Berea — As he makes plans for his second season, Pat Shurmur’s next decision might shape his future as Browns coach.

Shurmur said he will launch a search for an offensive coordinator, a position he chose not to fill in his first season.

Doubling as his own coordinator in his rookie season as a head coach, Shurmur’s offense finished 29th in yards and 30th in scoring, and suffered some in-game brownouts that were explained as “communication” problems.

These included a fumbled handoff to tight end Alex Smith, who was rushed into the huddle as a replacement for fullback Owen Marecic at a critical point in a 6-3 loss to St. Louis, and botched clock management that cost the Browns at least a short field goal try at the end of the first half in a 20-14 loss in Baltimore.

Shurmur said he intended all along to hire a coordinator in his second season when he failed to find “the right guy” a year ago.

“We’re going to work quickly, but I’m not going to be hasty,” he said of the search. “I want to get the right guy. That’s a relationship that’s very, very important.”

Shurmur seems more inclined to give the right candidate play-calling responsibilities — something he would not do last year. He said, “That’s one of the details we’ll get worked out as we go through the process.”

A year ago, Shurmur interviewed at least three candidates for coordinator. Two took jobs elsewhere — Bill Musgrave with the Vikings and Mike McCoy re-signed with Denver under new coach John Fox. The third reported interviewee was Mark Whipple, who joined Shurmur’s staff as quarterbacks coach.

Shurmur said Tuesday the new coordinator “may come from the staff,” which points to Whipple as a contender.

Whipple was offensive coordinator at the University of Miami in 2009 and ’10. He previously worked one season in Philadelphia with Shurmur on Andy Reid’s staff and was quarterbacks coach for the Steelers from 2004 to ’06.

Other potential candidates could include Brad Childress, who worked with Shurmur in Philadelphia for six years, the last four as Reid’s offensive coordinator; and Mike Sherman, who was a Mike Holmgren assistant coach in Green Bay and his offensive coordinator one year in Seattle before returning to Green Bay as head coach. Sherman was fired as Texas A&M head coach last month and reportedly will receive NFL head coach interviews.

Shurmur said he would not identify candidates for the job. He said of Childress: “I know Brad very well. He and I worked together for a long time. I think he’s a terrific coach.”

Asked if the candidate has to have experience in the West Coast offense, Shurmur said: “I’m trying to find the best guy, so a guy who speaks our language . . . I think might have a little bit of a leg up.

“The coordinator role is like having another decision-maker amongst your staff that has the title of being able to say we’re going to do this or do that. I think it’s important that I get the right guy. His final role . . . there’s a lot of different models. There’s eight or nine teams where the head coach calls the plays, and they have a coordinator. And then there’s other teams that have a different [setup].

“The offensive coordinator is responsible for the offensive coaches. He’s mainly responsible for putting the plan together, directing the offense and doing a lot of things that I did as a head coach.

“The game-day thing, calling plays, that’s a fun thing for all of us to do. I want the best guy I can get. If he’s outstanding at calling plays . . . listen, I want to win games, so I’m going to get the guy that helps us win.”

The hire comes at a critical time in the franchise’s endless search for respectability. In their expansion era, the Browns have ranked 23rd or worst in offense in 12 of 13 seasons. They were eighth in 2007 under coordinator Rob Chudzinski, who is being mentioned as a head coach candidate in Jacksonville.

The Browns are contemplating a thorough upgrade on offense, which could include a new quarterback, new receivers and possibly a new running back.

Shurmur declined Tuesday to speculate on the future of quarterback Colt McCoy and again refused to say he wanted potential free agent Peyton Hillis to return as the feature running back.

As for any other changes to his coaching staff, Shurmur said he didn’t plan any “at this point.” He left open the door, pending coaches being made available by other teams.

The Browns had several breakdowns on special teams — yielding two kick returns for touchdowns and a touchdown on a fake punt, having two field goals blocked and having two critical long snaps go awry. But Shurmur defended special teams coordinator Chris Tabor.

“I think as players and coaches, we all need to improve. And I did see some improvement in areas that make me think we’re going to get better,” Shurmur said of the special teams.

BEREA, Ohio — Browns cornerback Sheldon Brown, who’s seen a lot in his 10 years in the NFL, held court on a getaway day Monday and said he’s not waiting for a college star such as Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III to come in and be the savior of this 4-12 team.

“I’m definitely not, and if you are, you’re crazy,” he said.

Brown stressed that one or two rookies — the Browns will have the fourth overall pick in the April draft and the Falcons’ first-round pick in the 20s, aren’t going to change the fortunes of this rebuilding team, at least not overnight.

