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Home > Blogs > Dawging the Browns > Archives > 2008 > December > 22
Monday, December 22, 2008
What about Billick if Cowher says no?
Win one for Romeo? Yeah, right
With friends/players like these, Romeo Crennel doesn’t need any enemies.
Not to say the Browns laid down on the job or that they intentionally didn’t play hard in Sunday’s awful 14-0 loss to the woeful Bengals, but you couldn’t blame anybody for thinking that way in light of that dismal performance in their home finale.
So they’re going to finish 4-12 after the Steelers get through with them Sunday and then owner Randy Lerner will huddle with his trusted advisers, Jim Brown and the rest, and figure out what to do next.
I think he’ll end up keeping General Manager Phil Savage in place, dumping Crennel and hiring one of the out-of-work coaches as opposed to a rising coordinator/assistant or college coach.
My bet is that the new coach won’t be Marty Schottenheimer or Bill Cowher, but Brian Billick, the former Baltimore Ravens coach with a Super Bowl win on his record and, presumably, the desire to get back in the game after spending some time in the Fox broadcast booth.
Expect to see Jim Fassel pop up, too, as a candidate. He’s also had some success in the league, taking the New York Giants to the Super Bowl the year the Ravens beat them.
Savage knows Billick from their days in Baltimore, so it makes sense on that level. And at least you would have a head coach with a history of NFL winning as opposed to throwing darts at current assistants hoping to hit on the next Mike Smith or John Harbaugh.
Billick interviewed to become the Browns’ first head coach when they came back into the league, but he really wasn’t interested because he suspected what would happen, that the team would win about five games those first two seasons (which the Browns did) and that the head coach (who turned out to be Chris Palmer) would be fired (which he was) by panicky management.
After a year away, Billick likely is motivated to return and, assuming Brady Quinn lives up to his billing eventually, he’ll have a quarterback, the lack of which was his undoing in Baltimore.
It just seems like Billick would be an easier sell than some anonymous assistant, especially if Cowher lands elsewhere or can’t be convinced to rescue this sinking ship.
