@gumby73 said:

ST coach Mike Phiefer  https://www.cleveland.com/osu/2019/05/were-the-cleveland-browns-playing-the-wrong-players-on-special-teams-last-year-doug-lesmerises.html     ...Word ?      

There are at least a couple more wins that could have been had last year had it not been for Famous Amos's STs. Like the DL, I'm glad they understand the major fix that was needed to get us playoff bound.

@htownbrown said:

https://brownswire.usatoday.com/2019/05/18/dont-expect-browns-to-use-more-than-2-lbs-very-often/

Very interesting read on Wilks.

Makes lots of sense for a pass happy league

@htownbrown said:

https://brownswire.usatoday.com/2019/05/18/dont-expect-browns-to-use-more-than-2-lbs-very-often/

Very interesting read on Wilks.

As such is the way of the league anymore.   Puts even more emphasis on the big nickel and the front 4 being able to draw even limiting the run. 

Very interesting read on Wilks.

  Seems our special teams coach is originally from the Cleveland area, and his Dad coached at Padua....   

https://www.ohio.com/sports/20190207/browns-notebook-new-special-teams-coach-mike-priefer-setting-high-bar

Zombo said:

I took it to mean Defensive run game coordinator and Defensive Pass Game coordinator under the Wilks umbrella.

The coaching staff looks great. Even better, Cincy is the last in the door, out there looking for scraps.

Zombo

Exactly where we were when Mike Pettine was scrounging around. Combine is in a couple weeks, they probably bought every draft guide they could find. Still don't have a DC (though John Fox is out there), and their first time OC is Brian Callahan, Bill Callahan's son.

Zombo said:

I took it to mean Defensive run game coordinator and Defensive Pass Game coordinator under the Wilks umbrella.

The coaching staff looks great. Even better, Cincy is the last in the door, out there looking for scraps.

Zombo

Well, there's always Jackson & Horton.  ?

Mike

Zombo said:

I took it to mean Defensive run game coordinator and Defensive Pass Game coordinator under the Wilks umbrella.

The coaching staff looks great. Even better, Cincy is the last in the door, out there looking for scraps.

Zombo

here's today's Introductory presser from Steve Wilks.. 

Zombo said:

I took it to mean Defensive run game coordinator and Defensive Pass Game coordinator under the Wilks umbrella.

Makes more sense...

Guess I had a Senior moment... or as I like to call them, "a Flugel."

@tour2ma said:

Meanwhile back at the thread...

We're adding a Defensive QC Coach...

https://247sports.com/nfl/cleveland-browns/Article/Browns-hire-Saints-Deuce-Schwartz--128454334/

Here's a summary from the short article of our staff so far... not many slots left to fill.

I'd missed the Jim Dray signing... good to see our last blocking TE coming home.

Also missed the interesting duty mix for Al Holcomb. "Run game Coord/ LB Coach" is an atypical combo. Ditto Joe Whitt's "Pass game/2ndary" combo... Kinda new fangled stuff there. At least I'm not aware of position coaches splitting time between sides of the ball in the past.

I took it to mean Defensive run game coordinator and Defensive Pass Game coordinator under the Wilks umbrella.

The coaching staff looks great. Even better, Cincy is the last in the door, out there looking for scraps.

Zombo

We're adding a Defensive QC Coach...

https://247sports.com/nfl/cleveland-browns/Article/Browns-hire-Saints-Deuce-Schwartz--128454334/

Here's a summary from the short article of our staff so far... not many slots left to fill.

There are not many vacancies remaining on Freddie Kitchens' first coaching staff with the Browns. The team announced Steve Wilks as defensive coordinator, Todd Monken as offensive coordinator, Mike Priefer as special teams coordinator, Stump Mitchell as running backs/run game coordinator, James Campen as offensive line/associate head coach, Ryan Lindley as quarterback coach, Jody Wright as special assistant to the head coach, Jim Dray as offensive quality control coach, Tyler Tettleton as offensive quality control coach, Joe Whitt as pass game coordinator/secondary coach, Al Holcomb as run game coordinator/linebackers coach, Chris Jones as senior defensive assistant, Tosh Lupoi as defensive line coach, John Lilly as tight ends coach, John Parrella as assistant defensive line coach and Jeff Blasko as assistant offensive line coach. In addition, Adam Henry will remain wide receivers coach and DeWayne Walker will remain defensive backs coach.

I'd missed the Jim Dray signing... good to see our last blocking TE coming home.

Also missed the interesting duty mix for Al Holcomb. "Run game Coord/ LB Coach" is an atypical combo. Ditto Joe Whitt's "Pass game/2ndary" combo... Kinda new fangled stuff there. At least I'm not aware of position coaches splitting time between sides of the ball in the past.

@flugel said:

Silly?  No!   Dumber than a pet rock?  Yes!    

