Looking forward to 2019, Browns coaching search

Please post ANYTHING you see about the progress that has been made and especially your thoughts on the coaching search in general.

Important dates pertaining to the coaching search:
January 6 -- Assistant coaches under contract to playoff clubs that have byes in the Wild Card weekend may be interviewed for head coaching positions through the conclusion of the Wild Card games.

January 13 -- Assistant coaches under contract to playoff clubs that won their Wild Card games may be interviewed for head coaching positions through the conclusion of Divisional Playoff games.

January 27 -- An assistant coach, whose team is participating in the Super Bowl, who has previously interviewed for another club's head coaching job may have a second interview with such club no later than the Sunday preceding the Super Bowl.

Honestly, I have mulled this over and over in my head and I am inching closer to the conclusion that I don't want to upset the momentum this staff seemed to be building..but it is at a risk.

I want to keep Kitchens in the fold...no matter what
I would like to keep Williams as HC and find a new DC, but having the first words out of the GMs mouth being, "someone other than your kid" probably wouldn't sit well and could lead to the beginning of animosity.

So, here's the bigger dilemma... You want to find the best candidate, but you want to retain Kitchens... Hiring a coach with strings attached almost never works out until you are an established winning franchise. That isn't what this team is asking of their new coach, to take over a winning team. They are asking them to MAKE them a winning team, BUT I want you to use some of our current personnel to do it...

The next dilemma... You want to retain Kitchens, so you are putting fail safes in place to do just that, but you can't protect him after 2019. If the Browns continue on the path they did in the second half of the season, they will finish with double digit wins, a top 10 offense and most probably a playoff birth. Two years removed from an 0-16 season, much of that will go to Baker Mayfield, and Kitchens will get the credit for introducing Mayfield to what he is capable of...Thus, Kitchens becomes a hot prospect for HC around the HC vacancy world of 2020...You can't promote him within, because your hired coach from 2019 took you to the playoffs...so, you lose Kitchens a year later any way.



So, my conclusion brings me to finding a strong DC candidate and hiring Freddie Kitchens as my new HC of the Cleveland Browns.

Thoughts?

 

Mine exactly.

I think nine weeks ago when Hue was fired, John Dorsey had already made up his mind he was bringing in Mike McCarthy. And over the last eight games, Freddie Kitchens threw a Baker Mayfield-sized wrench in the plans. Kitchens' rapport with Mayfield is one of his biggest selling points, it's not something you want to disrupt in a young, franchise QB's development.

For me, it's tempting to keep Williams around as the team seemed to play off his aggressiveness, but I do agree to your point that (1) the defense needs to improve, and (2) Williams isn't going to fire his own kid - or if he gets too involved with the defense again, he could let the head coach duties slip. I noted earlier that he seemed to be a much better head coach than defensive coordinator.

If Kitchens is the prize, and the projected future head coach anyway, just make the leap now. Everyone's looking for the next Sean McVay and Dorsey has the guy in-house. Baker Mayfield's QB rating over the Kitchens' era (106.2) would have finished fifth among all QB's, the Browns' offense was graded as the second-best offense in the NFL by PFF.com over Kitchens' era. Mayfield still finished ninth overall on the season through PFF.com grading, which includes the Hue/Haley games - I believe I saw he was third over the final eight - behind just Drew Brees (HOF) and Patrick Mahomes (2018 NFL MVP).

Freddie's been an NFL coach for 12 seasons (19 total years of coaching experience), and been around some quality guys in that time. He's not the gamble some people seem to be making him out to be. And when you stack him next to guys like Jim Caldwell, and Kevin Stefanski and blocking other teams from interviewing Freddie... the choice (given the options) seems like a no-brainer.

 

Have any of you guys heard of any time-line concerning the hiring AKA by what date they want to have a new HC named?

 

If I read your post correctly, it sounds like your main goals are;

• Retain Freddie Kitchens as Offensive Coordinator.
• Continue the momentum established 2018 into 2019 (and beyond).

Retaining Kitchens, IMO, should be fairly easy. His current contract is as a Running Backs Coach who was serving as Interim Offensive Coordinator through the end of the 2018 season. So, technically, he's under contract as a Running Backs coach and, as such, can't be blocked from interviewing for a higher position with a team who wants to poach him. (I have read that the Browns did, in fact, block some interview requests for Kitchens so my take on his contract status may be off.) The solution is pretty cut and dry. Sign him to a new contract as Offensive Coordinator ASAP.

Now it gets a little sticky. What to do with Gregg Williams. We just wrapped up year 2 with Williams' schemes and philosophies and, again IMO, those schemes and philosophies weren't ignored by John Dorsey this past off season. I fully suspect that every roster move Dorsey made on the defensive side of the ball so far was made with input from Williams and the defense did, in fact, improve in 2018 due to the players inserted that better fit Williams' schemes. There is no reason to think that improvement wouldn't continue in 2019 (and beyond) if Gregg was offered a contract extension as Defensive Coordinator. Gregg isn't stupid. He knows what his value could be - league wide - if he was part and parcel to turning this franchise into a championship contender, even with his somewhat tawdry background.

