DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Mike Pettine

Every year, I see the same stuff, we could have had.....

Truth is Beckham went before he was slotted. Which was in the 20-30 range, so the Giants did well with a reach. It did not hurt that Eli threw balls to him in the off season, so there was some inside information. But good for the Giants.

Benjamin hands and effort were suspect. I did not want him.

I wonder if Mike Pettine has Doug Marrone's agent..

Might be wishing he did soon..

Heh, thin skinned much, eo?

He's just saying that Manziel has a LONG way to go to get to solid, and by that he first has to show that he even belongs in this league - and that is legitimate, because based upon what we've seen so far, he absolutely does not belong in this league. Right now, he likely couldn't get a job in the CFL.

" Right now, he likely couldn't get a job in the CFL. "

Haven't players in MLB been traded to Japan for cash?
Could we trade Manziel's contract to a CFL team for cash or something?

Bigger question: Could he keep it?

How does a guy who didn't get it and played horribly, how does the same guy assure you he now gets it, knows absolutely what needs done and will be all over it? If that individual knew so exactly, why didn't the job get done, or at least better? And why would I believe he can engineer something far above what he didn't or couldn't do?
Trouble believing this logic.

I realize that he may have had the light come on, but this isn't a minor growth thing IMO. Some serious improvements would be needed just to become a so-so NFL quarterback. Look elsewhere, at least to hedge your bets.

J/C .....

There is an old saying about rookies, especially rookies in the NFL, that says .... "The biggest thing that a rookie doesn't know is how much he doesn't know."

I think that goes for Manziel in an extreme way.

Football had come easily to him in High School. It came easily to him in college. Now he's in the NFL, and it's a job, against professionals. and the best players in the world. Manziel did not have a huge playbook in college. He did not have a ton of verbiage when calling a play. He was often one of the quickest players on the field. These are the challenges he now has to overcome. I think that he has the talent ..... but he has to master the mental side.

I am stunned at those who say "dump him for anything" at this point. He could still come on. Maybe he won't. You could even say that it is likely he won't. However, it's too early, and expensive, to just give the kid away.

You're welcome!

Mike Pettine was obviously hired by Jimmy Haslam... but if it were up to Jimmy, would he have fired Chud last season?

Pettine probably wasn't the first choice for HC. But at the time, perhaps he was the best available.

If the Browns go 4-12 (or some other crappy record) next season will Pettine be fired?

If Jimmy's dream HC becomes available, perhaps Nick Saban, would Jimmy not hesitate to fire Pettine and hire Saban?

Report is Haslam is the one who granted Shanahan's request to be released from his contract. Did Kyle and Pettine have a chat about this or did Shanny just go to Haslam and request to be let go?

Pettine was indeed hired by Haslam,,I mean his former Pres/GM Banner and Lombardi were still here when that decision was announced but shortly after, they were gone

No secret that Pettine wasn't his first choice. Not sure who was.

I would think that if the Browns have a losing record next season, Pettine would be gone. At some point, you gotta stick with a guy for longer than a year or two.

Saban wasn't what I'd call a successful NFL HC with Miami so I'd hope he wouldn't be the guy. I don't know who his "Dream Coach" is.

I don't know what difference it makes who Shanahan went to for a release.

Why would anyone want to keep a coach who didnt want to be there? It seems like that is something the players would certainly pick up on. That could kill a season in a hurry I bet.

Maybe it already did?

I love how you guys rewrite history. Banner wanted Pettine. Big time. He was the one who talked Haslam out of hiring Greg Schiano, or whatever the heck his name is.

Why does the deadline have to be 2 years?
What makes ANY owner think he'll do better in Year One with the next guy?

This would be beyond insane.

I like Pettine, one thing this team did not do that they have done in the past, they never quit!!!!

Players thoughts on Pettine

Seem they have a good feel for Pettine..I really never noticed his interactions with the players on the sidelines till now..

I attended every home game this year.. and I always looked to see if there was any...And honestly I never thought there was much interactions going on..

If Haslam really wants to lose this team, the first thing he should do is get rid of Pettine.

If he wants the opposite, Pettine should be here for at least 4 years.

.02

It sounds like he is not the issue at all...from all we keep hearing a common thread among the players is 'we need to get the right players in the building'..seems like everyone acknowledges the 'talent gaps'

It is probably nit-picking, but I didn't hear a lot of "unity & team" so much, which probably goes back to getting the right players in the building. SO maybe we are just 2-4 right players from putting this together? or we will get better via subtraction of a few bad apples..

