Browns owner Randy Lerner wants to hire a “football czar” to take control of the franchise’s football operations, NBC’s Peter King reported during halftime of the Notre Dame-Navy game today. King mentioned former Giants and Browns GM Ernie Accorsi, former Packers and Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren and former Packers GM Ron Wolf as potential hires for the position. The new football czar would be charged with trying “to fix the mess that Eric Mangini has made,” according to King and a hire is expected within a month.

1 – Address the Quarterback Situation. This decision is two-fold. First decide who will be under center. Unless there is an overwhelming organizational desire to keep DA at the helm the right choice is to bring back Brady Quinn. Once that choice is made, there needs to be a decision on how to best run the offense so he can be successful. This may sound ludicrous, but with the state of our running game, this offense should live and die by 4 or 5 wide receiver sets. Three step drops and quick throws should be the bread and butter. Brady Quinn could do it, Mangini just needs to trust him.

2 – Decide how Joshua Cribbs will be used as a receiver. Honestly, can he run routes? Can he be an impactful player within standard sets? Is he a deep threat? Knowing this, then designing plays that get him open should be the number one priority. If he can help turn this group of receivers into an asset, than do it. Stop bickering about his contract too. If he can help this team win on Special Teams and on Offense, he deserves the money.

3 – Stop the run. Scrap the 3-4 and go back to running the 4-3. Let Rogers and Wimbley do what comes most naturally to them in the pass rush. Put Wright and McDonald on their islands and let Brodney Pool help the one on the other team’s most dangerous receiver. Put Abram Elam into the box and have him blitz like crazy. Time to take chances and put some fear into the other team’s QB. Make them make mistakes. It is the only way to overcome our lack of talent.

4 – Let the kids play. There is no reason for anyone Mangini drafted to not play extended minutes over the course of the next eight games. If this team is going to crash and burn, at least allow the rookies to make big mistakes. Big mistakes this year could save us a lot of heartache next year. Allow them to take ownership of this team and make it their own. They need to feel the pain and frustration along with the humiliation that accompanies losses and decide collectively that they never want to taste this bitterness again.

5 – Coach and teach. This organization has a lot of fresh faces and unfamiliar names roaming the sidelines. Daboll, Ryan, Mangini are all football guys. They live and breathe this game. Time for them to teach it. Part of this process should include lengthy sessions of practice that includes fundamentals. Also, using their previous coordinator and coaching experience, they should be finding creative ways to get these guys in positions to make plays. These are professional athletes. They can turn this around. They just need their coaches to provide some semblance of structure and help them adjust quickly within the game. Nothing should surprise these coaches. They need to make sure nothing surprises the players either.

This list is vague. There is so much this team needs to work on that it’s hard to pinpoint one or two areas that could be tweaked. Fundamentally this team is flawed. There is also a leadership vacuum that many of us never would have expected.

An extra week during a bye won’t be enough. Collectively, even if these five suggestions were taken seriously, nothing might change. Sunday’s though would be a lot more palatable if this Cleveland Browns team actually played football as if they had heard of the sport before. At this point, anything would be better than what they gave us the first eight games.

In his first extended interview since the firing of General Manager George Kokinis, Lerner agreed to answer a list of questions via email. Lerner would not comment on the reasons for the Kokinis firing, but he indicated the need for a “strong, credible leader” is a result of Kokinis’ failings as GM. Lerner also said “no” to a question about whether he envisioned changing coaches.

(On if he has made a decision at quarterback yet)- “No, not yet. I’m really going to look at that in the context of the last eight games, look at the next eight games and evaluate it up to this point and also looking forward.”

(On when he will make a decision at quarterback)- “Probably early next week.”

Now the big question is – will he tell the rest of us?

“In terms of the decision that was made yesterday, I can tell you that anytime a decision like this is made it is difficult personally and professionally. George (Kokinis) is a friend of mine and I respect him and I wish his family well. I can tell you that for a variety of reasons things didn’t work out. You never go into a situation like this with the intention of it not working out. We felt that, organizationally, this was the best decision in order to move forward. We have a strong structure in place on both the pro side and the college side and things will continue to operate effectively on a day-to-day basis. I understand that you all have a lot of questions and there is really nothing that I’m going to add to this. I hope that you can respect that. What I will talk about are the things that we’re doing as a team over the course of the week in order to improve.”

(On if a new General Manager will be hired this season)- “As I said, in terms of this topic, there’s nothing else that I’m going to add. What I will talk about is anything that is to do with the things that we’re doing this week and things directly related to the team that we’re working on.”

(On why he won’t talk about the General Manager situation)- “This is really, for a variety of reasons, all that I can say at this point.”

(On why he did not mention the General Manager change yesterday)- “In terms of the timetable, things like that, it’s the same thing. I’ve really said all that I can say, Jeff (Schudel).”

(On who will address the General Manager situation if he will not)- “I understand, Mary Kay (Cabot), and I appreciate the questions that you guys (the media) have. I completely appreciate that, but I hope you can also respect that I’ve added all that I can add right now. What I can talk about are the things that we’re doing here today.”

