Mike Holmgren Will Keep Eric Mangini As Browns Head Coach

Eric Mangini will be the head coach of the Browns next season, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. New team president Mike Holmgren made the decision Thursday, exactly one year after Mangini was hired by Cleveland.

Holmgren will also allow Mangini’s entire coaching staff to remain with the team.

Mangini led the Browns to a 5-11 record this season, and won his last four games of the season, a streak that likely saved his job while at the same time giving Cleveland a worse draft pick. In his career, Mangini has one winning season in four years as a head coach, and a 28-36 record overall.

MIke Holmgren has been an NFL head coach before, and he was pretty good at it, advancing to the Super Bowl with both the Packers (they won) and the Seahawks (they lost). Eric Mangini is currently an NFL head coach, and is not very good at it, sporting a 26-36 overall record, including just 3-11 in 2009, his first year with the Browns.

So it's understandable that there might be some rumblings about Holmgren (the Super Bowl winning coach), now that he's the club's president, also replacing Mangini as head coach. But according to ESPN's Chris Mortensen, (via the Cleveland Plain Dealer) that won't happen. 

"He's not going to coach the Browns,'' said ESPN's Chris Mortensen on ESPN Radio. "Put that aside and forget it.''

Mortensen also backed off on previous comments that Browns coach Eric Mangini would be gone if Holmgren took over as team president.

"I'm not saying (his firing) is automatic,'' said Mortensen on Sportscenter. "Mike has been a coach all of his life. No coach ever believes it's fair to fire a guy after one year. Bill Parcells did it in Miami with Cam Cameron and it worked out. But it will be a tough decision for Mike Holmgren on Mangini."

In his press conference Monday, before the official announcement came from the Browns regarding Holmgren, Mangini addressed the week's worth of speculation about his job security. 

"That's not something I've been focused on or will be focused on,'' Mangini said. "I'm coaching this team and that's what I'm focused on: coaching this team this week and the week after and this past week. That's what I've asked of our coaches and players and anything else externally or any other elements to that -- they are what they are."

"What I'm looking to do is coach the team,'' he said. "That's it.''

A week after Mike Holmgren first arrived in Cleveland for meetings about "joining the Browns as the team's football leader" in a "czar" like position, and just five days after the team offered him a job, the the two sides announced Monday night what we all already saw coming: Mike Holmgren is joining the Cleveland Browns. 

The Cleveland Browns announced today that Mike Holmgren has agreed to become club President. The team also has announced that Mike Keenan will transition to the role of Chief Financial Officer.

"We are pleased to announce that Mike Holmgren has agreed to join the Cleveland Browns," said Owner Randy Lerner. "We will spend the rest of the week finalizing the details of the agreement and will make a formal announcement next week, at which time we will make him available to the media."

There is sure to be reaction to this move at SB Nation's Dawgs By Nature. 

Wednesday night, we reported that current Cleveland Browns head coach Eric Mangini was “not at all" bothered with Mike Holmgren in town, reportedly being wood for a front-office position. Maybe he should rethink his stance.

Should Holmgren come on board, however, numerous league executives anticipate that it would spell the end of Eric Mangini’s brief tenure as the Browns’ head coach. Mangini, a controversial hire before the 2009 season, has won just two of 13 games, and though the Browns have played with more gusto down the stretch, the team has struggled mightily on both sides of the ball this season.

The more news that comes out of Cleveland, the more it seems likely that Holmgren will soon be wearing the Cleveland brown.

The ongoing courtship of Mike Holmgren by the Cleveland Browns continues to be, well, ongoing. After reportedly offering him a "front-office position" Wednesday night, the team spokesman confirmed on Thursday that they are indeed talking with Holmgren, but no money has been discussed.

"We had a productive meeting over the course of couple days. We agreed to communicate again in the coming days. I can tell you the one thing we have not discussed to this point is money," Bonsiewicz said.

It has been widely reported that Holmgren's pricetag could be as high as $10 million a year.

A possible wrench thrown into this whole process is the Rooney Rule, but Bill Bonsiewicz, the team spokesman, said "We're aware of the Rooney Rule and have been in contact with the league office about it."

Holmgren spent Monday and Tuesday meeting with the Browns about a "czar" like position within the organization.

Despite a football coach in town with a much better track record (hint: Holmgren, Mike), Cleveland Browns coach Eric Mangini isn’t worried about what that means for him in the future:

Mangini maintained that all the conversation about Lerner searching for a football “czar” and Holmgren visiting the team’s facility is not unsettling to him.

“Not at all,” he said. “What I’m focused on and what I ask the players to be focused on is the task at hand, the opponent at hand. I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made.”

Mangini and Holmgren met, but did not talk specifics, according to the Browns’ current head coach:

“I thought it was a good conversation,” Mangini said. “He is obviously very talented as a coach. It was a good, positive conversation.”

What did they talk about?

“We talked about a lot of things — the team, different aspects of the season, things like that. I’m not going to go into the play by play of it,” he said.

Latest reports say Holmgren has been offered a front office job with the Browns.

According to CollegeFootballTalk.com's John Taylor (via PFT), the Cleveland Browns have offered a job to Mike Holmgren.

... John Taylor, who lives in the Cleveland area and writes for The Orange & Brown Report, tells us that Jim Donovan of WKYC-TV has reported during the Wednesday evening newcast that the Browns have offered a front-office position to former Packers and Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren.

Per the report, the offer is in the range of $8 million to $10 million per year.

This of course comes after Holmgren (and his agent) spent Monday and Tuesday in Cleveland, meeting with the Browns.

Not only was Mike Holmgren in Cleveland Tuesday, but so was his agent, giving the impression that something could happen in the direction of Holmgren becoming the “football czar” of the Browns:

While this is still heavy on the speculation, this is more certainty than we have had with other rumors. Still, this could all be Holmgren using the Browns to get more money and interest in his services from another team, such as the Seahawks, who want him back as GM.