How did Butch Davis get an extension?

[amdaily]

To put it bluntly, this guy is a first class moron with an ego the rivaling the size of Wesley Clark’s. Three years ago we had a solid team headed in the right direction and now we have a team that finished 5-11.

Davis had had three drafts in which not one of his first round picks have amounted to anything: Gerard "Big Money" Warren is now "Chump Change" Warren. William Green has been convicted of DUI and pot possession, and oh yeah, was stabbed by his girlfriend with a butchers knife. He’s still suspended until further notice. To bad the scouts ignored that smell of marijuana when they visited him at Boston College.

Perhaps even more disappointing are his picks in the later rounds. 5th round pick Jeremiah Pharms is now inmate number No. 833475 in a Seattle prison. 2nd round pick Chaun Thompson is from a Division II school that finished 0-11. Thompson was chosen so high by Davis in expectations he would sign a 5-year contract. Thompson thought otherwise and held out well into the preseason. He ended up playing on special teams and shows no promise of ever amounting to anything. 3rd round pick C Melvin Fowler was superceded one year later with the drafting of 1st round C Jeff Faine.

Then there was the veteran purge prior to this past season. The casualties: Earl Holmes Dwayne Rudd, Corey Fuller and Dave Wollobaugh, among others. With the hiring on a TE coach from the University of Miami this past week, there are now 7 coaches on the Browns from Miami, and that’s not including others in the front office, most notably Davis’s talent, or lack thereof, evaluator.

I challenge anyone to find me a coach that is more inept. Part of the problem in Cleveland is the owner Randy Lerner, who doesn’t even live in the city, and that slimeball Carmen Policy, who Lerner’s father generously allowed to create his own contract.

In any case, this franchise has effectively completed it’s transformation into a collegiate level program and with Davis’s two year contract extension, which now makes him coach, GM, and the teams Executive Vice President, it doesn’t look like they’ll be completing again until at least 2009.

Link to contract deal: http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/news_room/news/arts/2488.0.html

[albionmoonlight]

I challenge anyone to find me a coach that is more inept.Something tells me that you will get a lot of responses to this challenge.

[The_herd]

Butch Davis by far the worst coach in the NFL right now. The only thing he does is bring in friends and former players. Oh yeah, he also couldn't spot NFL talent if it were to fall on top of him. He needs to be reminded that his goal is to win games, not see how many Miami players and coaches he can get on his team.

[timmae]

oh to be a cleveland fan.... this may be the only thing worse than going into the depleted coaching bin at you local discount store and pulling out a shriveled marv levy.

[Vince]

How about hiring Erickson, while Denny Green was just chillin'?

Bitter 49er fan, checking in.

[mckerney]

Almost as bad as Mason being offered an extension at Minnesota.

[korme]

As a Bengal man, I would love Butch Davis to stick around forever.

[clintl]

How about hiring Erickson, while Denny Green was just chillin'?

Bitter 49er fan, checking in.

I agree with you that Denny Green would have been a much better choice, I'd rather have Erickson than some other guys who have coached in the NFL in recent years.

[General Mike]

I got a good chuckle out of the fact that Butch got an extension. As far as I'm concerned tho, I'll always have a ton of respect for him for hiring Greg Schiano as DC at Miami.

[CleBrownsfan]

To put it bluntly, this guy is a first class moron with an ego the rivaling the size of Wesley Clark’s. Three years ago we had a solid team headed in the right direction and now we have a team that finished 5-11.

Davis had had three drafts in which not one of his first round picks have amounted to anything: Gerard "Big Money" Warren is now "Chump Change" Warren. William Green has been convicted of DUI and pot possession, and oh yeah, was stabbed by his girlfriend with a butchers knife. He’s still suspended until further notice. To bad the scouts ignored that smell of marijuana when they visited him at Boston College.

Perhaps even more disappointing are his picks in the later rounds. 5th round pick Jeremiah Pharms is now inmate number No. 833475 in a Seattle prison. 2nd round pick Chaun Thompson is from a Division II school that finished 0-11. Thompson was chosen so high by Davis in expectations he would sign a 5-year contract. Thompson thought otherwise and held out well into the preseason. He ended up playing on special teams and shows no promise of ever amounting to anything. 3rd round pick C Melvin Fowler was superceded one year later with the drafting of 1st round C Jeff Faine.

Then there was the veteran purge prior to this past season. The casualties: Earl Holmes Dwayne Rudd, Corey Fuller and Dave Wollobaugh, among others. With the hiring on a TE coach from the University of Miami this past week, there are now 7 coaches on the Browns from Miami, and that’s not including others in the front office, most notably Davis’s talent, or lack thereof, evaluator.

I challenge anyone to find me a coach that is more inept. Part of the problem in Cleveland is the owner Randy Lerner, who doesn’t even live in the city, and that slimeball Carmen Policy, who Lerner’s father generously allowed to create his own contract.

In any case, this franchise has effectively completed it’s transformation into a collegiate level program and with Davis’s two year contract extension, which now makes him coach, GM, and the teams Executive Vice President, it doesn’t look like they’ll be completing again until at least 2009.