“My thing is, if you’re dependent on a draft pick to come in here and change your life, then you’re kidding yourself,” he said. “This game is too hard. There’s too big of a jump to come from college and think that he’s going to come in … who does it? Maybe Randy Moss did it. So you already know the pattern. It’s not that.”

So what will it take for the Browns to compete in the AFC North, where their three foes are skipping off to the playoffs?

“The guys here have to step their game up to another level because they’re experienced,” said Brown. “When you lose close games, you can go back and maybe point to one or two drops, or one or two miscues. When things like that happen, I bet you go back and you say ‘ah, [it was] a young player [who] hadn’t been in that situation. Hadn’t experienced it.’ Well now he’s experienced it and he won’t do it again.

“Most rookies, anyway, they get hurt because they get tired and they don’t understand the speed and the strength of this game at the professional level. So I’m never sold on high draft picks.”

Brown said he’s not spewing lip service when he says the Browns are close to being a good team. They lost six games by seven points or less, and went down to the wire most games with their division rivals, although they finished 0-6 in the division for only the second time since 1999.

“We’re very close,” said Brown, who went to the playoffs with the Eagles six times, including one Super Bowl. “It’s one or two plays each game. You just have to find the playmakers and they just have to understand the sense of urgency and make the play.”

But don’t Browns fans hear the same thing every year?

“I didn’t tell you this last year,” he said. “I thought we were way off last year, from a lot of other things we were having to deal with. You can say whatever you want to say, but I do believe that and I came from an organization where we’d start 0-4 — sometimes 0-3 — and we were one or two plays out, and we found a way to start making those plays. Then we’d run off eight in a row, and then the people that were laughing, they don’t seem to laugh any more.”

Brown is convinced coach Pat Shurmur — who took a critical beating by some fans and media this season — is the right man for the job.

“I think he did a tremendous job, dealing with being a head coach for the first time,” said Brown. “Everybody thinks it’s an easy job, everybody wants to sit in a room and say, ‘I can do this better, I can do that better.’ He dealt with the situations the best he could, and he kept this football team fighting. For me, that’s how I judge a head coach.

“If a football team goes out there and competes week in and week out, through thick and through thin — and it was very thick this year — but we didn’t quit. So that tells me that the leader is in place and the guys believe in him and they will fight. If you put a football team out there that’s giving up 40 points, scoring nothing and they’re quitting, that tells me that the leader in place is not the guy.”

Can he make the jump in year two?

“He can definitely make a jump,” said Brown. “But the most important thing is that the players have to make the jump. And the players have to make the plays.

“I think this coaching staff is in place for a while. The worst thing that I’ve known of the history of the Browns is, one or two years and they want to blow it up. People want to think that it changes in one or two years. There’s a process that you have to go through in this league and you have to be patient to do it.

“The coaching staff did the best [they could] with their knowledge of the players, not having an off-season to really get to know the guys. They put them in the best positions that they knew how to make plays on the field, and I think it’s heading in the right direction.”

As for the defense, which finished 10th overall, Brown is certain it’s on solid footing.

“Anytime you have a [middle] linebacker like D’Qwell Jackson, your foundation is in place,” said Brown. “Anytime you have a starting defensive tackle — and I’ve played with some good ones — like Ahtyba Rubin, motor doesn’t stop, intense guy, angry player, studies, and he brings the young guys like Jabaal Sheard and Phil Taylor along with him, it’s in place. You’ve got Joe Haden, T.J. Ward, young players in the secondary, the foundation is in place.

“We had to go through the growing pains of being young, but the foundation is in place and I think it’s going in the right direction.”

While losing teams such as the Rams and Bucs fired their coaches Monday, other Browns agreed that this is a 4-12 team on the rise.

“My rookie year I played for Green Bay and we were 6-10 and there wasn’t a whole lot of turnover on that roster,” said tight end Evan Moore. “They had a lot of young guys that they let grow up in that system and look at them now. Granted, that team has a lot of talent and I believe we do, too. We have a lot of young guys I think are only going to get better.

“I think it goes without saying that a foundation needs time. Guys need time to mature and I think we have the makings here of something that could be pretty impressive if guys are given time to mature.”

Said kicker Phil Dawson: “We were in a lot of games. It’s death by inches, though. How are you going to look at that? Are we that close, or is that just the nature of the league? It depends on your personality, how you’re going to view that.

“In my little world, if my plant foot misses the spot by a quarter-inch, I miss the kick. That will probably tell you how I look at it. Everybody looks at themselves critically and figures out how they can improve. If we do that, now these close games are coming out in our favor. Hopefully that’s the way guys respond to it.”

On Twitter: @marykaycabot

BEREA, Ohio — Colt McCoy is making progress from his concussion and still has a chance to start Sunday. But will the Browns start their second-year QB against James Harrison and the Steelers’ No. 1-ranked defense?

