Year Two of Mike Holmgren in Cleveland

Cleveland Browns executive/team president Mike Holmgren is a loyal guy. He has a great eye for both playing and coaching talent when it comes to the National Football League. Numerous assistants that he had with both the Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks went on to become head coaches in the league.

Jon Gruden and Andy Reid are probably considered to be the two biggest success stories out of this lot. Jim Zorn, Mike Sherman and Dick Jauron are the kind of people who may not have had as much success as a head coach in the NFL after working for Holmgren, but they do know certain aspects of the game very well.
Pat Shurmur is one of the latest Holmgren from the Holmgren coaching tree to be hired as an NFL head coach, the hiring was done this time by Holmgren himself. Pat Shurmur was named the new head of the Cleveland Browns in the offseason. If you look at the Cleveland Browns roster as currently constructed, just at a glance you are probably going to see Holmgren and Shurmur add a few more playmakers to their wide receiving corp. Mohamed Massaquoi has plenty of skill, but you truly have to wonder whether someone will have to step up like rookie Greg Little if people are expecting the Browns to take a step forward this season. Shurmur understands the need to develop a second option at receiver after spending all those years with Andy Reid and the Philadelphia Eagles and they did not have a good second option.

Some Browns fans may wonder whether Holmgren is trying to see if this executive thing will work out for him or whether the team will just end up hiring him as a head coach in the future. The Browns have made the playoffs since they returned to the NFL in 1999. They made the playoffs under former head coach Butch Davis.