Mary Kay Cabot is reporting the Browns have received permission to interview Philadelphia Eagles general manager Tom Heckert.   No word on when the interview will take place, but this is an exciting proposition.

What this move may signal is that Giants defensive coordinator, and former Eagles linebackers coach Steve Spagnuolo is not out of the mix yet.  As mentioned in the article, Heckert and Spagnuolo have unofficially been shopped as head coach and general manager team.  While he doesn't have final personnel control, Heckert is a draft guru with an impressive track record since being named the general manager of the Eagles in January 2006.

(Side note, Heckert, smartly, has already turned down the Detroit Lions for their assistant general manager vacancy. And his dad was a scout with the Browns in the 1980's.  Pretty nice local connection.)

Owner Randy Lerner was allegedly favorable towards Spagnuolo after his interview last week, but was a happier with Mangini due to his previous NFL head coaching experience.

Mangini may be the more experienced coach, but Heckert & Spagnuolo is likely to be a more efficient team than Mangini & Kokinis.  Mangini is basically picking his boss, and realistically Kokinis could turn into a figurehead for Mangini's decision making process.  Mangini was fired over his management style with the Jets, and the way he handled the Brett Favre scenario.  Also lost in the shuffle of Mangini's firing from the Jets is the amount of heat he took the second half of the season for making sixth overall pick Vernon Gholston inactive in December.  The pick has been widely criticized.

Spagnuolo is inexperienced, but he and Heckert would bring a more traditional and cohesive coach and general manager relationship, in this blogger's opinion.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Cleveland Browns, Head Coach. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.