McCoy, who sat out games in Arizona and Baltimore, hasn’t yet been cleared to practice, but coach Pat Shurmur said Monday that if he’s able to practice on Wednesday “there’s a chance he can play.” But Shurmur was still unwilling to commit to McCoy, even if he gets the green light from the medical staff.

“I can’t cross that bridge yet,” said Shurmur. “We’ll know more Wednesday when we start practicing for the Steelers and then we’ll talk about it then. And I’m not trying to be vague. That’s the case.”

McCoy felt better last week, but not enough to make the trip to Baltimore. He did some physical activity, including using the elliptical machine, but apparently still had symptoms that prevented him from team practices.

Shurmur said McCoy has increased his activity this week, but wasn’t specific. The Browns are off on Tuesday and begin full preparation for the Steelers on Wednesday.

“Colt worked out [Monday] and was in all of the meetings,” said Shurmur. “He’s making improvement.”

If McCoy is cleared to start, will the Browns throw him back in there? Here are a number of things to consider:

1. He’d be going up against Harrison, whose helmet-to-helmet blow on Dec. 8 gave him the concussion.

2. Harrison was suspended a game for the hit, which cost him about $73,000. He spoke out last week, saying the Browns should’ve been fined for putting McCoy back in the game with a concussion. He’s probably not going to be in the holiday spirit this game.

3. Should the Browns risk McCoy so soon after the concussion — especially with the NFLPA still trying to decide whether or not to file a grievance against the Browns? A source said the union should make its decision the first week of January.

4. With nothing at stake for the Browns, should they just let McCoy rest and also avoid the second-guessing it will invite if he plays?

5. The Browns have said they’ve seen enough of McCoy to make a decision on whether or not he can be their quarterback of the future. If that’s the case, why play him?

6. Will one more game with Seneca Wallace help the Browns determine if the offensive woes this season can be attributed to a lack of playmakers and not so much the quarterback?

7. Has Wallace moved the offense well enough the past two games to earn him another start? He’s 0-2 in his two starts with an average of 12 points a game.

Wallace reiterated Monday what he said after the 20-17 overtime loss in Arizona on Dec. 18: the job should be McCoy’s if he’s healthy.

“Like I said before, I would’ve loved to have been able to try to help this team out longer … but coaches made the decision at the beginning of the season to have Colt as the starter,” said Wallace. “If he’s healthy enough, I feel like he should come back and finish the season like he did.

“If I was the leader of this team at the beginning of the season and got knocked out and had a chance to come back and play, I’d want to finish the season out.”

How much would Wallace like to bounce back from the Ravens loss?

“I’m excited regardless,” he said. “I don’t care who it is, if it’s Pittsburgh or the St. Louis Rams. You’re playing football. We can go out and compete another time. That’s the opportunity we love to go out and play football.”

Wallace is coming off a 20-14 loss to the Ravens in which the offense scored just seven points. He completed 19 of 33 attempts for 147 yards with one touchdown and one interception. He made two crucial mistakes: an interception on the opening drive and letting the first-half clock run out deep in Ravens territory without getting at least a field-goal attempt.

As for the interception, Shurmur said, “there was a little bit of heat inside. Seneca flushed to his right. We have to make sure we’re smart with the football. I have to do a better job of getting protection where he doesn’t get heat up the middle. I’ll take responsibility for that. But we can’t turn the ball over there.”

Shurmur said he needs to do a better job of communicating to Wallace to get the ball spiked at the end of the half. But Wallace took responsibility.

“It’s not all [Shurmur's] fault,” he said. “If you’re a man, you’ve got to take responsibility for what you do on the field. … He’s going to try to back us because he’s the head coach. But at the end of the day, we get on the field and we’re playing between those lines, we’ve got to take responsibility for what we do out there.

“So yeah, it was a communication error, but at the same time, it’s not 100 percent his fault.”

What injury? Browns linebacker Kaluka Maiava suffered a broken left hand on the opening kickoff of the second half in Baltimore. But he’ll play with a cast Sunday. He said he broke a little piece of his index finger and that it won’t require surgery.

It won’t be the first time he’s dealt with this kind of injury.

“I told the doctor I think I’ve been playing with a cast on my hand since my junior year in high school,” he said. “Every year I had something on my hand.”

Extra points: Shurmur said he’ll ask the NFL for clarification on why Evan Moore wasn’t ruled out of bounds on the second-to-last play of the first half. Moore was told he needed to take a step forward out of bounds. Shurmur seems to think he was out. … Pro Bowl teams will be announced Tuesday, and Shurmur said several Browns are deserving. He declined to say who. … Remember, the Steelers game has been moved from 1 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Sunday as a result of flex scheduling.

