Cleveland Browns' Five Biggest Player Decisions: Free Agency Starts at Home

Assuming they get a new collective bargaining agreement done, NFL Free Agency is scheduled to begin on March 3, 2011.  I'm going to go through every team between now and then and identify their top five free agents and try to determine what should be done with each player, be it resign them or let them walk.  I've been going team by team in draft order and am at the team with the sixth pick in the draft, the Cleveland Browns.

The Browns had an up and down 2010 season.  They won their last four games at the end of the 2009 season, so expectations were high for a 5-11 team.  Unfortunately, the team didn't improve enough over the off-season and finished with a 5-11 record yet again and head coach Eric Mangini was let go.

Pat Shurmur was hired by team president Mike Holmgren to replace Mangini as head coach.  Shurmur wasn't a big name head coaching candidate when the 2010 season started, but he helped guide the Rams offense and rookie quarterback Sam Bradford to an unexpectedly good season this year.  He was also a long time Eagles assistant and Eagles coach Andy Reid is a former Holmgren disciple, which surely helped in his getting hired.

Shurmur and the Browns should improve moving forwards.  The team added quarterback Colt McCoy and corner back Joe Haden in last year's draft and should continue to draft well with Holmgren at the helm.  They are on the upside of the rebuilding process now and should consider than when they make their decisions about their own free agents.

Ranking The New Head Coaches.

(Wrote this for as an application for bleacher report.  They required an article in one of a few formats that they use a lot and one was slideshow. I'm not going to take the time to find pictures but I'm not gonna let 700 words go to waste.)

7. Whomever Al Davis picks - Raiders - The problem with this coaching change is it was the one that had no reason to happen.  A smart owner would not fire a head coach after he went 6-0 in the division.  There was a lot to build on for the Raiders with Tom Cable there, but who knows if the next guy (rumored to be current offensive coordinator Hue Jackson) will be able to get the players to play hard in Raiderville the same way Cable did.