Pettine videos from press conference at combine (2/18/15):

Thanks cfrs15.

Every time I hear Pet talk, I like him a little more... no bs... direct answers and doesn't shy away from it.

Agree 100% ... stellar individual and I believe is embarking on the start of a career as a great NFL head coach.

2 biggest take aways:

1. Again, Pettine doesn't say much that doesn't mean something. When asked about the reasons to be optimistic about the next season - Pettine went straight to the change at the OC position. The more I hear - the more happy I am that Shanny has gone. The more convinced I am that he was as much a part of the dysfunction in the FO as anyone. Shanny supporters please take note.

2. Haslam - Pettine brought Haslam into his answer to a question without any prompting and it was "unrelated" to the question . . . . He gave Haslam a huge endorsement, said he is not meddling in FO decisions. Do I think Haslam has made errors? Sure. Do I think its as bad as the media wants to portray - No. Do I think it's as bad as posters on these forums want to paint. Heck No. I'll take Pettine's word for it (especially when it comes unsolicited and with the observation that people will point out Haslam signs his checks) over the speculation and agenda driven media and posters!

I also smiled when I heard Grossi ask his WR question that was loaded like a baked potato ! I like Grossi but his hard on for Farmer right now is really getting old fast.

Yeah it would, but it is the Browns. Somebody has to take the blame and Haslam isn't firing himself even though he is the biggest part of the problem. I feel like Haslam is trying to show the fans that by firing the coaches he cares more than he really does and at the same time he continues to make his money.

Get it Mike.

"so the Giants did well with a reach"
=====================================

It was no reach from their perspective.
"reach" is more of media term.

If you watched "Finding Giants" ? The Giants were all over Beckham.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The Browns "reached" for Manziel. And they really reached for Weeden. Nobody but the Browns even brought Weeden in to take a look.

Yes, but Heckert was a genius!

My hope is that Haslam and the Cleveland fanbase can go into next season with realistic expectations. Looking at the strength of schedule for 2015, it is a very real possibility that we see another 4-12 or even only a 2-3 win season. THe QB position is less settled than it was last year and we have no legit WRs. When Hawkins and Austin are the best we have, that is saying something. This situation was not brought on by Pettine, but rather Farmer and Haslam. It was inexcusable to not draft a WR in last year's draft as deep as it was and the FO bought into the hype an media publicity of a player rather than looking at actual translatable skills.

I'm not trying to be all doom and gloom, but a failed season is likely and Pettine should not take the fall. We will have to see how he coaches with what he is given to make a judgement call. There are a lot of things to like about Pettine. This coming from a guy that was extremely hesitant to jump on board Pettine's ship (I was pretty vocal in my love affair of Horton's Defense).

Like what has been said by many, Pet is the only thing in Berea that I am happy about. Poor guy.

The Cleveland Browns expansion team - Home of the Black Hole for coaches and players.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2369522-mike-pettines-brutal-honesty-could-save-the-browns

Nice read from the Bleacher Report on same interview.

I particularly liked this quote from the article:

"You'd be surprised at how positive the feelings are, not just in the coaching area but around the building about the Browns moving forward," Pettine said. "I know that feeling is not shared by many outside the building. But if I had to choose one, that's how I'd prefer it to be."

The train is leaving the station, guys. You can either get on board or be left behind...

Daayumm!!

Mike Pettine's Brutal Honesty Could Save the Browns

INDIANAPOLIS — Cleveland Browns coach Mike Pettine could have dodged every difficult question fired at him during Wednesday's press conference.

Ducking controversy at the combine is to coaches and executives what performing the three-cone drill is to rookie linebackers: inevitable and essential. Some coaches/general managers refuse to answer tricky questions. Others speak in vague generalities, droning on and on about "the process" until the press corps starts snoring. A few are conspicuously absent, skipping press availability altogether.

Pettine took the podium looking grim and determined, almost melancholy. His starting quarterback is in rehab for an alcohol problem. His team faces sanctions because its general manager texted suggestions to coaches on the sideline during games. His star wide receiver faces a year suspension for multiple violations of the league's substance abuse policy.

Even the simple act of hiring a quarterback coach brought a whiff of scandal. New arrival Kevin O'Connell was working with prospect Marcus Mariota at a quarterback academy before the combine, and there have been whispers of improper communications between prospect, coach and team. Free agents like tight end Jordan Cameron and quarterback Brian Hoyer are reportedly eager to evacuate before the final implosion, per CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora and ESPNCleveland.com's Tony Grossi.

