This is laughable.
First 4 full years. Shurmur 18-45 .281 winning percentage. Belichick 31-33 .450 winning percentage. (1-1 in the playoffs). Belichick's lowest win total in his first 4 years as Browns HC was 6. Shurmur has yet to win more than 5 games in a season.
Belichick was in the process of turning the Browns around before Art Modell decided to go scorched earth with the city of Cleveland. After an 11-5 season in '94, the '95 Browns season basically ended the day Modell announced the move to Baltimore. They lost 7 out of their last 8, their only win was the last game at the Dawg Pound where they showed up for the fans & beat the Bungles. No coach on the planet could've navigated that situation to a different outcome. Since then, BB has a 237-82 record, plus 30-10 in the playoffs.
I think it's fair to say these two coaches have nothing in common. Anyone else you can think of?
Continuity is a huge part of establishing a culture, chemistry, and a good locker room of guys that fight for each other. Bill Belichick was afforded continuity in Cleveland, despite not posting a winning record his first 3 years as the Browns coach (total: 20-29). Continuity eventually paid off for him and the Browns with the 11-5 season in his 4th year there. Kyle Shanahan is another great example, who in his third season with the 49ers is dominating the NFC after two poor seasons to start (total: 10-22). Not every coach immediately inherits a roster capable of making noise in the first year or two.
Listen, I won't shed any tears if Shurmur gets canned. I'm not a Shurmur apologist, and he might very well turn out to truly be a bad coach, but I won't put him on blast yet just because fans always need to point a finger at someone. He only had 2 years with the Browns and he has only had 2 years with the Giants thus far. He hasn't had continuity to turn bad rosters around in either place. The problem is that Giants fans, or really fans just in general, expect miracle turnarounds to happen when a franchise has been bad for an extended period of time. Really, the Giants have been bad since the last Super Bowl win and you don't turn around 8 years of slop in a year with a new coach. It just doesn't happen, and it's even tougher when you consider he came in at the end of a fading veteran QB's career and shifting into the start of a rookie QB's career. I think the QB transition has actually gone smoother than most, as Jones has looked very good despite the fumbles.