The Eric Mangini era continues.
It was announced today that team president Mike Holmgren will keep Mangini and his coaching staff for next season. You can bet that the team's impressive four game winning-streak to close out the season played to Mangini's favor. After the team had suffered so many injuries, to win four games in a row for the first time since 1994 showed that this team did not quit on Eric Mangini.
Heck, after the "veterans" who were "tired of losing" were out of the picture, we started winning.
Here are the statements released by both Holmgren and Mangini regarding the decision:
STATEMENT FROM BROWNS PRESIDENT MIKE HOLMGREN
“I’m happy to announce that Eric Mangini will return as head coach of the Cleveland Browns in 2010. Over the past few weeks Eric and I have had a chance to talk on a number of occasions including our meetings over the last two days. I was able to gain some tremendous insight into his thought process and philosophies, and came away from our meetings very impressed. In my opinion, Eric has gained the respect and admiration of players, coaches and others in the organization, and with him continuing to lead the team I feel that we are headed in the right direction. Working together, our goal is to build on the strong tradition of this franchise and help get the Browns back to the playoffs.”
STATEMENT FROM BROWNS HEAD COACH ERIC MANGINI
“I want to thank Mike for the opportunity to not only meet with him and share my thoughts and vision on what it takes to lead a team, but also to continue what we started here. I believe we made some real, tangible progress throughout the course of the season, culminating with wins in our final four games. I feel as though the culture and mindset that we established this year have laid the foundation for success in 2010 and beyond, and I’m looking forward to working with Mike and a general manager in making this happen.”
According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, although Holmgren told the staff that they will be retained, that doesn't mean there won't be any tweaks when it comes to the staff. In other words, for Browns fans who do not want to keep Brian Daboll as the team's offensive coordinator, there's no reason to believe that his job has been guaranteed as "safe" to this point.
We'll have more updates as they come along.