte Kiffin.

No Huddle

As much as any single component of the Oregon offense, the pace in which they run plays is most important.

The logic here is that by the end of the game, Oregon's offense will have simply worn down the opposition. And in most cases it works. Can this be done in the NFL? Absolutely.

The Buffalo Bills ran a no-huddle "K-Gun" offense in the early 90s. Peyton Manning has been a maestro at orchestrating no-huddle offenses in both Indianapolis and Denver. The no-huddle is no stranger in the NFL, and when executed correctly, it's proven to be very effective.

One of the biggest obstacles for Kelly's transition to the NFL is conditioning his game-day players to handle the speed of the game. With only 45 active men on the roster, Kelly would need either an incredibly deep roster of wide receivers and pass rushers, or a team that's in amazing physical shape. Probably somewhere closer to both.

Speed on the Edges

Chris Brown over at Grantland wrote a fantastic piece on how Kelly's offense attacks a two-high safety look. It's a great read at how the Oregon run game can work in the NFL, and how it's basically already being used there. Read it.

One thing that I'd add to Brown's piece is that the Oregon offense is able to force defenses into a two-high safety look because of their speed on the outside. For Kelly's magic to work in the NFL, he needs a roster full of track stars.

With players like De'Anthony Thomas on the edge, Oregon's offense is built to outrun defenders, and they do a pretty good job of it. To combat this, defensive coordinators want their safeties lining up 15-20 yards deep. This gives the safeties a running start if they have to turn and run to keep up with receivers streaking vertically down the field, but it also gives the safeties a better vantage point for stopping the zone read option.

With so much speed on the edge, Kelly's offense can hit you up the middle against a spread-out front seven, or attack with quick routes against what becomes essentially a Cover 2 defense. Seam routes and run-after-catch options are all in play with two-high safety looks.

Best Fits

There will be a ton of conjecture about which NFL franchise is currently the best fit for Chip Kelly's offense to succeed, and while some of that will hinge on the upcoming 2013 NFL draft, there is one clear-cut favorite at least in terms of personnel.

Picture LeSean McCoy running the ball in a play-action offense built to put five or six defenders at most in the box. How well would speedsters Jeremy Maclin and DeSean Jackson look running a vertical offense that let them blow past defenders who can't hope to keep up with them? And with an athletic offensive line already in place, few changes would need made to the front five if Chip Kelly were to become the next head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Many will point to Michael Vick as a reason for the fit, but I disagree. Vick's contract is a problem, as is his play. He's not accurate enough, nor can he be trusted to make quick, accurate reads. Vick wouldn't be the quarterback in Philadelphia under Chip Kelly—Nick Foles would.

Kelly saw Foles in the Pac-12, and he raved about the quarterback's ability last fall. It's convenient to think Vick's running ability would translate best to the Chip Kelly offense, but don't overlook Foles' presence on the roster as a major pull for Kelly to Philly.

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For Kelly's magic to work in the NFL, he needs a roster full of track stars.

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He can run this O at Oregon because he recruits from California a bunch of undersized speedsters. Guys that many programs aren't after heavily because they don't fit a more pro style O. So Chip builds a team on the backs of a bunch of 5'8-5'10" 180 pound track stars. Then when he runs up against NFL sized/talent filled teams his teams get out physical'd. Notice his program doesn't fill the NFL with talented high draft picks. LeMichael James was a freak last year... Not a peep so far in the pros. Yes Nagta and Ward came from Oregon. They are exceptions not the rule.

Let the Eagles have him.

Wouldn't his scheme eventually be negated by 1) film study by NFL coaches, and 2) the movement of players from team to team, bringing with them inside information about those schemes?

I want to toos this out here, but I think there is one candidate the Cleveland Browns should look VERY VERY HARD at.....homegrown Ohio Boy Jim Tressel.

Jim Tressell would be a perfect fit for this "young" football team that plans to build through the draft moving forward.

1. Jim Tressell would not want total control of the football stuff and would galdy work with a GM of Haslan/Banners choosing.

2. We can keep Brad Childress at OC and Brad has a track record of liking to run the ball...see his days in Vikings land....if childress was calling the plays we would run a bit more then we do with shurmur....Tressell would go along with this no problem.

3. We keep Dick Jauron, it seems to me that Tressell and Jauron favor similar Defense Schemes 4-3 and such, and seem to look for the same kind of hard nosed players....I think Tressell would be cool with this.

4. The most important, Jim Tressell is a motivator....we have a largely young roster, and we are going to be young for quite awhile since Banner is more of a guy wanting to build through the draft. These kids out of college will respect Tressell and Tressell will have these guys fired up to play some serious football.

I really believe that Jim Tresell could help this franchise. He grew up a Browns fan, he has always wanted to coach here, there is no doubt that he has the same burning passion as we do...he qwill give 110% and his heart and soul into this job to bring back this proud franchise.