Pettine is besieged from above and below like few coaches in NFL history have ever been. For most coaches, dealing with only one of the bushel of problems Pettine faces would cause painful press-conference prostate surgery. No one would blame Pettine for offering a series of standard-issue, extra-bland non-answers, hewing as close to Marshawn Lynch territory as possible during his mandatory 15 minutes. "I'll open it up and try to be as boring as possible," he joked, or threatened, at the start of Wednesday's press conference.

But Pettine was anything but boring. He was open, forthright, and a little bit defiant in the face of the withering negativity surrounding the Browns organization.

It was refreshing and a little bit inspiring. If the Browns really are a lawless Western town, Pettine sounded like Gary Cooper in High Noon: the last honest man willing to stand in the middle of Main Street and shoot from the hip.

Pettine met Johnny Manziel questions head-on. "I did go to visit him last week," Pettine said of his troubled quarterback prospect, who checked himself into a rehabilitation facility for substance abuse a few weeks ago. "I just wanted to go visit him and see how he's doing, let him know that we're proud of him for the decision he made to go in, and that he has our full support."

Pettine could have punted when asked about Ray Farmer; the Browns general manager who texted coaches during games is scheduled to speak for himself on Thursday. Pettine could also have downplayed the incidents or pretended to be comfortable with a little in-game backseat driving. He was frank instead. "It was, in games, very emotional. I'm not going to go into my initial reaction," he said. "I wasn't thrilled about it, but Ray and I had very clear and open communications about it."

The O'Connell-Mariota connection could have been scoffed off like a hundred other scuttlebutt-sweeping questions asked at each combine. Pettine answered in detail. "He wasn't really working with him," Pettine said of the coach and prospect. "I know there are some reports out there that he was doing playbook stuff with him. Kevin doesn't even know our offense yet."

Pettine said that O'Connell accepted the Browns job offer but wanted to finish working with Mariota and other quarterback prospects on combine preparations before joining the organization. "I didn't look at it in any way that we were gaining some sort of advantage," Pettine said. "I just looked at it as: This is a guy with integrity who wants to fulfill a commitment that he made."

Pettine could have ducked for cover on Josh Gordon by filibustering on the need to perform background checks and emphasize character. Instead, he fired back.

"If you just say, 'Listen, we're only going to add players to our roster who were on the National Honor Society or in the school choir,' there's a danger to that," he said. "If you look across not just the league but society in general, it's rare that you're going to have somebody who just has impeccable, clean character.

"It's all risk-reward. ... I don't think you can just knee-jerk react and go in the exact opposite direction and say that everybody with any kind of red flag, you shy away from."

It's not the answer we are used to hearing—or the safe response we have grown comfortable with. But it was the response Pettine gave.

Pettine could have gone through his press conference without mentioning the Browns' beleaguered owner at all. No questions were asked about Jimmy Haslam, whose regime has been a nonstop series of scandals and bumbles.

But Pettine decided to rush to his boss' defense unbidden. "The most upsetting thing to me about this has been the depiction of Jimmy Haslam," Pettine said. "He's been depicted as a guy who's been meddlesome and involved in a lot of decisions. That hasn't been the case at all … He's been the ultimate in what we talk about as 'servant leadership.'"

Pettine worried that last one might sound like a bit of a whopper. "I know some people are going to say that, 'This is the guy who signs his check, so he's gonna pump him up.'"

Actually, Pettine sounded sincere, whether pumping up his boss or expressing pride in a quarterback who could just as easily inspire regrets. He sounded like the voice of reason in a world gone crazy, the not-yet-mad Road Warrior who still stands for something amid the chaos of the Browns' apocalyptic wasteland.

Last combine was almost exactly like this one. Pettine arrived at the podium just after Haslam executed a massive regime change over his head, firing team president Joe Banner and general manager Michael Lombardi. A report that Pettine was a consolation prize for the Browns, who were hoping to lure Jim Harbaugh away from the 49ers, surfaced just hours before Pettine's first national press appearance in 2014.

Pettine answered questions then as he did on Wednesday, with a mix of bluntness, clarity and a bit of biting humor. He's always in the middle of a hurricane. He always comes across as the only one in Cleveland who knows how to batten down hatches.