On Twitter: @marykaycabot

“John Nash, everyone,” Fujita said with a laugh and comparing Dawson to the famed mathematician and subject of the film “A Beautiful Mind.”

Well, Dawson’s IQ isn’t quite at genius level, and he’ll never replicate Nash’s work on game theory, but he does have vast knowledge on kicking field goals.

Lately, he’s learned how difficult they can be to judge.

Because for all the technological advancements that have made NFL games safer and more enjoyable: from improved helmets to the computer-generated yellow line that allows TV viewers to see if it’s a first down and instant-replay systems designed to ensure officials make calls correctly, ruling on field goals remains an inexact science.

In fact, there’s no more science behind it at all than two sets of human eyes under the goalpost — and they can be fooled.

“It’s a rough spot for officials, to stand under the goalposts, look straight up and discern if any part of a ball is outside the uprights,” Dawson said. “I know it’s not easy.”

And it’s not the kicks that miss by a few feet, or even inches, that are difficult to assess. It’s the ones that fly directly above the 30-foot-high uprights that are trickiest and a few recent ones have caused a small outcry — mostly by kickers, the game’s most exacting players — for the league to adopt a better way to rule on field goals.

“There’s a lot of confusion and it just seems like there’s technology out there that would make it a lot easier,” said Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell, who recalled kicks at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field being blown around so much that no one on the field could tell if they were good..

Ask any kicker and he’ll suggest a remedy for the problem: Raise the uprights. Mount cameras on the crossbar. Implant a computer chip inside the ball. Shoot lasers above the uprights. Add another official designated for field goals.

Washington Redskins special teams coach Danny Smith said he’s tried to address the issue with the NFL office for years. Smith feels he has a solution — or two.

“Why don’t you do it like tennis?” Smith said. “Why don’t you laser it? Or extend them? It’s ridiculous they don’t do that. Do it like tennis with the laser in there. Is it good or is it not? Check it and go. We’d do it with the replay machine. It would be easy. Let’s just be fair. It’s easy.”

League spokesman Greg Aiello said the current system is sound, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be improved.

“We have one official under each upright with the perfect view for judging field goals and their calls on field goals have not been much of an issue historically,” Aiello said. “But the Competition Committee always looks for ways to improve the game so we would not rule out anything.”

CINCINNATI, Ohio — Some pregame scribbles before kickoff between the Browns and Bengals.

1. This game probably won’t mean much in terms of the standings. If the Browns win, they are 5-6. If the Bengals win, they are 7-4. But the game will have an impact on the fans’ state of mind.

2. If the Browns win, there will be a sense of progress. They finally beat a team with a winning record. They beat a team in the AFC North. And they beat the Bengals.

3. The Bengals were 6-2 before losing their last two games to Baltimore and Pittsburgh. The Bengals’ success really annoys many Browns fans. They have a rookie quarterback. They were coming off a 4-12 season. Yes, they drafted A.J. Green, but weren’t they supposed to be rebuilding or something?

4. Then came the 27-17 loss to the Bengals in the home opener. Most Browns fans remember that was the game where the defense fell asleep and no one called time out as Green caught a 41-yard touchdown pass.

5. But Cedric Benson also was busting loose for a 39-yard touchdown run with 1:49 left. Not only did the Browns look disorganized on defense, they were flagged for 11 penalties. It was a nightmare of an opener for rookie coach Pat Shurmur.

6. That TD run by Benson was the longest of the season against the Browns. The 11 penalties is their single-game high. Only Tennessee (31) and Houston (27) scored more points on the Browns — who have held the opposition under 20 points in five games this season.

7. Have the Browns improved from that day? Can they win their second game on the road? If the Bengals lose this game, they will be 6-5 and on a 3-game losing streak. There will be a sense in Cincinnati that the 6-2 start was fools’ gold, that even the Browns have beat them.

8. The Bengals have defeated the same four teams as the Browns — Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Miami and Seattle. The difference is the Bengals beat Tennessee (which hammered the Browns, 31-13) and they beat those guys in the orange helmets.

9. For Shurmur and his players, it will be a huge confidence boost to beat a team in the AFC North — especially with four games remaining against Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The Bengals have the No. 6-rated defense, No. 3 against the run. If Peyton Hillis and/or Montario Hardesty stay healthy, can the Browns actually run the ball? Can Colt McCoy keep making progress, as he has the last two games? I’m curious to see it.

10. In the last two games, Andy Dalton has been picked off five times — compared to three touchdowns. Baltimore and Pittsburgh will do that to a young quarterback. Can the Browns put some heat on him? This really does have a chance to be an interesting.