Winning consistently isn’t enough in today’s NFL, even for coaches with decades of experience. That, according to sports commentator Terry Pluto, is why Mike Tomlin in Pittsburgh, John Harbaugh in Baltimore, and Sean McDermott in Buffalo are all out of their head coaching roles despite long records of success.
“When you start consistently winning, but you don't win the championship, then people get frustrated,” Pluto said.
Tomlin never had a losing record in 19 seasons in Pittsburgh. He won one Super Bowl in 2009 and lost one in 2011. Harbaugh had three losing seasons and won one Super Bowl (2012) in his 18 seasons in Baltimore.
“McDermott was never able to get to the Super Bowl," Pluto said. "(He) got knocked out four times in the playoffs by Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes. I mean, sometimes you just run into greatness."
Pluto noted that even franchises with long-tenured, successful coaches sometimes give in to pressure.
“They go, ‘Ah, maybe we can get somebody better,’ and oftentimes you get someone worse” Pluto said.
Pluto used the Browns as an example of how difficult sustained success can be in the NFL.
“The Browns have not had back-to-back winning seasons since the late 1980s," Pluto said. "Just imagine if the last 46 years in Cleveland, they'd only four losing seasons. It would be incredible.
Pluto said that beyond Super Bowl victories, coaches like Tomlin, Harbaugh and McDermott provide a team that is “watchable” for fans.
“The last two years have been agony to me, football agony," Pluto said. "(The Browns are) 8-26, and I tell you one thing, but really this frustrates me to no end; The Browns have had the (worst) record in the NFL since 1999. Jimmy Haslam, since he bought the team in 2012, has the worst record in the NFL. They haven't been watchable. I'll take pretty good."
The Browns were seemingly turning a corner under now-fired coach Kevin Stefanski, who led the team to an 11-5 record in his first year in 2020 before faltering the following season.
“Sometimes trying to go from pretty good to great could lead to desperate, bad moves," Pluto said. "In 2021, remember Baker Mayfield got hurt early in that year. They had a losing record. They decided, we're going to try to go from pretty good to great, and that's when they went all in on Deshaun Watson, which created all this stuff here. And so, my feeling is sometimes we don't know what you have when you have something good, just because you got used to good and you think good is mediocre. And I want great, and then you end up with lousy."
Pluto said Atlanta hiring Stefanski, who earned Coach of the Year honors during his two winning seasons in Cleveland, as their head coach speaks volumes.
“They figure, we'll take a shot with him because at least he has some success in Cleveland," Pluto said. "I think they looked at it, that Cleveland is such a wilderness for coaches that anybody (who) even knocked out a couple winning seasons there has to be pretty good.”
As the Browns continue their coaching search, the team has given second interviews to a group of NFL coordinators and two coaches with prior head coaching experience.
Cleveland has given or scheduled second interviews to two candidates with head coaching experience; fired Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and Cleveland's defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz. Reportedly, McDaniel informed the Browns Tuesday he was withdrawing from consideration and he's expected to be named a head coach or offensive coordinator with another team.
“(Schwartz) was the head coach of the Lions in Detroit...he took over a team that was 0-16," Pluto said. "And his third year there, they went 10-6 and then they struggled a little bit after that, and he ended up being fired. He had one winning season there, but it was a tough job. Since then, he became a prominent defensive coordinator, including the last three years with the Browns. He's a legit candidate."
Pluto did not believe McDaniel would've been hired, regardless of Tuesday's news. The team is also looking at a number of other young coordinators.
“I sit here and go, 'I don't know if these guys are any good or not,'" Pluto said. "There's some of them, they get hired and they end up being very good, but most of them fail too. And as the standards get higher and higher and pretty good is no longer good enough, it almost sets up, just about, for everybody to fail.”
