The Cleveland Conundrum

The Browns got their man.

Mike Holmgren is coming to the mistake by the lake hoping to turn the downtrodden franchise around.

It won't be easy. Like all struggling teams it comes down to QB play.

Derek Anderson's Pro Bowl year earned him a large contract and Notre Dame product Brady Quinn was supposed to be the savior.

Neither has done much of anything the past few years except throw interceptions and lose games.

The details of Holmgren's deal are not yet official but early reports had it for as long as ten years and as inflated as $50 million.

The most interesting part of the equation is the future of first-year head coach Eric Mangini.

Browns owner Randy Lerner was moved by the young "Mangenius" in the offseason after he was fired by the Jets this past offseason.

After starting 1-11 Cleveland shocked Pittsburgh on a bitterly cold Thursday night a week and a half ago then ran past Kansas City and into the record books yesterday.

A two-game winning streak amidst a three win campaign is hardly something to highlight in your resume but the sentiment is that the Browns play had at least propped the door open for Mangini to have a case for another year.

But enter Holmgren, the long time Packers and Seahawks head-man who won a Super Bowl with this guy named Brett Favre running the show.

When he took the job today he brought up head coach Cam Cameron's firing in Miami when Bill Parcells assumed the same role he is taking up in Cleveland, as a football "czar" of sorts.

While not fully endorsing the move, just the mere mention of it can't bode well for Mangini.

Parcells cleaned house in South Beach upon arriving and in his first year took a one-win team the season before and made it into a playoff squad.

There is no doubt Holmgren will want his guy in there sooner rather than later and would certainly love nothing more than making that "worst to relevant" splash just like Parcells.

Lerner intimated early in the process that the coaching decision would be about winning and not about money.

But his current coach signed a four year, $15.6 million deal 11 months ago.

He would be owed almost 12 million dollars still if he gets fired.

If the Browns lose out Mangini would pocket $5.2 million per win in Cleveland.

Maybe the New York tabloids were on to something with that "Mangenius" moniker.