Link to contract deal: http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/news_room/news/arts/2488.0.html

If you live in C-Town (like myself) you must be a fan of 850 WKNR ;)

Listen - I agree with you that Butch has made some really bad picks in the draft and hired some really bad coordinators. I also agree that we shouldn't have had a college coach have free realm of a NFL team BUT I don't mind the extension. Us as fans think Butch is a really bad coach because of this 5-11 season (some think maybe the worst in the NFL) but the organization has made a commitment to Butch. This is still an <i> expansion </i> team in my eyes. Give Butch the remainder of his contract and let’s see what he can do. Remember how this city was saying how awesome of a job Butchy did when they squeaked into the playoffs last year? The 2004 season was full of injuries and people getting put into jail. This team will become a playoff team if they get a tackle and address the secondary. Lee Suggs with Green will make an above average running game. If they get a tackle and the rest of the O-Line stays healthy Couch will have a good season as well.

Man I'm all over with this post... but you get the point. The Browns will be OK with Butch at the helm...

BTW I tied on a good buzz at happy hour if you can't tell ;)

[amdaily]

The 5-11 season was the result of cutting veterans and having no depth to cover for the injuries. Look at what New England accomplished with just as many injuries. And if I hear Davis, or his loyal followers :), invoke the name of Chris Palmer one more time, I'll go crazy. At the start of Davis 3rd season this was officially and completely HIS team. Here we are headed into his 4th season and he is still laying blame for all his problems on poor Chris Palmer. There are only a handful of players left from that era and they all appear to be on the way out (Gardocki, Northcutt, possibly Couch).

Things aren’t going to improve next year either. He is building this team like a college team and it will fail just as it did for Spurrier in Washington. The "drafting a slightly worse athlete only because he has unbelievable speed" theory is one thing that really bothers. I remember laughing out loud when all 230lbs of Jamal Lewis outran that supposed speed demon Chris Crocker in the second Baltimore game. Might have worked in college, but not in the NFL.

I wish I was able to receive WKNR, but I live in the black abyss of their broadcast zone (Stow) where it is all static. Listening to 1100 and all their political pandering just to retain the broadcast rights to games literally makes me want to puke.

[Bearcat729]

I'm amazed myself. I'm willing to give Davis another year, but I swear if he drafts anything but an OL in the first round of the draft I'm driving to Cleveland to take down the Stadium.

[jerem77]

Butch Davis by far the worst coach in the NFL right now. The only thing he does is bring in friends and former players. Oh yeah, he also couldn't spot NFL talent if it were to fall on top of him. He needs to be reminded that his goal is to win games, not see how many Miami players and coaches he can get on his team.

I guess Butch figured trying to win in the NFL would be too easy, so he is doing the school spirit challenge.

[tucker342]

How about hiring Erickson, while Denny Green was just chillin'?

Bitter 49er fan, checking in.


oh don't get me started.....

[Denny Green]

I agree with you that Denny Green would have been a much better choice, I'd rather have Erickson than some other guys who have coached in the NFL in recent years.


I was a little miffed when they didn't call me, but I got over it. You heard about that sweet job I landed though for this season right? I have the all time leading rusher! Now all I have to do is figure out how to timewarp him back to 1993.

[amdaily]

I'm amazed myself. I'm willing to give Davis another year, but I swear if he drafts anything but an OL in the first round of the draft I'm driving to Cleveland to take down the Stadium.
He's taking Kellen Winslow in round one, even if it means wasting picks to move up 3-4 spots. That's why he brought in Winslow's TE coach from Miami last week :(.

[miami_fan]

He's taking Kellen Winslow in round one, even if it means wasting picks to move up 3-4 spots. That's why he brought in Winslow's TE coach from Miami last week :(.

Slight correction. Rob Chudzinski was the O-coordinator at Miami. :)

[The_herd]

He was also TE coach.

[miami_fan]

He was also TE coach.

Just like Dan Marino is the Senior Vice President of Football Operations for the Dolphins :D

[Bearcat729]

He's taking Kellen Winslow in round one, even if it means wasting picks to move up 3-4 spots. That's why he brought in Winslow's TE coach from Miami last week :(.


From what I understand Winslow is only an option if Gallery or Andrews is gone. Butch doesn't take every Miami player, remember he did pass over Clinton Portis to draft William Green. Personally if he's going to take a Miami player he should take Taylor.

[amdaily]

One or the other will likely be there when the Browns pick, but if Winslow is as well, I'll put money on him taking Winslow.

The only reason he passed on Portis is because they hated each other. This was just another instance of his ego getting in the way of solid football decisions.

[Bill Abner]

Laying the blame for this year's 5-11 team on Davis isn't fair. At all. Davis took the Browns to the playoffs last year when no one thought that was possible (including most realistic Browns fans.) The Browns went 2-14, 3-13 with Palmer,--Davis steps in and they go 9-7 and get WC spot.

