The murmur for Shurmur

So, Mike Holmgren has hired his new head coach for the Cleveland Browns, and it's the offensive coordinator from the St. Louis Rams, Pat Shurmur.

Most Browns fans aren't happy. They wanted a big name like Jon Gruden to become the head coach. Heck, there's even some who believe the job should have went to Marty Morninwheg or Mike Mularkey instead.

Really? Both Morninwheg and Mularkey weren't exactly success stories in their first (and only) head coaching gigs prior to returning to more success as assistant coaches. Morninwheg only won 5 games in Detroit (and made an infamous coin toss choice in an overtime game), while Mularkey's best year in Buffalo was 9-7 before his teams slumped down to reality.

Maybe it's Joe Cleveland's belief that anything can be better than what we've witnessed ever since 2003 (with the exception of 2007, although that season ended without the playoffs), but I'm willing to give Holmgren and Shurmur the benefit of the doubt.

For starters, it seems the recent trend is to hire an unknown guy and let him go. Falcons fans weren't exactly lining up at the ticket counters when Mike Smith was hired to replace Bobby Petrino. Steelers fans preferred Ken Wisenhunt or Russ Grimm over the "outsider" Mike Tomlin when Dan Rooney hired him to replace Cowher. Ravens fans had no idea who John Harbaugh was before he was tapped to be their head coaching replacement for Brian Billick. And, there's others where that came from, but you catch my point.

Today, all those teams are in the playoffs and are one of 8 teams still alive with a berth in the Super Bowl. Tomlin's already won one Super Bowl title, Harbaugh's teams have reached the playoffs every single year, and won at least one playoff game in each, and Smith's team is the No. 1 seed in the NFC and, if they win a tough game with Green Bay, should be the favorite to reach the Super Bowl this year.

Don't you think the Browns would love to trade places with one of those teams? Joe Cleveland certainly would have.

Probably the best factor in all of this is that, for once, there is in single, solitary unified vision for the Cleveland Browns from the top on down. Shurmur comes highly recommended from Andy Reid, who has been probably the best Holmgren disciple as a head coach. And, Tom Heckert was the GM in Philly prior to coming to Cleveland with Holmgren.

Shurmer's uncle, Fritz Shurmur, was a highly successful defensive coordinator under Holmgren at Green Bay. Holmgren trusted Fritz Shurmur completely to run his defense, which allowed Holmgren to focus on the offensive side. So, there's a connection there.

Pat Shurmur has been indocrinated into the West Coast offensive system that Holmgren prefers. Shurmur has helped develop Donovon McNabb to become an elite QB, and helped develop rookie Sam Bradford into a consistant QB last year with the Rams. I'm sure Holmgren is expecting Shurmur to do the same with his own youngster, Colt McCoy.

A West Coast system favors McCoy, because it relies on shorter passes and quicker plays. McCoy doesn't have the "howitzer" arm that other QBs have, but McCoy's got smarts and a great attitude. He's got born leadership abilities, which is something most Cleveland QBs have lacked since they returned to the NFL in 1999. I can't think of a Browns QB who was renouned for his leadership abilities. In fact, it always appeared the team was divided between which QB they preferred (Couch-Holcomb, Garcia-Anyone else, Dilfer-Frye, Frye-Anderson, Anderson-Quinn).

Shurmur probably comes cheap, which is good since the Browns are still on the hook for Mangini's salary (and probably Crennel's salary). Shurmur doesn't have a big ego, which means he'll be eager to learn and use Holmgren's valuable resources to make himself better.

Perhaps he becomes a "puppet-hire" for Holmgren. Holmgren doesn't have to coach the team himself, but he has a guy he can mold and turn into a sucessful coach by essentially calling all the shots. Holmgren can surround his new protoge with veteran assistants (Dave Wannstedt is already rumored to become the defensive coordinator) to to help his transtion. And, Holmgren and Heckert can continue to draft and sign players they believe fits into their unified vision and know they have a coaching staff that can execute their vision (unlike Mangini).

Now, because of Shurmer's connection with McNabb, ESPN is already pegging Cleveland as a rumored destination for the veteran QB to allow McCoy to soak up more of the offense while not being forced to immediately play. That would be interesting.

It will be interesting to see how Shurmur (or Holmgren) fills out his coaching staff and to see how this offseason progresses. Shurmur is expected by the fan base (and Holmgren) to hit the ground running and show some immediate improvement next season. And, the onus falls on Holmgren because of how quickly he settled on Shurmur. He doesn't have Mangini to scapegoat now, the bulls-eye is squarely on him.

I have a feeling that's exactly how Holmgren wants it.

Joe Cleveland is willing to not jump to conclusions with the Shurmur hire is allowing himself to step back and observe how things go. The Browns have never had such a unified front office/coaching staff, probably since Paul Brown was running things back in the 1950s before Art "the Meddler" Modell came in and made a mess of things. We all know how great those Paul Brown teams were.

Perhaps Pat Shurmur is the next version of a Tomlin, Harbaugh, Smith or even Sean Payton or Mike McCarthy. Give him some talent, and let's go!

Until next time, remember that Cleveland Rocks!