Browns camp report: Holmgren re-preaches patience with Mangini

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BEREA, Ohio -- There is no head coach in the NFL in a more delicate, more complicated and less enviable position than Cleveland's Eric Mangini.

Not because he must win. Not because he plays in a brutal division with the AFC North's fourth-best talent. And not because he somehow drew the league's 10th-toughest schedule, with a killer seven-game run that includes five playoff teams led by defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans.

Nope, Mangini is in the toughest of all spots because he has a head-coach-in-waiting looking over his shoulder, ready to step in if summoned.

I'm talking, of course, of team president Mike Holmgren, who made the decision to bring Mangini back to the Browns and who makes the next -- heck, who makes every -- call involving his head coach.

When Holmgren assumed command of the Browns, he told the club's employees he wasn't here to stage an "Extreme Makeover" but that he hoped to bring stability and return a trust that, until now, has been anathema to the Browns.

Well, then, now is the time to prove it, and good luck. Because when you look at what's ahead for the Browns and the landmines that are out there, you wonder if -- or how -- Holmgren can resist the inevitable calls to return to the sidelines.

I know, he insists he has little or no interest, but people in Seattle tell me he's itching to return. All I know is that there's one job that could open at any time, with a former head coach with Hall of Fame credentials sitting in the Cleveland Browns' building.

Put the two together, and you have a temptation that could be hard to resist.

"I don't know," Holmgren said. "My goal right now is to try to fix this and get it going in the right direction. I did it [coaching] a long time. I've got to get through this year. If you and I met next year at the same time I probably will have a better answer for you."

I'll take that as a qualified "no." In the meantime, there's Mangini left to wonder what it all means, and I'll tell you what: It means he better have himself one helluva season because anything less might not cut it.

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The history of head coaches with team presidents or GMs who didn't hire them is well documented. San Diego's A.J. Smith fired Marty Schottenheimer after a 14-2 season. Kansas City's Scott Pioli canned Herman Edwards three weeks after assuming command. St. Louis general manager Billy Devaney brought in Steve Spagnuolo. Bill Parcells hired Tony Sparano.

So there's that strike against Mangini. But now you complicate it with Holmgren as a former head coach who may or may not want to return to the game, throw in a brutal schedule, the Browns' recent failures and Cleveland's frustration at not winning anything lately in professional sports, and -- presto! -- you have a stress test for an unlikely alliance between a head coach and his new boss.

"When I came on my visit, that was one thing Mike made very clear," said quarterback Jake Delhomme, who joined the Browns as an unrestricted free agent. "He said 'Eric had one year, and I've been a head coach. You can't judge it on one year.' But he also said, 'I'm not coaching. I want to help get the structure in place and everything going.'

"To me, there are two different philosophies -- the West Coach philosophy and the Parcells/Belichick philosophy. Obviously, they both work. So you can get the best of both worlds."

That's one way of looking at it. Another is that the two are so different they can't possibly live happily ever after. For now, at least, Holmgren and Mangini seem to get along and get along well, with the two exchanging ideas and Mangini unafraid to approach Holmgren for help. Not that long ago, for instance, he asked for input on patterns the Browns' receivers were running, and Holmgren responded with a blueprint that worked in Seattle.

"He'll offer suggestions," said Mangini, "but he's not overbearing with it, and they're usually really good ones that we incorporate. I don't feel the pressure to incorporate them because Mike made the suggestion; I want to incorporate them because I think that's a really good idea."

Mangini seems to have a genuine fondness for his boss, while Holmgren speaks glowingly of his head coach. It is a mutual admiration society, with each expressing appreciation for the other. But it's also August when nobody has lost, and hope is everywhere.

"The nice thing about this," said Mangini, "is that Mike has been through these experiences -- the rebuilding experiences -- and he knows the difficulties that exist even in Year 2. So when I talk to him it's not trying to explain something foreign because he gets it. That part of it is reassuring."

So is this: If anyone can appreciate the awkward position Mangini is in, it is Holmgren. He coached his last season in Seattle with his successor, Jim Mora, on his staff as an assistant coach. Holmgren suggested that Mora not be announced until after the season, but the club decided otherwise -- designating him as the next head coach before Holmgren's farewell tour. The decision backfired and Holmgren sank to his worst finish ever, a 4-12 disaster.

