dougthonus wrote:jnrjr79 wrote:This is off to me. Brown was the Assistant Head Coach under McVeigh, in addition to being a position coach, which is significant in terms of how McVeigh saw him. He'll have called plays for the Panthers and Bears and will have now had limited head coaching experience. Contrary to the "I would wager he as nowhere near a HC candidate prior to this," he was interviewed for multiple head coaching openings in recent offseassons (Dolphins, Texans, Titans).
In no way do I just want to do the easy thing and say Brown gets it if the season ends on a pleasant note. But the idea that you'd just categorically take him out of the mix rather than let him compete for the job among other candidates seems like incredibly narrow thinking to me.
Maybe I'm underplaying his resume a bit. He's had 1 full season as a coordinator, and all his other seasons are below coordinator status, though you are right about being RB coach + assistant head coach, that's a weird set up to me, so not sure of his responsibilities under McVeigh, and I agree that McVeigh must have liked him a lot and saw good potential in him to do that.
That said, 1 year as an OC, no previous HC experience, and 2 years as a RB + Assistant HC seems on the weaker side to become a HC in general. The one year he was OC, he led the worst offense in the league, and though I'm not pinning that disaster on him, it sure isn't a feather in his cap, I mean it literally couldn't have gone much worse.
Yeah, I certainly agree the resume isn't as deep as it could be. It's interesting, though, that he got HC interviews both before and after his year in Carolina, so it's probably right that people aren't pinning the Carolina experience on him (and that they thought enough of him to give him a HC interview before he'd ever been a coordinator). I assume a lot of this is that the McVeigh tree/young guy candidate has been something of a hot commodity the past several seasons. I also do not want to be cynical or suggest this in any way has to do with his merits, but I suppose it's also possible some teams elevated him up the chart for Rooney Rule compliance, so it could be a two birds/one stone situation.
That said, you're right that I've overstated my point. I'm completely fine giving Brown a chance to win the job. I have some concern that we'd overrate a dead cat bounce and seeing "oh this is so much better than it was under Flus" that we overrate whatever has happened.
It's definitely a concern and probably merits some conversation around what you'd need to see from him to take him seriously. I would think there's a real risk that McCaskey would overreact if, say, the Bears have a good win over Green Bay to end the season.
My preference would be to hire a Harbaugh like candidate if one emerges, someone who is coaching gold and will cost a gazillion dollars and you don't have to think about it one way or the other about whether he's good, but the reality is that there is likely no such candidate like that out there, so I'm probably being unfair if we're going the coordinator route, Brown should get as much a shot as the next guy.
Ben Johnson's got 3 years as an OC of one of the best offenses in the league and a huge surprise story, so I think that's a stronger resume than Brown, but if Brown were to have this team kicking butt down the stretch as interim, he should have a fair shot to interview.
Yeah, the only thing that concerns me about Johnson - or more accurately is just an unknown - is how he'll be as a leader. There are lots of creative coordinators who struggle in the lead role, which is why I can see the Harbaugh type being a better bet. I'm just not sure yet who, outside of Belichick, that would be this year.
This is the one advantage Brown has - the Bears will get a real look at his leadership abilities, rather than just "oh, this guy calls plays well."
