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Freddie Kitchens: vaguely employed

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What grade to you give the Browns for hiring Freddie Kitchens as their next Head Coach?

  • A+

    Votes: 38 20.8%
  • A

    Votes: 57 31.1%
  • A-

    Votes: 15 8.2%
  • B

    Votes: 18 9.8%
  • Less than that, but I'm also not fun at parties.

    Votes: 55 30.1%

  • Total voters
    183
It's short-sighted to say Kitchens was Dorsey's guy and it's short-sighted to say he was Haslam's. I think it was pretty mutual.

In retrospect, I thought it was the right choice because it appears that we had something that was working. This proverbial "something" had eluded us for years so why rock the boat? However, if Haslam flat out did not want Kitchens, he wouldn't have been named the coach. Haslam has his dusty ole fingerprints all over this franchise.

I remember reading that a few of the analytics guys wanted Stefanski but the majority of the group that was conducting the coaching search, including Dorsey and Haslam, wanted Kitchens.
 
Stefanski just comes off as an overall much smarter guy when you listen to him talk.

When you hear Freddie talk he just sounds like he’s not smart whatsoever.... Think running an entire team rather than just calling plays is something he is not cut out for.

Also when you see Freddie giving Locker Room speeches it is always cringe and seems very forced... He doesn’t captivate players or motivate them.
 
I don’t think this is fair

Stefankski isn’t the head coach of the Vikings he’s the OC. A role that Kitchens absolutely murdered last year which is most of the reason he got the job.

It’s yet to be seen if Stefanski would have a similar difficulty adapting to being a HC

If we want to continue to be skeptical about Stefanski, that is fine but go read the things his fellow coaches say about him. People intimating it is the system around him are really not paying attention to what he is doing IMO. Especially considering how the off-season transpired here with Kitchens' peers. Kubiak just raves about him. So does Zimmer. Stefanski's work has pretty much been a masterclass.....amplifying what Cousins does well, minimizing what he doesn't and getting the absolute best out of his offensive personnel. That's what great coaches do. They maximize their talent.

The big miss, to me, was hiring Kitchens based on 8 games worth of OC tape. Would he make a good head coach? Why? Why not? What does he do well? What doesn't he do well? Can you correct the things he doesn't do well? What is his actual system? Is it anything like Haley's? If not, why?

I think I'm more annoyed that I liked Stefanski a lot and Freddie has just been a train wreck. And Stefanski has gone on to reclaim Cousins' career and become one of the best young OC's / head coaching candidates in football. All while running a style of offense that our personnel would probably be awesome in. Ugh.

Certainly there is unknown in how he transitions to a head coach but he seems more equipped and more willing to adjust things to his personnel......guess we'll see what both go on to do from here on out.
 
So your solution would have been to hire a guy with 3 games worth of OC tape :chuckle:

I should have clarified. The true abject disaster with Kitchens has seemingly been not having fully grasped what his offensive system looked like. I think we (pretty much everyone) assumed it was last years' offense.....but it obviously has not really been that at all. I should have avoided the game counting and focused on X's and O's / approach.....which I think I did in the "Would he make a good head coach? Why? Why not?....." which followed......but the games things will be a shiny object here.

Again, maybe Freddie grows in to the job here to end the year........but setting aside all the X's and O's stuff, the really concerning thing (to me) is just how little situational awareness he has. I don't even think it is an exaggeration to say he's generally sub par in all the areas good coaches excel (time and score, maximizing personnel, managing timeouts, instilling culture, motivating players, delegating responsibility, etc.)
 
If we want to continue to be skeptical about Stefanski, that is fine but go read the things his fellow coaches say about him. People intimating it is the system around him are really not paying attention to what he is doing IMO. Especially considering how the off-season transpired here with Kitchens' peers. Kubiak just raves about him. So does Zimmer. Stefanski's work has pretty much been a masterclass.....amplifying what Cousins does well, minimizing what he doesn't and getting the absolute best out of his offensive personnel. That's what great coaches do. They maximize their talent.

Stefanski may end up being a great head coach, but this caught my eye.

I'm officially not listening to a single thing other coaches and league personnel say about a coaching candidate. They always give raving reviews and it's never worth a damn.

Hue Jackson and Freddie Kitchens both had amazing things said about them by coaches and former players. It's time to stop giving that any weight.

Evaluate the jobs they've done and then bring them in and do the best you can to extrapolate/project their ability to be the CEO and operator of the football team. Everything else is fluff.
 
Freddie made no noticeable gaffes or mistakes in the first half of this game, which is a big accomplishment for him. Trending in the right direction.
 
Freddie made no noticeable gaffes or mistakes in the first half of this game, which is a big accomplishment for him. Trending in the right direction.

This is like a participation trophy. The fact that we are celebrating “no noticeable gaffes” tells all we need to know
 
Can we get a second half report?
 
Only took him half a year to figure out he needs a fullback

I'm not sure that is all on Freddie. In camp they had a bunch of guys to potential be the full back and they were all gone by the 53 man cut. They were trying to convert Devalve to a full back. Duke did alot of the same stuff as Hunt is currently doing. Orson Charles was slotted as the starting full back and they cut him. Stephen Carlson was put on the practice squad.

I think Dorsey wanting to move around the back end of the roster played more into not having a full back. Pharaoh Brown or Taywan Taylor's slot probably should have went to a full back.
 

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