Alabama coach Nick Saban has a nice fiefdom set up in Crimson Tide land, with another chance at the national championship in January and a recruiting edge for years to come.
But that — plus the 15-17 record he had the last time he coached in the NFL, with the Dolphins — doesn’t mean he’s not willing to jump away from college football again.
Greg Bedard of The Boston Globe reports that the Browns are very interested in NFL Network analyst Michael Lombardi for the franchise’s general manager position. Lombardi has a good amount of experience running NFL teams, but the big key to him getting the job could be his connection to Saban.
“According to the NFL sources,” Bedard writes, “Saban has let it be known that if he returns to the NFL … it would likely be with Lombardi playing [Scott] Pioli to his [Bill] Belichick.”
Bedard, of course, is referring to the excellent front office-coach relationship of Pioli and Belichick, who won three Super Bowls in four years in New England as Pioli and Belichick worked together on personnel moves. Belichick relied heavily on Pioli to provide him with Patriot-type players who could be developed within the team’s system.
Saban’s poor showing in Miami, where he coached from 2005 to 2006, was due in large part to him and general manager Randy Mueller not working well together on personnel decisions, according to Bedard.
Roll Browns?
