Mike Holmgren says he should have coached Browns

Mike Holmgren will go down as one of the better coaches in recent NFL history, but his tenure as an executive with the Cleveland Browns was pretty poor. Apparently Holmgren has some regrets about how it all went down in Cleveland.

According to a quote Peter King shared in his Monday Morning Quarterback column, Holmgren says he wished he coached the Browns instead of sticking to an executive role.

“I really just should have coached the team, but [owner Randy Lerner] didn’t want me to,” Holmgren is quoted as saying.

Holmgren was president of the Browns from 2010-2012. The team went 5-11 twice and 4-12 once. Holmgren fired Eric Mangini after a 5-11 season in 2010 and made Pat Shurmur the next head coach. Shurmur only lasted two seasons as well.

The Browns have not won more than five games in a season since 2007, which is pretty darn terrible. They’ve only had three winning seasons since 1990.

Considering Holmgren was a proven head coach, it probably would have been best to have the top coach in the building actually coaching the team. But the Browns have made many many mistakes with head coaching, GM and draft picks, which is why they’ve been so bad for so many years. They just really need a franchise quarterback. Badly.

Helmet smack to Pro Football Talk