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1/2/06

BROWNS SPOTLIGHT: Stability is key during offseason

Monday, January 2, 2006

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>BROWNS SPOTLIGHT TODD PORTER


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CLEVELAND - This could have been a great ending to another awful season. It could have been full of hope and promise. It could have led you to believe the Browns were crawling out of the hole.
It was for a second or two. Then the Browns threw themselves back in it.
There is a cloud that always manages to hang over the Cleveland Browns franchise, the NFL’s worst team on the field since its return in 1999 and quickly becoming the worst managed one off it as well.
Rookie quarterback Charlie Frye again showed signs, but not enough of them during a nailbiting 20-16 win Sunday over the Ravens. Frye didn’t answer enough questions to prove he is the future of this team, though he has answered enough to show he might be.
“I felt I made some strides,” Frye said. “I got better as the year went on.”
Head Coach Romeo Crennel seemingly endorsed Frye, but left wiggle room to go in either direction with the quarterback.
That is what men in Crennel’s position do. This is what men in the Browns organization have done for a while. Butch Davis had absolute power. Chris Palmer had no power. Crennel and in-limbo General Manager Phil Savage share power.
Crennel and Savage aren’t the only elements to Cleveland’s complex management scheme. There’s Jim Brown, whose role as adviser seems all-encompassing. He was spinning the latest embarrassing storyline the same way he once bounced off tacklers.
There are too many elements. Too many bosses, managers, directors. Everyone walks on egg shells looking over their shoulder in this organization, because there is always someone watching, someone listening, someone with an agenda.
Cleveland has spent seven years trying to gather pieces to the puzzle, but the Browns haven’t found out a way to keep anyone long enough to put it together.
The bottom line at the end of the day is owner Randy Lerner. Every decision reflects on him. The few good ones there have been and the bad ones.
Crennel won’t talk about Savage, though he may today as changes within his coaching staff seem to be adrift.
Savage may have gained some favors with his bosses by not addressing his situation, other than to say he is still the general manager of the Browns — today.
What about at the end of the week?
Obviously, there are problems with this structure. But the Browns have enough problems on the field. There is no need to create ones off it.
When team President John Collins announced Friday that the management team essentially renewed their vows, that’s spin. Any marriage needing vows renewed before the first anniversary is a rocky one.
Oddly enough, if someone were to leave, Collins is the most expendable. Crennel is safe. Savage should be safe. He’s knows better than anyone in the organization how to take the next step, drafting players and buying others through free agency.
Perhaps there’s the pressure point.
Cleveland can be one of the free-agent spenders this offseason, which always seems to start so soon around here. The Browns are about $30 million, give or take, under the cap. Maybe this is where disagreement has cropped up.
Maybe someone wanted to make a free-agent splash, sign a couple of big names because the Browns need something to sell next season.
Maybe Savage believes, and rightly so, this isn’t the way to spend the salary cap loot. That’s wasn’t the New England model. The Patriots signed players with talent but also something to prove.
The Browns have proven a few things since the late Al Lerner forked over $530 million for the team. They’ve proven inept. They’ve proven a once proud franchise can become the Cardinals, Bengals and 49ers while trying to become the opposite.
This is what makes the dynamics of Cleveland’s problem all the more interesting. The Browns aren’t trying to be bad, but they’re getting there nevertheless.
The team’s 6-10 record is better or what most people believed it would be after finishing 4-12 a year ago.
“We feel good about having a better record than they had last year,” Crennel said. “There are some things that could’ve been better. There are a couple of games in the middle of the year I felt like we could’ve won. If we won those games, there would be a better taste in their (the players’) mouth.”
Yes, Crennel made progress with little depth and trying to learn on the job what he has.
“The players,” he said, “understand what the coaches want, what the coaches desire and what’s expected of them. Going forward, we should be better.”
That’s all well and good. The Browns, despite a recent 41-0 trouncing by a Pittsburgh, took a step forward.
Then tripped over their own feet in the process.
It’s nice the players know what’s expected of them after 16 games.
Maybe management could do the same. Maybe after seven seasons, they can learn what the fans expect of them. Getting along and getting together isn’t asking much. Reach Repository sports writer Todd Porter at (330) 580-8340 or e-mail: todd.porter@cantonrep.com.
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