I think Jim Tressell can help set the culture here in Cleveland that we lost with Baltimore. Now that Tressell is done in Ohio State and has nothing holding him there our ownership should look into this. Paul Brown also came out of Ohio State and later became our Head coach....we haven't had a successful coach here since Brown....our last coach to win us a championship came from Ohio State....

We should seriously give Tressell consideration here....EVERYWHERE Jim Tressell has gone he has had success, its not because he is lucky, its because he works harder then anyone else, have you read Tressell's book? The dude is as hardcore as it comes when developing players not only into men, but as real hard-nosed football players.

I have no doubt if the Browns would give Tressell a chance he would give this team and its fans something to cheer for in 2 years....the guy would have this young roster of players fired up to play....say what you want about Tressell but he has the knack just like Bill Cowher of getting the most out of his players, getting his players to rise up and play better then anyone outside believed that they could.

Jim Tressell is the perfect fit here to instill a winning culture back in Cleveland with a young roster, and he is not some retread that has failed in the NFL elsewhere, he gets along with the media well, he would be liked by the media from the get go and they would lay off enough to let him build something here.

I have always wanted Tressell here....he has always been a quality coach....and he is an Ohio guy to boot that not only loves this city and state, but he loves the team and everything about Ohio....the guy is the perfect fit he is just what this organization needs...just let Tressell do what he does best which is coach and let the GM help him pick some good quality young guys to add to this roster of young guys and let them play some football! Tressell will field a hard-nosed team of young guys who will be ready to play football.

If Jim Tressel grew up in Michigan and coached the Wolverines, would you still feel that he'd be a great coach for the Browns?

Heck no. He coaches up a great defense but the guy isn't the best game planner. Look at 2006... He tried to beat a speedy undersized Florida SEC team with the same scheme they beat tough Michigan, who had the best run defense in the country. He stuck with the pass heavy plan even though Ginn went down on the opening kickoff, and even though they were getting five yards per carry on the ground. They should have just run all over the gators, and instead he stubbornly stuck with the passing game. I wonder how the college football landscape would be different today has that game been played properly, since that was pretty much the beginning of the SEC dominance, which perpetuates itself.

Our new guys (Haslam and Banner) want a young head coach. Tressel is 59 years old.

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Paul Brown also came out of Ohio State and later became our Head coach....we haven't had a successful coach here since Brown....our last coach to win us a championship came from Ohio State....

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We should hire Luke Fickell as our head coach. He also coached at Ohio State.

Or maybe Coop! What's he been up to???

I think you are making a ton of assumptions here.

Maybe I missed it, but I don't know that Tressel wants to coach again let alone in the NFL.. He was once quoted as saying that his dream job was HC of OSU.. he had that and lost it.

Now, that is not to say he shouldn't be considered. he's a helluva coach and yeah, he might be the right guy..

Doesn't Tressel have a 5 year ban on coaching anyways? Or was that just college ball?

I'm 99.9% sure that's just for coaching in college.

Didn't you know that Pete Carroll had no knowledge of what was going on at USC?

Wow, what a bad year to needing a new coach. There's always a bunch of jobs opening up but this year the open jobs are likely going to include Philly, Dallas & NY Jets. All top shelf gigs. Add in the other 3 or 4 second tier gigs and Cleveland is going to have to throw some serious scratch to get to the attention of top prospects. I HATE that we're seriously looking at a front office reboot.

Philly, Dallas, and the Jets, while "talented" are all somewhat older teams.

We are talented and young.

The only question is what KIND of coach we are going to go after.

Are we going to give the reigns to a Gruden/Cowher type (please no.)

Or does Banner want to run the show and bring in a younger guy he can "control"

I hope he picks a young guy he doesnt have to control

I don't think it's about "having" to control them...

From what I've read of Banner's quotes (IMO) I think HE wants to be THE GUY that gets all the credit if/when we get it turned around...

Tom left Philly cause of him, and then Reid got him out of Philly..

I think the only reason Banner came here is to be in control, he's tired of JUST being a "numbers" guy and wants to play Real Life Madden..

The thing with Chip Kelly is this:

His system works pretty well, but when his teams go up against physical and athletic front sevens (Ohio State, Auburn, Stanford), they get muscled around and become ineffective. He also seems to get lost when Plan A fails.

I am a huge Ohio State fan, but the idea of Jim Tressel coaching an NFL team is laughable to me. Especially so with his terrible track record on coaching up offensive line play. I am 27 so I only really remember 3 OSU coaches (4 if you count Fickel), and Tressel by far had the worst offensive lines. Fat, slow, and physically weak. The difference between Urban and Tress on the OL is night and day, the guys are around 20 or so pounds lighter but are also much stronger within one year of arrival.

As far as head coaching candidates go, the qualities that seem to matter are attention to detail, ability to delegate responsibility, clock and game management, ability to motivate players, and generally projecting an aura of confidence.

I would prefer a young, fiery head coach with veteran coordinators, so we are halfway there already. Who that guy is, I have no idea.