I was wondering how the Hell does a need a better source than Freddie! 

Now where did I put my village idiot hat?

lol... no need for one, my friend.

It's not like we don't have a lil "history"...

@tour2ma said:

So was the part you misread...

I need better sources... as in "I was mistaken"... not "I need a better source than you".

Now... don't you feel silly?

Silly?  No!   Dumber than a pet rock?  Yes!    

I was wondering how the Hell does a need a better source than Freddie! 

Now where did I put my village idiot hat?

@flugel said:

Everything else you wrote was extremely well said.

So was the part you misread...

I need better sources... as in "I was mistaken"... not "I need a better source than you".

Now... don't you feel silly?

@tour2ma said:

I need better sources...

Nothing wrong with this approach, but for me the key will be where Freddie spends his time when the D is on the field. With our young QB at least the first minutes need to be by his side. This is what McVay does with Goff in LA... this is what Hue never did with Kizer.

McVay has Wade Phillips... Hue had Williams... Kitch has Wilks. None have (or had) a reason not to be by their QB.

Ok, then why didn't you show me better sources (than Freddie) saying Freddie won't be calling the plays?   The biggest reason I wanted to listen to the presser after he was hired (on www.clevelandbrowns.com) was to get an idea of what the plan was for him as a 1st time HC.  I didn't want us to mess up the continuity of the drastic improvement in our offense over the final 8 weeks of the year.   I mean that from the spike in our rookie QB's numbers/efficiency to watching new players that struggled everywhere but Cleveland become reliable in important roles (like Perriman and Robinson).  I also noticed details like our WRs blocking people downfield when they weren't getting thrown to.  We also had a rookie RB average 5.2 yards a carry.  All that can be coached up during the week if you have the right guy in charge.   I've always felt the OC's that adapt well on game day are the ones that prepare best for opponents' strengths and situational tendencies to the extent they know exactly who to use and how to use them.   Freddie did that so I wanted to hear he'll still do that and look to his new OC as a very valuable consultant and important weekly preparation piece. Todd Monken can also help him either coach up players on the sideline (even though we have position coaches for that as well) or be an invaluable resource from above looking at what the defense is doing and where the ideal areas to exploit are.  An OC just doesn't call plays.  I see this as an ideal opportunity for Monken to come in here and prove to Freddie he can take on more as time goes on to eventually free himself up for more of the bigger picture. The reason I feel this way is I just watched Freddie go from position coach to looking like a very polished OC so I'm guessing he has a hope Monken can come in and grasp what's off the ground and help him get it soaring to all new heights. 

Everything else you wrote was extremely well said.

I think we can all agree McVay is very fortunate to have Wade Phillips perpetuating the unique situation of all the young HC has to be is an OC throughout the week and on game day.  That said, Andy Reid has been the same thing McVay has been since he took over Philly way back when they drafted McNabb #2 overall in 99 (and went to the playoffs from 2000-2010 w/ 5 NFC Championship appearances and 1 SB).  Not bad considering Philly had the worst record in the NFL in 98; and they would have drafted 1st if Cleveland wasn't re-entering the league.  The BIGGEST difference I saw is Reid never had the quality of Wade Phillips at DC.  Reid is doing the same thing in KC; but he's still in search of a Wade Phillips coordinating his defense. That said, KC was still just a Dee Ford lining up off sides away from sealing the deal.  

Anyway, the last time Denver won a SB, their MVP was Von Miller.  The irony of that was all those countless years Peyton Manning was an MVP/Pro Bowl QB - he could only win 1 SB.  The 1 year Manning played like he needed to retire - Denver won the SB swarming Carolina's offense to the extent Carolina only scored 1 TD.  That was HUGE considering the reality Denver's offense only had 11 first downs and 1 TD while it only converted 1 of 14 3rd downs against Wilks' (Carolina) Defense. The only guy that came close to standing out for Denver's offense was CJ Anderson with 90 yrds rushing Today, Gary Kubiak has a SB Championship on his HC resume thanks in large to Wade Phillips simplifying Kubiak's work to just the offense.  Irony here is Denver looked to Wade Phillips on Defense and the same CJ Anderson (minus 20 lbs) the LA Rams are now looking to.   And we're going to be looking to DC Wilks  (whose defense only gave up 1 offensive TD in the SB as well as limiting Denver to converting only 1 of 14 3rd downs) in 2019.   Now, if we can strengthen our defensive personnel this off season - I like our ability to take the next step.

@mark-o said:

The Browns were looking for a leader of men, a respected man who knew their team, and not the best available offensive mind, which was the flavor of the month. They were looking for the best coach, in terms of presence, building a team, and scheming a modern offense and defense.

The underlined kinda tilted the playing field there

@flugel said:

Freddie said in his presser that he will be calling the plays - not the OC.

I need better sources...

