Browns Make Final Call on Future of Freddie Kitchens

Getty Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens.

It has been a turbulent ride for Freddie Kitchens in his first NFL season as a head coach, but it appears the Cleveland Browns head coach will be returning for another season to lead the long-struggling franchise.

The Browns organization fully supports Kitchens and are planning to bring him back barring a massive collapse down the stretch, according to a report from NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport. The Browns allegedly want Kitchens to remain in the position a “long time,” according to Rapoport’s sources.

The Browns stumbled to a 2-6 start this season, which was amplified by the massive amount of hype the team entered the year with thanks to a few high-profile moves, including the acquisition of star wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.

Kitchens has served as the team’s offensive play-caller as well and the results have inconsistent — at best. Second-year quarterback Baker Mayfield has regressed and there have been some questionable moments in terms of both game management and play calling.

What has helped Kitchens’ cause is the late surge by the Browns, who have a chance to win their fifth game in six tries against the Cardinals on Sunday.

Freddie Kitchens Preaches 1-0 Mentality for Browns

While there have certainly been some tough moments, Kitchens preaching a 1-0 mentality for the team after the rough start has been something the Browns have rallied about.

Another consistent theme for the rookie head coach has been ignoring the “fluff,” which means anything that happens outside of the locker room that doesn’t affect their performance on game day.

“The message has not changed. It only matters what is in the locker room,” Kitchens told reporters this week. “That is the only thing that ever matters. Of course, they play together. They play together. They stay together. It goes back to when adversity hits, you are going to run together instead of running apart, and I think we have done a good job of that and maintaining that throughout the year because there have been difficult moments and these guys have remained together and stayed together and have done well in the past month and a half. When you hit situations like that, it can go either north or south. We chose to go north with it.”

Freddie Kitchens Could Remain Head Coach, but Give up Play-Calling

GettyBrowns head coach Freddie Kitchens.

Sports Illustrated NFL reporter Albert Breer joined Bull & Fox on 92.3 The Fan Cleveland to talk about the future of the Browns skipper last week and echoed the same sentiments as Rapoport.

However, he added the wrinkle that Kitchens could stick around, but hand over his play calling duties to offensive coordinator Todd Monken.

“It’s my belief that there’s a good chance he survives now. But I wouldn’t be surprised if part of that is that there are some staff changes,” Breer said. “And that may not be be some of the guys getting fired, it might just be changing roles. One thing that has been raised to me in the past as a possibility that Freddie becomes more of a walk around head coach and Todd Monken becomes the play caller. I would say there are multiple things on the table.”


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