Once the 2011 season came to an end, the Cleveland Browns began their search for an offensive coordinator and with the departure of Jerome Henderson and Keith Gilbertson, head coach Pat Shurmur also had to replace the defensive backs coach and add a senior offensive assistant.
During the last six weeks, the Browns added Brad Childress as the offensive coordinator, Tim Hauck to mentor the defensive backs and Nolan Cromwell as the senior assistant to the offense.
Childress came to the Browns after a year away from the game. He previously made stops with the Indianapolis Colts, Philadelphia Eagles and served as the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings.
“Brad developed his style of offense and we all learned it from the same book,” Browns coach Pat Shurmur said. “As you go places, you encounter players that are stronger in some areas than others and he had Adrian Peterson and he did an outstanding job with the running game. He got to the point where he had Brett Favre, but Brad’s a very experienced head coach and I like to think he’s creative. Brad’s here to help us win games.”
Shurmur and Childress have a history dating back to their time together in Philadelphia.
“We were actually hired on the same day,” Shurmur said. “We walked in the office and kind of learned the pro game together and the style of offense together and then, I continued on in Philadelphia for three years after he went to Minnesota. I’ve known him a long time and have great respect for him as a teacher, coach and we all have ideas of how to do things, but his experience the last few years will help us. He’s very detailed in his teaching.”
After a standout career at the University of Kansas, Cromwell played in 161 career games with the Rams. He returned 37 interceptions for a Rams franchise record of 671 yards and played in Super Bowl XIV. Cromwell was the NFC Defensive Player of the Year in 1980 and a four-time Pro Bowler.
Once his playing days were complete, Cromwell coached for the St. Louis Rams, Green Bay Packers and Seattle Seahawks.
“I coached with Nolan for a year in St. Louis,” Shurmur said. “He was with Mike Sherman at Texas A&M and prior to that, he worked at Seattle and Green Bay. We had an opening on our staff in St. Louis at the receiver position and convinced Nolan to come there and join us. He’s a terrific teacher. We all know Nolan as a great player in this league, ‘Mr. All-Everything’ from Kansas. He’s a terrific teacher and a fine addition to the staff.”
Hauck played for seven teams over his 13-year NFL career and spent the last two years as the assistant secondary coach with the Tennessee Titans.
“I’ve known Timmy since he was a player in Philadelphia and at that time, near the end of his career, I got to know him a lot,” Shurmur said. “He talked about how he wanted to get into coaching and I followed his career as a coach, always admired how he worked as a player, so I thought he would be a good fit. Coincidently, and it happens with a lot of guys on the staff, we’re sort of from the same family of coaching. He played for Mike in Green Bay and Ray Rhodes. I think that helped to have a good coach that has connections with myself and the other coaches.”