Nothing wrong with this approach, but for me the key will be where Freddie spends his time when the D is on the field. With our young QB at least the first minutes need to be by his side. This is what McVay does with Goff in LA... this is what Hue never did with Kizer.

McVay has Wade Phillips... Hue had Williams... Kitch has Wilks. None have (or had) a reason not to be by their QB.

One by one in the early days of the new year, coaching candidates were grilled by the Browns’ braintrust (owners Jimmy and Dee Haslam, GM John Dorsey, strategist Paul DePodesta, EVP J.W. Johnson, personnel people Eliot Wolf, Alonzo Highsmith, Andrew Berry), the interviews lasting six to eight hours apiece. Interim coach Gregg Williams first, then ex-Colts and -Lions coach Jim Caldwell, Minnesota offensive coordinator Kevin Stefanski, Saints assistant head coach Dan Campbell, Pats linebackers coach Brian Flores, Colts defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus … and last, interim offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens.

The Browns were looking for a leader of men, a respected man who knew their team, and not the best available offensive mind, which was the flavor of the month. They were looking for the best coach, in terms of presence, building a team, and scheming a modern offense and defense. That is why I respect what Cleveland did in hiring Freddie Kitchens, who, despite his success as offensive coordinator in the second half of the season with Baker Mayfield, had to be better than six other men who spent at least six hours apiece with the interviewers over the course of eight days. This is a coach no one currently in the organization knew—and I am not exaggerating—when he was hired to coach the Browns’ running backs last winter. I don’t know if Kitchens will succeed or fail. But I do know this: The Browns worked to identify strong candidates, ignored the most obvious one (Mike McCarthy, despite his closeness with Dorsey) on the market, and did not know at the start of the process three weeks ago who they would hire.

If you think the fix was in for Kitchens, consider that the buzz around the team, before the Kitchens interview, was that Stefanski of the Vikings was the favorite. They loved Stefanski’s interview and thought he’d be a good match for Mayfield. Then Kitchens had a blunt and boffo interview, and Stefanski and Kitchens were the two leaders in the clubhouse, and they came back for second interviews, and Kitchens won it.

Shouldn’t that be the way teams hire coaches? Denver GM John Elway told me last week, effectively, that the fix was in on Vance Joseph. Elway had “pre-drawn” (his wording) the case for Joseph entering the 2017 coach search after Gary Kubiak, and Elway said he’d never do that again. In this case, if the Browns had a list of 100 names on their head-coach list at the start of the 2018 season, Kitchens would not have been on it. Ditto GM Chris Ballard in Indianapolis last year; he didn’t have Frank Reich anywhere near his list at the end of the 2017 season, and Reich ended up with the job, and he led the Colts from 1-5 to a playoff victory in 2018.

I asked Kitchens last week for the short version of what he said to the Browns’ committee when he met with them Jan. 7.

“The Cliff’s Notes version … okay,” Kitchens said Friday from Cleveland, the southern twang still prominent in his voice 21 years after he left the University of Alabama, where he played quarterback. “I am going to get to know the players. I am going to ask the players their opinions, and I am going to listen to their input. I am going to convince them that we’re all in this together, and I can’t do it without them. They are going to trust me and respect me. Once they know you trust them and respect them, you can have tough conversations. It’s nothing personal. It’s just real. It doesn’t mean you’re a players’ coach. If I’m a players’ coach, I never would have been able to work for coach [Bill] Parcells [in Dallas in 2006]. I’ll make every decision based on the team and on the player. This is truly, probably, the ultimate people business. Coaches like to make it about themselves, but coaches aren’t playing the game. It’s a players’ game. A coach might survive two or three years without the buy-in of the players, but without that, it’s over and they’ll have to move on to the next team.”

Pause. “That’s about it,” Kitchens said. “When I had the chance to run the offense this year [after Hue Jackson was fired in midseason], I felt the players respected me and trusted me. I haven’t invented the wheel. Trust me. It’s football, and a lot of people are great at teaching and coaching football. But this team, this offense, I felt we had respect for each other and I felt like we were getting results.”

Kitchens was amazed at the people the Browns called to fact-find about him. Adrian Peterson and David Johnson (coached by Kitchens in Arizona in 2017), Patrick Peterson and Larry Fitzgerald (who witnessed him for several years), Carson Palmer (coached by Kitchens from 2013-16), Kurt Warner, Bill Parcells (Kitchens was on his last Dallas staff in 2006) … and A.Q. Shipley.

A.Q. Shipley?

