Mike Pettine may be coaching his last game as head coach of the Cleveland Browns. His 10-21 record over the last two years shows things haven’t gone smoothly, but with the revolving door of coaches Cleveland has had recently, is now really a smart time for another change?
Pettine knows that if he does stay, things around him will look a lot different. Cleveland had the quote:
“Those discussions will remain between Jimmy (Haslam) and I,” he said. “Will there likely be some changes? If I were to stay here, it would be hard to justify keeping the staff completely together, and there likely would have to be some changes made, but I won’t get into specifics.”
Constant change is a quarterback killer, just ask Alex Smith who played for a different offensive coordinator in each of his first 6 seasons. The Browns have also had 6 offensive coordinators in 6 years and that doesn’t bode well for 2nd-year quarterback Johnny Manziel. Even though he hasn’t been perfect, with a little bit of consistency and structure around him, Manziel has a chance to be a real starting NFL quarterback.
Best case scenario for Manziel is that Mike Pettine and offensive coordinator John DeFilippo stay in place and build continuity for a team who isn’t familiar with the word.