(On what having two dismissals in the past week says about the stability of the organization)- “We’ve had one situation where that was the case. What I can say is that I feel like we have a very strong structure in place on the personnel side and I’m confident that day-to-day we’ll be able to execute the things that we need to execute.”

(On if Bernie Kosar will fill some on Kokinis’ responsibilities)- “Mary Kay (Cabot), I understand the question, but really, this is all that I can say. I hope you can understand that as well.”

(On if there are legal reasons why he can’t talk about Kokinis)- “There’s really a variety of reasons, Tony (Grossi), and I’ll just leave it at that.”

(On if Randy Lerner plans to address the situation)- “I think that you have to talk to Neal (Gulkis) about that. I can just tell you what I’m addressing.”

(On if he understands why fans want to know what is going on within the organization)- “I completely understand the questions and I respect that. I can just tell you the things that I can address and it’s for a variety of reasons. I hope that you can understand that as well.”

(On how he keeps this from becoming a distraction to the players)- “In talking to the team, the important thing that I’ve stressed, whether it be today or yesterday or at any point, is the important thing for us is to be able to focus individually first on what we can improve, and then collectively what we can improve. Those things are the important things that we need to do. We need to get that done this week and that’s what we’re focused on, all of us are focused on. I spent a lot of time with the coaching staff yesterday, this morning and trying to really work through the different things that we think need to be addressed short term, need to be addressed long term. We’ll meet more on personnel, in terms of player performances and evaluation and things like that on Thursday, but that’s also a component of this. [I have] historically made a lot of strides during the bye week. It is a unique time where you can put some more emphasis on individual technique, can sit down with the players one-on-one and either address their performance, address their concerns, address what they’re hoping to achieve over the course of the rest of the season. I look forward to those meetings. We have, like I said, point of attack tapes made on each guy, whether it be actual game tapes or whether it be practice tapes, where they can look at that individually to help them get a better feel for what they’ve done or with their position coach, with the coordinator, with myself, where we can go really share some time and I can give them my perspective on things. Just from my experience over the last three years, those meetings have been very valuable.”

Cleveland Browns veteran linebacker Eric Barton’s season is in jeopardy after he was diagnosed with a neck injury following Sunday’s game, a source close to the player told ESPN senior NFL analyst Chris Mortensen. Barton was informed by a spine specialist at The Cleveland Clinic that he had a bulging disc between the C3 and C4 vertebrae, the source told Mortensen. When Barton left Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears late in the second quarter, it was reported as a right shoulder injury.

One of the “old-school” general managers of the NFL has been under the radar for some time; the GM in question is former New York Giants and Cleveland Browns GM Ernie Accorsi.

For those of you who don’t remember him, he was a GM with the Browns from 1985 to 1992 and the Giants from 1998 to 2007; he had retired after the 2007 season, but nonetheless was consulted by Browns owner Randy Lerner when he hired current head coach Eric Mangini and now-deposed GM George Kokinis back in January.

With the firing of Kokinis, it makes one wonder if Lerner has a bigger and perhaps broader role in mind for Accorsi in Cleveland. Some things factor into Accorsi accepting any increased role with the Browns:

• Would Accorsi want a challenge this large? Unlike when he was with the Giants, the righting of the USS Browns would be a major undertaking.
• Accorsi and former Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar have a history, going back to Kosar QB’ing the Browns. Whether that has any bearing on Accorsi taking a substantially larger role with Cleveland is purely speculative. Coincidentally or not, Kosar is a consultant with the Browns.
• Does Ernie want to give up a relatively comfortable retirement and take on a larger role? Is it worth the prerequisite headaches?

If Accorsi was a younger man, then I would suggest that he go for it. But I am not convinced that he is willing to be a party to a major renovation of the Browns. If anything, he should continue his part-time gig with Cleveland. This does not minimalize Accorsi’s track record whatsoever.

If anything, Ernie would be doing himself a favor by not taking on a larger role with the team, healthwise and otherwise. Certainly there are younger GM prospects out there who are younger with an upside who can correct the malaise in Cleveland. And the team has as candidate that’s in-house: Bernie Kosar. He would be worth the gamble – they can’t do any worse, can they?

Browns coach Eric Mangini said today he won’t replace first-year offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, despite the fact the Browns are ranked at or near the bottom of the league in almost every statistical category. Instead, he indicated he’ll rely more on the input of quarterbacks coach Carl Smith, who spent 11 seasons as offensive coordinator of the Saints and one for the Jaguars. “I think that there’s been things that we can improve offensively,” said Mangini. “Carl Smith is a guy that has a lot of experience. That’s one of the reasons I wanted Carl to be part of the staff — I think it was 11 years at New Orleans as the offensive coordinator — is to have a guy who’s called a lot of plays in the NFL. Obviously there’s things from a playcalling perspective, from a scheme perspective, from a coaching perspective that we can improve, but that goes hand in hand with execution and individual performances as well.”