“I see this number come up that I don’t recognize, and I almost didn’t answer,” said Shipley, a center for the Cardinals since 2015. “Then I pick up, and this guy says, This is so-and-so from the Cleveland Browns, and I was hoping I could ask you a couple of things about Freddie Kitchens. I thought, ‘Wow. They must be serious about Freddie, calling me.’ But I love Freddie. And I told them that. When I got to Arizona, Freddie was the QB coach at the time, and for the first time I’d seen this in football, the quarterback coach, the offensive coordinator, the quarterback—Carson Palmer—and the center—me—would meet during the week. Communication between the center and the quarterback is so important for protections and other stuff, and Freddie understood it would be a good idea to communicate multiple times every week, between Wednesday morning and Saturday night. It was a great idea. They also asked me how I thought Freddie would be up in front of the full team. I told ‘em he’ll be great with players. I think they must have already known that, from how Freddie did with Baker Mayfield late in the year.”

“What are you calling me for?” Parcells told the Browns. “You been around this guy for the last nine months. You know him.”

When Kitchens heard Cleveland would interview six coaches before him, and that he’d be last, he loved both of those things. When he heard all the people they’d called about him, he loved that too.

“I really was wanting them to have a thorough search,” Kitchens said. “One reason and one reason only: I wanted the organization, and I mean everyone in the room, to think, ‘He’s our guy.’ I didn’t want them to have any doubt. I didn’t want them thinking they wished they’d interviewed other guys. So if I got the job, I got the job because I was the best man. I got it for the right reasons. That’s what impressed me about this process. I didn’t know John Dorsey when I got here a year ago. He didn’t hire one of his friends. He didn’t hire someone to win the press conferences. He hired who he thought was the best coach for his team. He saw something in me I was always hoping someone would see—13 years coaching in the NFL, seven years coaching in college, just doing my job, trying to make players better. Nothing else. If nobody ever saw that, I’d have been fine, because I always liked my job.”

Curious: Mayfield was a top 10 NFL quarterback the second half of the season under Kitchens. What did Mayfield think of him getting the job?

Coachspeak. In-house. Time to be the head coach.

“You’ll have to ask him,” Kitchens said. “But I am pretty sure he’s not disappointed.”

@hoorta said:

Sort of refreshing though. Instead having to fire coaches because they suck (Ray Horton) we're getting quality guys with higher aspirations. Dorsey knows the HC is the key. I wouldn't even want to guess how many assistants Bill has gone through in New England.

I agree.  I want to see turnover in the asst. ranks as long as we aren't just firing guys like hue did.  If other teams are hiring your guys to head coaching positions, it mean you are winning games.

Wiley was a treat.  And the OL did a good job during the 2nd half of the season.  Robinson & Mayfield also helped the OL.   But the guy didn't even believe in stretching exercises.  lol

I'l never forget in TC / or pre season,  when there were questions about the LT position and how Harrison was struggling.  Somebody asked Wylie about  the possibility of moving Bitonio over to LT as plan B.....and Wylie replied, That would be plan Z!  And sure enough Hue, in his finite wisdom,  inserts Bitonio at LT. 

@tour2ma said:

Word was that his OC will call the plays.

Freddie said in his presser that he will be calling the plays - not the OC. 

The OC will probably be a lot like Andy Reid's OC in the sense he will be kept very busy during the week of preparation; while he keeps even busier on the sideline staying out of Andy's way (especially with the play calling).  That doesn't mean he won't give input during the week of things they can exploit. He may even put him up in the press box to watch the blitz and disguised/delayed blitz tendencies as well as some areas of vulnerability and mismatches to attack that weren't in the game plans.   

@tour2ma said:

Word was that his OC will call the plays.

 everything I've heard makes me think Freddy is going to be calling the plays.

And you'd be right...

After Williams shit-canned the disco-practices total penalties fell from 65 in the first 8 games to 47 in the last 8... that's pushing a 30% drop.

 which is a nagging concern to me we went from a player's coach to a Taskmaster and now back to a player's coach. Hopefully Freddy will keep the pressure on. Of course a lot of those penalties were offensive penalties and that was Freddy's wheelhouse

Between this move and the Bama DC's move, it sounds like we are lining up potential DC replacements  for Wilks (and they for the job at the NFL level), who should get another HC shot in a couple years.

If I'm right, then that's some seriously forward-looking succession planning there.

 assuming that there is a great deal of success in the Browns near future..?

WSS

@thenew23 said:

Does anybody think Freddie will call plays? Or just a traditional HC?

Word was that his OC will call the plays.

@flyingfooldoug said:

I thought there were less penalties when hue took a hike.

And you'd be right...

After Williams shit-canned the disco-practices total penalties fell from 65 in the first 8 games to 47 in the last 8... that's pushing a 30% drop.

@darren15 said:

CFL Riders HC Chris Jones has left his job to take up a position on the Browns defensive staff under Wilks

Between this move and the Bama DC's move, it sounds like we are lining up potential DC replacements  for Wilks (and they for the job at the NFL level), who should get another HC shot in a couple years.

If I'm right, then that's some seriously forward-looking succession planning there.

@the-gipper said:

What does a "Quality Control" coach do?

Control's  Quality