New Browns coach faces big egos, expectations
BEREA, Ohio – Let Freddie Kitchens shed some light on his approach to this monumental task of trying to transform the Browns into much more than a paper champion.
“There ain’t going to be no mind games,” Kitchens told USA TODAY last week as he opened his first training camp as an NFL head coach.
Never mind showing off polish. Kitchens, a bit portly and very much folksy, is not about trying to score points on the smoothness meter. He doesn’t bring prior head coaching experience, either. But he is not about to apologize for any of that.
“It’s pretty simple,” he said in a Southern drawl that highlights his Alabama roots. “Just be yourself. Say what you mean and mean what you say, and you won’t have much of a problem. Even when you’re dealing with the players.”
This is the man entrusted with the impressive collection the Browns put together and that generated much offseason buzz as a projected playoff contender.
Good luck, Freddie.
None of the seven other new coaches in the NFL, it seems, are under as much pressure to produce as Kitchens, 44, promoted as offensive coordinator and picked over last year’s interim coach, Gregg Williams, who went on to become the Jets’ defensive coordinator.
There’s an emerging young quarterback in Baker Mayfield. A dynamic superstar in Odell Beckham Jr. A former NFL rushing champ in Kareem Hunt. New studs on the D-line in Sheldon Richardson and Olivier Vernon, to align with ultra-talented Myles Garrett. And on and on.
Sure, the Browns have the NFL’s longest playoff drought, going on two decades since their last postseason appearance. And since the franchise was revived in 1999, Kitchens is the 11th coach, including two interims. Stability has not been the deal.
Still, if Kitchens doesn’t turn this group into winners, talent will not be the excuse. Chemistry? That’s a big if in this equation.
Yet Kitchens, who was hired by Bill Parcells for his first NFL job in 2006, just might be the perfect person to push all the right buttons. The Browns surely aren’t lacking in confidence, hype and preseason glory.
Kitchens’ job includes keeping all of those egos in check as they get on about the work. Just don’t think he’s going to demand that the brash Mayfield, flamboyant Beckham or ultra-confident Garrett change their tones and get with his program.
He knows. That won’t cut it in this environment.
“I just want them to be themselves,” he said, “because I think you get the best out of people when you are allowed to do that.”
Besides, he added, “I have never conformed to anything. We have one rule, and that is to do what is right.”
Kitchens is no pushover. That was evident during the first couple of days of camp practices. On Thursday, he halted practice and called the team to the middle of the field for what appeared to be a stern message about taking care of each other. He wants a physical camp with a fast tempo, but he doesn’t want foolishness
that leads to avoidable injuries.
Friday, he was encouraged that the message sank in. But he still had the defense run gassers at the end of practice, essentially in coming up competitively near the end of drills.
As he put it, “We are going to show you how to play.
“Coach Parcells used to say he wanted a battle-hardened team when he left training camp,” Kitchens added. “That’s what I’m going to know, if we’ve got one or not.”
At the same time, Kitchens seems to get it in so many other ways. While he’s pledged to have a physical camp, he is also scaling back the snaps for key veterans, he said, while mindful that the highest rate of soft-tissue injuries occurs during the first eight days of training camp. Veteran GM John Dorsey, meanwhile, gives him props for delegating some of the matters that come across his desk that he never had to deal with as a coordinator or position coach. And listen to Kitchens explain why he encourages the players to spend time with their families at camp – given they are on lockdown in the evenings – and it’s apparent he sees a bigger picture.
Sure, it’s early. How he handles the rigors and assorted adversities of the season – and whether he can become the first coach (except for Williams’ 5-3 mark as an interim last season) since Marty Schottenheimer in the 1980s to have a cumulative winning record during his tenure – will define whether Kitchens was the right choice.
Still, there’s a strong vibe flowing within the building as the Browns try to establish a culture that coincides with the high expectations flowing everywhere else in The Land.
Jarvis Landry, the veteran receiver, is quick to credit Kitchens for the chemistry.
“At some point, you think that a head coach from a position coach, things will change,” Landry said. “It hasn’t. He still knows what he wants. He has a plan.”
Beckham seems to be clicking, too, with his new coach. The high-profile receiver is already mulling how he’ll put together an episode on his new YouTube reality show that can feature his new coach as a guest. Beckham, who grew up in Louisiana, can envision some content built around Southern cooking.
“Maybe I’ll show him how to cook some barbecue,” Kitchens said.
Now if only that recipe comes with the Browns living up to the hype.