Ex-Brown dares to question the Man-Genius

Nate Jackson. Sound familiar?

Probably not, because the Browns cut him during the 2009 preseason. Apparently his one week with the team told him enough about coach Eric Mangini that he now feels compelled, in Slate.com's "Sports Nut" roundtable, to rip Mangini's coaching methods to shreds.

Jackson argues the man at the Browns' helm demeans players by forcing them to 1) actually learn something about their opponents and 2) the team they play for, and 3) memorize quotes intended to encourage discipline and hard work. What a monster!

Far be it for me to suggest that maybe a team that has perpetually dwelled in the AFC North's cellar could use a little discipline. But it couldn't hurt.

After the first 11 games of the 2009 season, when the team's mood seemed dark and defeated, it might have been tempting to say Jackson had a point. But whatever Mangini has done with these players since August 2009 now has them beating some of the best teams in the NFL. Jackson figures Mangini must have adjusted his methods and gone easier on the team. Or, maybe not. Something is going right for the Browns that wasn't before Mangini came to town.

(Photo, of Mangini at 2010 training camp with defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, from clevelandbrowns.com.)

Holmgren keeps Mangini as Browns coach

The Browns' four-game winning streak at the season's end has preserved coach Eric Mangini's job. New team president Mike Holmgren says Mangini will stay on as coach in 2010.

Here at the Cleveland Magazine blog, we've been a bit hard on Mangini. But we warmed to Mangini after those Ice Bowl wins, just like much of Cleveland has. He inherited a crazy system that needed some discipline and structure, and a roster that needed some house-cleaning. He provided it. Those league-maximum fines early in the season that seemed so ridiculous paid off. So did shipping troublemaker Braylon Edwards out of town after his fistfight with LeBron's buddy, even if that left Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson with no one left to throw to. Sure, 5-11 is not a stellar record, but here's a clearer sign of improvement: the Browns went from the NFL's second most penalized team to the third least.

The dissenting opinion holds that Mangini's dawdling on naming a starting quarterback was a sign of indecision and weird stoking of media frenzy, and that he hasn't proven his disciplinary and play-calling systems work. In this view, Mangini doesn't matter nearly as much as re-signing Josh Cribbs.

Even the staffers who wanted Mangini to return are agnostic about his long-term fortunes. No one thinks he's proven himself. It's more: OK, you've earned another year.

Our blog's reader's poll in October looks eerily prescient so far. When we asked you about Mangini's future, none of you picked the option, "He'll be gone right after the season's ignominious end." 29% said he'd be fired mid-season. But the real contest is between the 47% of you who picked, "He'll manage to last two seasons, though he'll deserve to be fired after one" (hmm, how many of the 47% still feel that way?), and the forgiving 23% who chose: "His discipline will pay off, and the Browns will improve and earn him several years in the job. Coaches, like quarterbacks, need time to get better." Let's hope so.

Readers predict Mangini will last two seasons as Browns coach

The results are in from our blog's readers' poll. Asked to predict beleaguered Browns coach Eric Mangini's future, 47% of you chose the most cynical answer in our multiple-choice survey: "He'll manage to last two seasons, though he'll deserve to be fired after one."

A few of you agreed with the Sports Illustrated writer who asked whether Mangini was the worst NFL coaching hire ever: 29% agreed with the statement, "He'll get fired before the season's over."

Voting trends shifted a little after the Browns traded Braylon Edwards to Mangini's former team, the Jets. Dumping the combative wide receiver within 48 hours of his downtown fisticuffery helped boost the vote to cut the coach a break -- 23% of those voting chose: "His discipline will pay off, and the Browns will improve and earn him several years in the job. Coaches, like quarterbacks, need time to get better."

No one chose the fourth prediction: "He'll be gone right after the season's ignominious end."

Braylon Edwards traded to Jets -- did we speak too soon about Mangini?

OK, maybe Eric Mangini isn't so bad after all.

ESPN.com reports that the Browns have traded Braylon Edwards to the New York Jets.

The trade comes just two days after Edwards allegedly punched promoter and LeBron buddy Edward Givens outside the View nightclub on Prospect Avenue at 2:30 a.m. Monday morning.

This tells us two things. First, this town isn't big enough for LeBron and anyone hating on LeBron's buddies.

It also tells us that, whatever you might think of Mangini's rocky start as coach, he acts swiftly when a player's bad attitude causes a distraction. The deal was with the Jets, Mangini's previous team, which seems a sign that Mangini had a big hand in the move. Will it cause a shift in our poll about Mangini's future? (See the right side of the page.)

"The Jets agreed to send key special teams player Jason Trusnik, wide receiver Chansi Stuckey and a pair of draft picks to Cleveland," ESPN reports.

Mangini: worst coaching hire ever?

Now that Tribe manager Eric Wedge is about to become history, it's time for frustrated Cleveland sports fans to focus our frustration on another hapless team leader: 0-3 Browns coach Eric Mangini.

Last week, Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated's Web site asked if Mangini (pictured) was the worst NFL coaching hire ever:

I cannot stand the lack of respect he has shown for the team's history, the Mickey Mouse game he plays with quarterbacks, the amazing knack he has for getting his players to not play hard for him or the stupid fines he hands out like he's Principal Vernon from "The Breakfast Club." Don't mess with the bull, young man, you'll get the horns.

Posnanski admitted it was a burst of fan hyperbole ("fanbole," he called it). But would he still qualify his statement today, after Mangini's announcement that he's replacing Brady Quinn with Derek Anderson as the Browns' starting quarterback?

OK, we'll admit, this blog has shown some Quinn bias before. But the quarterback-controversy consensus here in the Cleveland Magazine offices is: You've got to give your young talent time to learn and get comfortable, not pull them after 2 1/2 games. Troy Aikman went 1-15 in his rookie year, and the Cowboys didn't bench him. OK, so Quinn might not be an Aikman, but Browns fans know what Anderson can and can't do by now, even if Mangini doesn't.

So how long will Mangini last as coach of the Browns? Please vote in our blog poll, at the top of the right column.

(To read Kim Schneider's January 2008 profile of Quinn and Joe Thomas, click here.)