The problem isn't Davis. It's Carmen Policy. Davis had nothing to do with walking into an expansion team that in three seasons was already in cap hell. Davis had nothing to do with that. The contracts that many Browns players were playing under were simply hilariously bad (See: Couch, Brown, Fuller, Wolabaugh) and thus they were forced to gut a lot of veterans. Davis had very little to do with that, either.

In 2003, the Browns lost SEVEN games by a touchdown or less and in every one of those games the Browns had a very realistic shot at winning them until the very end. It's not like Cleveland was blown out every week and limped to a 5-11 season. They lost 9-6 to the Colts, 9-3 to New England, 26-20 to St. Louis, and 23-20 in OT to Denver. All playoff teams. Of course the Browns laid a few eggs this year (the Baltimore games spring to mind) but they were a very competitive team in 2003 and really should get nothing but better seeing as how the vast majority of the team is made up of young players and Bruce Arians was finally shown the door. Believe me, there are many teams in the NFL in worse situations than the Browns.

Davis has made his share of bonehead moves, no question. Drafting a LB out of West Texas A&M in the 2nd round when you KNOW he's a project -- bad move. Drafting a long snapper in the 5th round. Bad move. Davis and Pete Garcia are famous for trying to look smart by making these unorthodox moves. It's annoying to say the least. (For the record the releasing of Kevin Johnson I have no problem with at all; the Browns tried to trade him for a 3rd round pick in 2002 and no one bit, so he cut off a player that was a potential cancer to the young WRs. Johnson's playing time in 2003 was going to be next to nil and he didn't want that kind of player in the locker room. Is that worth losing potentially a 4th round pick? I can see both sides.)

I'm happy Davis got an extension. In this day and age of "if you have a losing season prepare for execution!" I'm glad to see a coach have a chance to stay with a team until he gets all the pieces he wants in place.

[amdaily]

Give me a break. This is all Davis's doing. Unfortunately for the fans he'll only further enforce that this coming season.

On a side note (just ran across this), I love irony, and therefore put forward this little gem from last February: “If you're 9-7 and you're a playoff team, you don't cut guys so you can go 5-11.” - Butch Davis. How ironic.

As for cap hell, they didn’t go there until Davis took them. Couch's $8.75 bonus was given to him by Davis in 2001. Davis also paid Holmes a $2 million signing bonus, then cut him. He gave Rudd a $5.7 million bonus, then cut him. Even ignoring those moves for the moment, once you counted out Jamir Miller they were a measly $6 million over the cap - a deficit very easy to renegioate yourself out of.

Missing Kevin Johnson did cost us games down the stretch and will continue to hurt next season when Quincy Morgan will continue to drop balls and Northcutt is playing elsehwere. Look at the third down conversion rate with Johnson, .422, and then at it without Johnson, .306. He may not be the flashiest receiver, or have speed, or even be the best blocker, but when you needed a conversion in a dire situation he was always there. I'll let someone else finish out my thoughts on that subject: "I think everyone underestimates what Kevin Johnson has accomplished in his first three years. Playing on a bad offense with no other dependable receiver opposite him, Johnson has put up numbers that most teams should salivate over. Yet there’s this perception of Johnson that doesn’t seem to match his production. I ask: Isn’t production on the field what it’s all about?"

[Bill Abner]

Davis isn't paying these people. Carmen Policy handles ALL of the Browns contract signings. He said as much in the Bernie's Insider magazine this year. When the agents are bickering with the Browns FO about contracts--they are talking to Policy.

Davis and Pete Garcia handle all personnell and roster decisions. It was not Butch Davis that insisted that all 2003 Browns draftees sign 5 year deals. That was 100% Carmen Policy. It's a great move of the rookies pan out--not so good if they don't.

Missing KJ cost us games? You can prove that how exactly? I'm no QM fanboy either, but when the Browns cut KJ last year they were 3-6. Did cutting KJ cost the Browns a playoff spot? I hardly think so.

Again I can see both sides of the KJ debate. But he was a done deal in Cleveland regardless if we cut him or traded him and in the long run I don't think we'll miss him. There's a reason no team wanted to give us a 3rd round pick for the guy--he runs routes short (See the San Diego and Kansas City games as examples of this) and refuses to block. What good is a 3rd down catch of 5 yards when you need 7? KJ was all about his stats--but he was the aniti-intangibles guy.

I'd certainly LIKE to resign Northcutt but he wants #1 WR $$ and there's no way the Browns are going to do that. I know Davis wants him back, though. But if he goes elsewhere I think Andre Davis, Morgan, CJ Jones (a Northcutt clone IMO, and Frisman Jackson is by no means a bad WR corps. I really like Frisman Jackson although no one has heard of the guy outside of Cleveland. He just needs a chance.

I just think Davis is catching way too much flak from Browns' fans; no one LIKED going 5-11 last year and Davis certainly needs to take some of the responsibility for that happening. I cussed the TV more last year than I did at any time during the first two seasons when we went 5-27. I just don't think the sky is falling, that's all.

Kiper has us drafting Chris Gamble. As much as I bleed Scarlwt and Gray, I may smash the TV if we use the #7/8 pick on a CB.