A funny thing happens when you respond to tough questions with openness, a little vulnerability and a splash of honesty. People offer you the benefit of the doubt. We sympathize and empathize. We begin to believe you, and to believe in you.

If anyone can save these Browns—and that's a big if—it's Pettine, the sane man stuck in an insane situation.

When Pettine says that all hope is not lost, it's possible to rally with him. "I think a lot of positives have come from the past month," he said. Believably.

Manziel is not a lost cause. "He's in a much better place now than he was before he went in," Pettine said. "He seems very determined to come out of it in a much better way." Pettine said Manziel would be welcomed back and "treated as he was treated before."

Farmer and Pettine can still work together, in a way that does not involve illegal and unwanted in-game telecommunications. "I feel very comfortable with my relationship with Ray," Pettine said. "That hasn't changed. He and I still see things very much the same." That whole texting thing? "It's a mistake. He admits it. And a lot of it is deeply rooted in his competitiveness."

The new coaches, including O'Connell and relative unknown John DeFilippo (who replaces Kyle Shanahan, who seemed eager to escape Cleveland, at offensive coordinator), could breathe some fresh air into the staff. "I'm very rejuvenated," Pettine said.

It may all be a tall tale, but it's a tale well told. On a day when 49ers GM Trent Baalke acted shocked and petulant as he deflected a peppering of Jim Harbaugh questions, when coaches and executives spoke as if admitting that they had ever seen Jameis Winston play football would put them at a crippling competitive disadvantage, when 90 percent of questions were answered either with gritted teeth or mumbling cliches, Pettine told the story of a franchise that made a bunch of mistakes but is trying to get better.

Pettine told a story of owners, coaches, executives, troubled would-be superstars and everyday players who can still communicate with one another and seek common solutions. He told the story of a Browns organization that actually still clings to some semblance of organization, even if Pettine looks like the only one still capable of erecting the scaffolds.

It wasn't all rosy. "I'd be a lot more concerned if we had a game this Sunday," Pettine said of his depleted, question-riddled roster. But it was not as bleak as the last month's headlines would suggest.

"You'd be surprised at how positive the feelings are, not just in the coaching area but around the building about the Browns moving forward," Pettine said. "I know that feeling is not shared by many outside the building. But if I had to choose one, that's how I'd prefer it to be."

It takes more than one February press conference to turn skeptics into optimists. The Browns have problems that cannot be solved by straight talk. But straight talk is better than no talk or double talk, both within the Browns and without. To borrow a phrase from Manziel's situation, the first step is admitting the problem.

The Browns may have more problems than Pettine has solutions. But it helps to talk about these things. Pettine is the best hope the Browns have of rebounding from their latest rediscovery of rock bottom.

I am not sure he can do it. But when he claims to be looking forward to the challenge, I believe him.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2369522-mike-pettines-brutal-honesty-could-save-the-browns

Thanks Memphis.

I felt much the same after listening to his interviews.

A lot of owrk to be done but he seems to be the man to do it...I could see him some day taking on the GM role as well

There were a few who speculated that we were being underhanded (or whatever the wording was) in this matter, but sometimes the obvious answer is the correct one. There is more reason to be optimistic rather than negative, so for those who are glass half-empty guys, open your eyes for someone is filling your glass...

http://www.dawgsbynature.com/2015/2/19/8068903/mike-pettine-chats-with-bull-fox

Most of the information in this article has already been said, but this seemed like new info. Also, Pettine reiterated that Haslem had nothing to do with the Manziel pick.

I like the way Pettine carries himself, what he has to say, and the manner in which he says it. This is a man whose star is on the rise...

Pettine seems to take the high road. Seems to love his place here, warts and all. I hear him, I admire him, and I think he is the kind of man players can go to war with and do so enthusiastically. He lives on the high road, and I respect what he is doing in spite of some of the asylum's lunatics.

That may be one of his biggest achievements, overlooked by most, annd for which he deserves more credit: He has helped the crappy players and plays stick out. Fewer penalties, more takeaways, playing with more heart. Not true every play in every game all season, certain players stunk. But he has moved the bar up. And he is NOT satisfied. But he seems to see what needs done, owns his share of it, and is trying to fix it. Like him as a man; like him as a coach.

Yeah... Mike was a hire at first I didn't think highly of, but after listening to him and seeing how the players play for him (excluding the three morons) - it's hard to not like the man. He's blunt and straight forward. Seems the players love him and he loves the players. He sticks up for his players a lot.

I truly admire his honesty when speaking with the media.