"You were never sure who was in charge," said Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck. "If you looked at an 'org chart,' it was like: Whose guy are you? Are you going to be here next year?"

You could ask the same question of Mangini. He and the Browns suffered through most of 2009, losing 11 of their first 12 games. But after ridding the club of most of its detritus, Mangini and his staff laid the foundation for what they hoped would be future success -- and the Browns responded by winning their final four, the first tangible sign that Mangini's message not only resonated with players but worked.

"That tells you something is going in the right direction," said Delhomme. "And that was something that just stuck with me. They were doing something right. I've been on teams where guys will have their bags packed. This team had nothing to play for, yet it kept playing."

Mangini was rewarded for that success with another season, but Year 2 is not about learning anymore; it's about growing and it's about winning. That is where Holmgren comes in. If the Browns don't turn things around immediately, I have no doubt there will be calls for Holmgren to can Mangini and replace him with himself.

Eric Mangini and Mike Holmgren have built a nice rapport. (US Presswire)

But that's where Mike Holmgren, the president, must listen to Mike Holmgren, the former head coach and practice patience. Victories won't come easily. You look at Cleveland's roster, then look at the rest of the AFC North, and you wonder how the Browns survive. I don't know, but I know that Mangini seemed to have found something last season that has been missing here for years, and that was a unity that bred success.

Now, we see if he has a chance to finish what he started.

"I thought long and hard about that before I decided to keep Eric," said Holmgren. "[Making a change] is not the kind of president I want to be. I don't want to do that. It takes some time for a coach to implement his program and get it going properly.

"Last year he had to do some of the heavy lifting and dirty work, but when I said to him and his staff that I wanted them back I said, "But I expect us to improve; I would like to see us going in the right direction.' And as I've gotten to know him I feel better about that decision all the time."

He should. Mangini pulled off his late-season comeback without a general manager, without much of a defense and with quarterbacks who played like the Venus De Milo. The point is: He did it, and he did it on his own. Now, with Holmgren and general manager Tom Heckert on board, the perception is that Mangini may be expendable -- particularly if Holmgren can be convinced to return to coaching.

But Holmgren must remember what he told the team's employees: Change is not always good. Mangini's plan worked last season when he produced the same 5-11 record as Bill Belichick's first season with the Patriots. So do what New England did and have the courage to let him follow this thing through.

That won't be easy. With each loss, with each blown call, with each questionable game plan, Mangini's future will be questioned -- with Holmgren called on to supply the answers. I think we all agree that the Browns must improve, but, ultimately, the question will be: What does Holmgren interpret as improvement?

"Well," he said, "wins and losses are the most obvious measurement, but there are other things I will look at: Player development, effort, things that coaches can see that the fan might skip over. The players must continue listening to the coach. If ever at any point the players stop listening to you, you have to do something else. That doesn't work."

What worked a year ago was Mangini's formula. While the Browns finished with the worst record in their division, they won one more game than the year before, kept division rival Pittsburgh out of the playoffs and were the league's second-hottest club at the end of the season. Basically, as the year wore on, Cleveland improved, and Mangini's vision was realized.

You can only hope it happens again. Because if it doesn't, the countdown on a career will start all over again -- and Mangini deserves better.

"I really believe in what we do," he said, "and I think what we do is right. I know it's different, and there are different versions of right, but my expectation is that even though I'm not the coach [Mike Holmgren] hired I would like to think I am the coach he would've hired. At the end of the day, that's what I hope it is."

At the end of the day, what I hope is that we end the raft of speculation involving Mangini, Holmgren and how the two coexist. Holmgren knows how difficult it is to establish a winning program. Heck, he went 31-33 in his first four years in Seattle before taking off. So he knows the pressure and the stress that Mangini must be under. But he must also appreciate the importance of giving his coach room to breathe.

Eric Mangini took a team to the playoffs once; it could happen again. But that takes time, and it's up to Holmgren to give it to him.

"You know what?" said Holmgren, "we look at things differently. But the beauty of it is that we can talk about it. And I tried to set it up that way. I said, 'Look, don't get your feathers ruffled about anything; you and I have to talk about everything and anything. OK?'

"Once you lay the table out like that, it's OK to disagree. I told him -- and I want him to believe -- that I will help him; that I will not hurt him. He is the coach of this team."