The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Kitchens reaches top of the ladder
New Browns head coach has climbed ladder for 20 years; ‘I love the town of Cleveland. Cleveland and I get along well’
Freddie Kitchens can finally stop running. As the new head coach of the Browns, he belongs to a fraternity with an exclusive membership of 32.
The Browns are expected to announce Kitchens’ hiring on Jan. 10.
Around noon on Jan. 9, a league source confirmed Kitchens is the Browns ninth full-time head coach since their return to the NFL in 1999.
On Dec. 20, with two games to play in the 2018 season, Kitchens was asked in his weekly news conference whether he wanted to be back with the Browns in 2019. He said he did, of course. No coach still on the payroll is going to say he can’t wait to leave.
But Kitchens, 44, who was never a head coach on any level or a coordinator until he replaced fired Todd Haley on Oct. 29, offered some insight on his 20 years of coaching — seven in college and 13 in the NFL. He spent 11 seasons coaching the Cardinals tight ends, quarterbacks and running backs until he was hired as the Browns running backs coach/assistant head coach in 2018.
“I like it here a lot,” Kitchens said five days before Christmas. “Everybody around here knows that I like it here. I love the town of Cleveland. Cleveland and I get along well.
“I didn’t have a dad as a coach. I didn’t have a starting point in this league. I grew up the son of a tire maker at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant in Gadsden, Alabama.
“(Dr.) Benjamin E. Mays said, ‘Those who start behind in the game of life must start running faster to catch up.’ I feel like I’ve been running fast my whole life. That’s the way it’s going to continue. Whether it’s here or what, I’m just here to do a job right now this week and this year.”
Kitchens has achieved his goal of becoming an
NFL head coach, and now he has to fill out his staff.
Gregg Williams, elevated from defensive coordinator to interim head coach on Oct. 29 when Hue Jackson was fired, will not be back as defensive coordinator or any capacity, a league source said.
Quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese, a close friend of Jackson’s, has also been fired, according to sources.
Word Kitchens would be named head coach leaked around noon on Jan. 9. The choice was quickly bashed by Colin Cowherd of FoxSports1 and by Fox Sports Radio. The latter claimed the Browns hired Kitchens because, in their words, “Coaching Baker Mayfield is not something that appeals to successful head coaches.”
Mayfield, who set an NFL record for rookie quarterbacks by throwing 27 touchdown passes (19 with Kitchens as offensive coordinator)
responded by tweeting: “Lol.”
Bruce Arians, hired as head coach of the Buccaneers on Jan. 8, openly campaigned for the Browns job, at one point saying it was the only job he would end his retirement for. But the 66-year-old former head coach of the Colts and Cardinals was not one of the candidates interviewed by the search committee led by Browns general manager John Dorsey.
The offense blossomed with Kitchens calling plays, Mayfield playing quarterback and Williams running the show as interim head coach. The Browns were 5-3 the second half of the season to finish 7-8-1.
The relationship between Kitchens and Mayfield was obviously a huge factor in Kitchens beating out Williams, former Colts and Lions head coach Jim Caldwell, Vikings offensive
coordinator Kevin Stafanski, Saints assistant head coach/tight ends coach Dan Campbell, Patriots linebackers coach Brian Flores and Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus for the job.
“We have an open dialogue of the things that he likes,” Kitchens said on Dec. 27 in his last news conference of the season. “I’m starting to get a good feel for what he likes so some of the things don’t end up in the game plan that I know he’s not going to like to begin with.
“He’s doing a great job of executing, making the guys around him play at a high level. Ultimately, the quarterback is there to make the plays that are there to be made and then make everybody around him better by the way he performs.”
Promoting Kitchens to head coach ensures he will operate out of the same playbook next year.