A few folks have written that Denver followed the same script as the Browns in hiring a coach first and GM/personnel guy second. The point intrigued me, but it also cleared itself up at the Broncos’ news conference on Monday.
Turns out the Broncos didn’t hire a GM first. Very quietly, owner Pat Bowlen gave final personnel say to Jim Goodman, the team’s Vice President of Football Operations. Then he hired a young coach in Josh McDaniels, who also interviewed with the Browns. McDaniels said at his news conference that Goodman would have final say if he and Goodman did not agree on a player.
Give that person any title you want, but the has the responsibility for the draft, college scouting, pro personnel and salary cap clearly has General Manager’s duties. Bowlen said he saw no reason to add anyone else to the front office.
Don’t underestimate the change. For years Mike Shanahan had personnel control in Denver; for Bowlen to change that structure is significant. Too, McDaniels is too young to have that kind of responsibility. Goodman is a guy who worked his way up from small-college head coach to area scout to director of college scouting to vice president of player personnel. He has more experience than McDaniels, and he will have more responsibility.
The quibble people seem to have with the Browns is that Eric Mangini has such influence with the Browns choice of GM, that in effect he will be the guy in Cleveland calling the shots. That remains to be seen. In fact, it might be that the new hire (GM) will have final personnel say.
But … Goodman sounds like a very low-key, no-ego guy who will bend over backward to help McDaniels. He is like George Kokinis in that he’s not a big name. So perhaps that is the key, that no matter the person in the position of title, it’s the personality of the person that makes it successful.
The key will be the same as it’s always been: For the new hire to be able to work with Mangini.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
terry pluto's latest chat clarified the hiring of mike brown before danny ferry. terry said that ferry was interviewed before mike brown so the cavs knew the coaches that danny ferry was open to working with before they hired him.
assuming the browns get kokinis then i guess they got what they wanted. if not, the mangini hire could cause some problems.
And Pluto knows this how? One thing about Pluto is he takes everything he's told by those in management at face value. Part of that faith thing, I guess. Always trying to hold those you respect in a good light. And over the course of the past 20 years, Pluto has repeatedly written how much he respects Ferry. That whole work ethic thing, and whatever.
Fact is, Gilbert expressly stated he would hire a GM before his head coach. There were four weeks between the Brown hire and the Ferry hire. Highly unlikely Ferry was interviewed before Brown, as the Spurs were still in the playoffs when Brown was hired. Highly unlikely there were any feelers to Ferry whatsoever. Indeed, that's what got Larry Brown into trouble and Brown was still in the mix when Mike Brown was hired.
In short, my money is that Pluto bought into another fib. About the billionth fib buy-in of his sportswriting career. It's no secret that Ferry was looking to follow his father's footsteps, nobody else was offering him a position outside of San Antonio, and when opportunity comes a knockin', you answer the door when James is inside the totebag.
It's well known that Ferry has waterboarded Pluto and Windhorst into complete submission.
As for the Browns, whatever works is fine except for the fact that there's been ugly front office conflicts in the past and Lerner seems to be blurring those lines again.
One on has a clue as to how things will work out. It's all a cosmic crap-shoot people.
that's true eastsidejoe. it just seems that the browns fall more into the crap category rather than the cosmic.
It also seems like Pioli was interested in a new challenge, just not with the Browns.
When I was in management, we were told to judge performance, not personality. I'm a little tired of everyone worrying about whether NFL management-types are going to get along. They can throw furniture at each other, for all I care, as long as they make some good draft picks, rebuild our defense, and stop make moronic gameday decisions. There's always the offseason for everyone to kiss and make up…or better yet, the parade through Downtown. All will be forgiven!
clay, i'm all for your scenario. maybe they can sign charles haley and let him run around the locker room naked with a bottle of lube and a skin mag to spice up the locker room too.
You have no idea how disappointed I was when the link for ClayMatthewsSchoolforLaterals didn't go to a real website. It could have been a less annoying/more creative outlet than last year's heylarryhughespleasestoptakingsomanybadshots.com.
Still think that guy missed the boat not following Larry to Chicago. He's certainly created just as many enemies there as he did her in Cleveland.
So, yeah, Browns…Browns…um…oh, I think the whole coach-before-GM question was answered the moment it became clear that Pioli wanted Iowa's Kirk Ferentz to be the head coach. It seems to me that the GMs turning down the Browns job are doing it because they want all the control without the compromise. They all want to put their own (no-name/inexperienced/college) coach in place so they look like the puppet master if things go well.
I'm not saying the Mangini thing is going to work, but it won't be because the Browns didn't get the "right" GM. The way it looks right now, if they got the "right" GM, they would be stuck with the wrong coach.
…though the idea of letting Mangini have control over personnel, just because you couldn't find anyone else to do it, certainly sounds idiotic.
I believe Clay Matthews school for thought is pretty close to being right on target. Although a cooperative staff is more than likely the best scenerio for the locker room moral. The Buddy Ryan and Mike Ditka era really isn't the best image or ideal working inviroment for a team. However, this City and in general Northeast Ohio is starving for a championship. What ever it takes is okay with the fans.
I say lets just get it done. I am sure they are saying the same thing in Denver. Lerner what ever you do please put a resemblance of a team that is is organized and communicates and above all please,please get coaching staff that know what they are doing and put a competive team on the field.
The GM should take care of business and be the face of the team, the coach should have say over who it is that he is coaching. My GM does not tell me what maintenance technicians to hire or how to run my team. The same should hold true in the NFL. Let the GM run the salary cap and work on the $ not the players.
Now, can anyone tell me why the east coast AFC championship is on at 6:30 Pm and the west coast NFC is on at 3:00 PM? What idiot in the NFL came up with that?
We need a good web directory for Good Denver Sites or Colorado Sites like your’s.