Holmgren is gone; more sure to follow

By ED PUSKAS

Vindicator sports editor

As the Cleveland Browns finish off another losing season, there are again more questions than answers about the franchise that has been as dysfunctional as any since 1999.

Changes are coming. That’s all we can be sure about. Some are warranted. Others? Maybe not.

When the then-pending sale of the team from Randy Lerner to Jimmy Haslam was announced in the preseason, most observers — justifiably so as it turned out — felt it was the end of the Mike Holmgren era in Cleveland. As much as Browns fans wanted Holmgren to succeed as the team’s president and believed he would based on his track record in the NFL, he really accomplished little after his much-heralded 2009 arrival.

Holmgren rode in on his Harley-Davidson as the Browns’ savior and left a few weeks ago with the job unfinished. That will be his legacy, especially if the two biggest names tied to his also do not survive beyond the end of the season on Dec. 30 in Pittsburgh.

Pat Shurmur was Holmgren’s hand-picked coach. Brandon Weeden, the 29-year-old rookie whose growing pains have pained Browns fans off and on all season, was Holmgren’s hand-picked quarterback.

If rumor and innuendo — some of both originating in places far from Cleveland — are any indication, Shurmur and Weeden could be playing out the string with the Browns. And don’t forget general manager Tom Heckert, who has been the best man Cleveland has had in that job since 1999. It looks increasingly as if that fact won’t be enough for CEO Joe Banner to keep Heckert.

Full disclosure: I’ve never been sold on Shurmur.

The Browns’ three-game winning streak notwithstanding, there have been too many times Shurmur has appeared overwhelmed and unprepared as a head coach in his two seasons. Those occasions haven’t been as frequent since the Browns’ 0-5 start in 2012, but the winning streak — which had Cleveland fans briefly calculating playoff possibilities — came against the struggling Steelers, Oakland and Kansas City.

If Shurmur had any hope of surviving the Browns’ regime change, they probably died last Sunday, when Washington’s Mike Shanahan outcoached him and rookie backup QB Kirk Cousins outplayed Weeden.

Shurmur’s replacement, depending on the source, could be Nick Saban or Josh McDaniels or Andy Reid. Browns fans certainly would embrace Saban over Shurmur, but are the other two really upgrades?

Mike Lombardi, who worked in the Browns’ front office in the 1990s, has been mentioned as Heckert’s possible replacement. One word about that: Ugh.

Weeden also is thought to be on shaky ground with the new regime. One report had a Lombardi-McDaniels duo trading for Patriots backup Ryan Mallett. Yet another reminded us how much Banner loves Philadelphia’s Michael Vick.

Mallett is a former Michigan man and wears a New England uniform on Sundays, but that’s all he has in common with Tom Brady. Vick always has been overrated and his best days are far behind him.

As much as I thought the Browns didn’t give Colt McCoy enough of a chance, giving up on Weeden after one season would be even more foolish.

Ed Puskas is sports editor at The Vindicator. Email him at epuskas@vindy.com and follow him on twitter at https://twitter.com/edpuskas85.