After a winning season in 2007-2008, The Cleveland Browns fell flat on their collective faces in 2008-2009. Big things were expected for this AFC North team, a winning record , possibly a first place finish , a spot in the playoffs , a successful post-season run, and none of it happened.

Cleveland lost and lost and lost , a shocking and unexpected turnaround from the previous season. Of course, it didnt help that, as a member of the AFC North, the Browns have to play the Ravens and the Steelers twice each season. Those are two top teams the Steelers won the Super Bowl, of course and, unless youre playing at the very top of your game, youre not going to beat them.

Additionally, the Browns have to play their in-state rival, The Cincinnati Bengals, twice each season, as well. And, even though the Bengals werent very good in 2008-2009, they gave the Browns all they could handle. Thats what happens in rivalry games , won-loss records mean nothing.

So, after a disastrous and very disappointing 2008-2009 Season, what did the Browns do? To start, they fired their Head Coach and hired Eric Mangini as a replacement. Mangini had been the Head Coach of the Jets and had, himself, been fired just a few weeks earlier.

Mangini is a hands-on, no-nonsense, all-business Head Coach and immediately began to change the culture around the Browns, putting his own stamp on the team.

Surely, this is, or will be, culture shock for many of the players because Mangini runs a very tight ship. As such, it will be interesting to see how the players react to the change in the atmosphere around the team when camp opens for real later this year.

Another thing Mangini did was trade down on Draft Day. In a trade with The New York Jets, Maginis Browns gave up the Number 5 Pick to the Jets in exchange for their Number 17 Pick, their second round pick and three players off their roster, including a defensive lineman , a young quarterback and a safety, Abram Elam, who has big play ability.

Clearly, the Browns new Head Coach is looking to turn over the roster and bring in his type of players. Whether or not it works for this team remains to be seen.

Manginis Browns will also have a quarterback problem in 2009-2010. The team has Brady Quinn, who was highly touted when drafted out of Notre Dame, but he has yet to prove he can run an offense and win games. They also have Derek Anderson who was stellar in 2007-2008, but regressed this past season.