Kokinis Meets with Mangini; Both Miss Senior Bowl

At the very least, the Senior Bowl is usually represented by a team’s head coach or general manager.  Or director of college scouting.  The Browns have sent none of these to the top college all-star game when it comes to scouting and mingling with one’s fellow NFL personnel.  Eric Mangini and his coordinators decided to stay in Cleveland on Monday to meet with George Kokinis, considering that a more important decision at this time.  T.J. McCreight, the current player personnel director, is representing the Browns in Mobile, Alabama.  He is held over from the Phil Savage regime, and is still unsure what his future role with the team might be.

Despite meeting yesterday, expect to hear the announcemet of the hiring of Kokinis sometime later in the week.  Randy Lerner was not present at the meeting and no contract was signed, so everyone should know what is going on in a few days.  Because of President Obama’s inauguration, don’t expect to hear much NFL news today, anyway.

The Browns could really use a director of college scouting.  This is a huge draft for the Browns and the team needs to prove its capability in the area where most other regimes of the organization have failed since 1999.  Phil Savage had an outstanding 2007 draft, but essentially dropped the ball in 2008 by leaving the Browns with no picks in the first three rounds and overhyping fourth-round selection Beau Bell.