Could you pick Mike Smith out of a lineup? Do you even know who Mike Smith is?
If you don?t, tune into Sunday?s NFC Divisional playoff game between the Falcons and the Seahawks. The camera figures to find Smith often. After all, NFL head coaches seem to appear on the TV during game broadcasts, and Smith is an NFL head coach with Atlanta.
You know, the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. Which is probably at least seven spots higher than many people had Smith on their coaching wish lists when he was hired by the Falcons in 2008.
All Smith ? who had previously been Jacksonville?s relatively anonymous defensive coordinator ? has done is lead Atlanta to a pair of NFC South titles ? including this season ? with four playoff appearances and a .700 winning percentage (56-24).
Would you take that for the Cleveland Browns? If you say anything other than ?yes? then it should suggested that you take a crash course in realistic expectations.
Now, is Mike Smith available for the Browns? Obviously not.
Is there a coach out there like Mike Smith available? Absolutely.
In fact, for all the talk of Chip Kelly or Nick Saban or Bill Cowher or the ghost of Paul Brown coming to Cleveland to be the head coach, it?s more than likely the best choice for the Browns is somebody just like Mike Smith. In other words, not the big, headline-grabbing candidate, but the relatively-unknown one.
For every big-name hire that ends up crashing and burning ? remember the giddiness over the hiring of Butch Davis? ? there is the low-key hire that ends up in the Super Bowl. Like when the Steelers and Packers met in Super Bowl XLV.
In that game, another pair of coaches named Mike ? Mike Tomlin for Pittsburgh and Mike McCarthy for Green Bay ? came from the ranks of ?relatively-unknown assistant coach? to become successful coaches. And both own big, shiny Super Bowl championship rings to prove that fact.
Tomlin ? for one season Minnesota?s defensive coordinator ? was thought to be just the Steelers? attempt to satisfy the ?Rooney Rule? when he was interviewed along with Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm after Cowher left Pittsburgh, until he got the job. Two years later, he was hoisting the Lombardi Trophy.
McCarthy also had his share of doubters when he was hired by the Packers in 2006 after serving as San Francisco?s offensive coordinator. In his fifth season, he was able to put his fingerprints on the same trophy Tomlin won two years previous to him.
Does that mean the Browns should turn away from the big name and look low-key? No.
It does mean, though, that it shouldn?t be about trying to bend toward popular public opinion when determining what coach would work best in Cleveland. It is, after all, about winning the Super Bowl, not the introductory press conference.
So as the Browns? coaching search nears the end of its second week, there will be plenty of names tossed about in terms of getting an interview. You?ll hear of Marc Trestman and Mike Zimmer ? hey, the first name Mike has been quite successful of late ? and Greg Roman, and who knows who else.
Almost all will probably generate at best a yawn from many Browns fans. Of course, those same yawns ? if recent NFL history is any indication ? could easily turn into cheers down the road if those relatively-unknown names are able to come in and achieve big-time success as a head coach.
Just like Mike Smith.
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Chris Easterling is sports editor of The Independent. He can be reached at 330-775-1128 or chris.easterling@indeonline.com.
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