Perhaps the biggest news coming out of Phil Savage's otherwise ho-hum press conference was the general manager confirming a new deal is in the works for Romeo Crennel.
Or they're gonna do "right" by the head coach. Or however Savage couched talk of an extension/raise/new contract.
I've thought about this and thought about this and thought about this, and kept coming back to the same word.
Why?
What's the rush in re-upping a 20-28 head coach with two years remaining on his original five-year deal?
Wouldn't that be akin to giving a teenager the keys to a new ride--as a reward for being sober one weekend--after he had drunkenly totaled the family Volvo twice the past two weekends?
Then it hit me.
Savage, and by extension owner Randy Lerner, have no choice. AFC North rival Baltimore's interest in offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski, and his subsequent contract extension, is forcing the organization's hand.
Simply put, the club could not afford to have a head coach, one who was on a very hot seat a mere four months ago, working on a contract that expires a full two years before a coordinator who's become the toast of Browns Town and is widely viewed as a head coach-in-training.
You cannot have a hot coordinator--one who grew up loving the Cleveland Browns no less--signed beyond a head coach who, despite his team's 2007 success, is still looked at with a very wary eye by the fans and some media alike.
And, yes, by some in the very organization that is about to reward him.
I have heard from numerous people that Crennel's agent and his working the press last week in regards to a new contract did not sit well with both Savage and Lerner. In not so many words, it pissed them off.
Now, a few days later, it's off to the negotiating table for the re-work of a current deal that wouldn't put the coach in lame-duck status until September of 2009? The very same head coach who, in January of this past year, was the beneficiary of the sell-job of Savage's life in order to keep "continuity", and RAC's head, from being guillotined?
In the end, I guess it doesn't matter fiscally whether or not Crennel gets an extension. It doesn't count against the salary cap, and, as Lerner showed with E Pluribus Butchum, he's not afraid to throw money at Dead Coaches Walking out the front doors of Berea.
The perception will be that continuity remains; the contract extension--if worked out--will show the full faith and backing of the Browns' organization.
The reality, though, is that Crennel is one sub-par year away from being right back where he was before the start of the season.
Extension or no extension.
And especially if the coaching staff's new Golden Boy keeps the offense humming.