So, that brings me to the big kahuna. Dorsey would need to find a guy to sign on as Head Coach willing to accept the fact that he has his OC and DC already in place. IMHO, there's only one name that fits - Bruce Arians. I don't believe Bruce would have any reservations about Kitchens as his OC. Bruce is the guy who hired Kitchens when he was HC of the Cardinals. He already has ties to Freddie. He's an offensive minded coach who probably recognizes the work already done in Cleveland on the defensive side of the ball. He's not stupid so he would probably buy into a "stay the course" mentality regarding the defense.

Plus, I harken back to when Bruce was OC with the Colts. When Chuck Pagano went down, Bruce was named Interim Head Coach. Due to the nature of Pagano's illness, it was originally thought that Pagano may never return as Head Coach so the Interim tag wasn't thought to be temporary and Bruce would continue on as HC the next season. I don't recall Arians making any wholesale changes to the coaching staff and he went on to be named "Coach of the Year". In other words, he has a history of being a successful HC with a coaching staff picked for him. If he really wants a biscuit, let him name his ST Coordinator and give him more latitude in back filling the positions coaches.

The biscuit for Williams (and Kitchens, if Freddie even needs a biscuit) is Arians' age. Not unlike a "bridge QB", Arians won't be around a long time. He would be keeping the seat warm for one of the two coordinators while maintaining the growth and momemtum.

 

MKC on the Fan today said when he was "promoted" to Offensive Coordinator, not only did his title in contract change, but they also named him Assistant Head Coach - so he's got a pretty high-up there title.

 

That would explain how they were able to block interview requests. Thanks, Sammy!

 

On the surface, it's a sound approach, but I think in an effort to maintain continuity, you disrupt it.

The Browns have the second-best NFL offense under Kitchens. If he maintains (and even if he loses a little ground) that pace next season, he's going to have his pick of NFL jobs. And maybe the team that chose to keep him as a coordinator isn't his top choice any more. Even if he decides to stick with the Browns, they won't be able to deny folks interview him for head coach and I doubt he takes a massive "hometown discount". So Arians is there for, at most, one season.

There's no guarantee that Arians and his style plays with this locker room that's already working well with Kitchens and Williams.

A more prudent move, in my opinion, would be to announce Freddie as head coach and let him hire Bruce to be an assistant head coach and help guide him through it. Or special adviser, something along those lines.

 

^^^^^
Or, as I've said in other threads... you maintain status quo. Make Gregg the head coach and keep Freddie the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. They both understand it's a "prove it" season and the unit who performs best gets the gig. The downside to this approach is I doubt Gregg Williams sticks around for another season with a contract extension in hand - which eliminates the chance of promoting Freddie before you lose him to another team.

 

@SAS ;

Both of your above posts make valid points. That's what makes this topic so intriguing.

 

It's also what makes me think Dorsey may just throw us a curve ball and do something none of us expected.

 

That's what worries me.

We may be thinking more short-term as fans since we haven't had an elite offense and a winning team in so long (at least over the last eight weeks). We're all in on Williams/Kitchens/etc.

Dorsey should be playing the long game and while I don't know that Kitchens isn't a great long-term option, I'm not conducting interviews.

A big worry would be any letdowns if you do let Kitchens and/or Williams go and bring in a new guy. Between the momentum of the second-half of last season, the optimism for next year, and 2019's upcoming schedule, Browns should be a favorite to win the North and ought to be looking at double-digit win projections.

 

Hmm...

 

That's an interesting tidbit. The thing I worry about is . . . can Kitchens handle ALL of the additional responsibilities of being a head coach? So far, he has risen to the task. But, it didn't include all the other stuff a Head Coach has to handle.

 

So he'd need a defensive coordinator, who's had head coaching experience, and would be able to be an assistant head coach, without taking over too much of the team.

I know it sounds like I'm propping up Gregg Williams here, but I'm not. I think Williams' having already been the head coach of this team would be too tricky to manage, especially for a first-year head coach who just served his first half-year of coordinator duties.

Actually, it's someone else from the Arians tree who Freddie's worked with, who meets all that criteria.

AND who spent time with Dorsey in Kansas City.

 

There was a good point made in this sporting news article about Kitchens:

http://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/...ker-mayfield-future/6h777a7th4771ro5uwa1pqex8


Referring to Kitchens:

 

I was just talking about that exact subject with a buddy this morning. If we retain Freddie as OC, and he and Baker take the next step and just light up the league in 2019, Freddie is gonna be considered one of the premiere coaches at his position, and the hottest HC prospect on the market....It would make more sense to me to just promote Kitchens to HC now, as opposed to forcing him on a different HC. If you hire someone else and force him to keep Freddie as OC, and that plan works the way you want. You're gonna most likely lose Kitchens next year anyway.... Right?

 

It's settled then.

HC: Freddie Kitchens (calls his own plays)
OC : Adam Henry
DC/Asst. HC: Todd Bowles
ST: Josh Cribbs

 

Maybe. Maybe not. These guys all know what life will be like for them if they usher a championship contender into Cleveland. And, if they do win a championship . . . It would make LeBron's parade look like a wallflower convention.

Maybe it's just me, but I suspect every one of these guys wants to finish what they started.

 

LOL, Sammy. This is far from settled.

 

Oh, I thought it went without saying that Browns win the SB next season...

No seriously, I see what you are saying, but normally young up and coming coaches don't turn down HC jobs....