Saturday, November 17, 2018

Rodney Kitchenfield and the Browns Next Head Coach

I recommend this article by Dan Justik on the various known Browns' Head Coaching candidates.  

Dan does a great job of explaining why they must be considered.

The most interesting one to me is Iowa Head Coach Matt Campbell, because he hasn't won any Bowl games or anything.

Per Dan, all he has done is take second tier talent and upset a number of teams that overmatch him on paper; he consistently beats the odds.

I do need to correct Dan, however:

Dan doubts that John Dorsey would hire a "defensive minded" Head Coach like Gregg Williams when the priority here is to develop Baker Mayfield:

1: Bill Belichick is a "defensive minded" Head Coach, like his mentor, Bill Parcells.

2: Gregg Williams isn't all that interested in micromanaging offense.  He's given Freddie Kitchens the keys to the offense.

The Head Coach doesn't need to be offensive minded, as long as he stays out of the way.  

3: In every scenario other than a Gregg Williams extention, Freddie Kitchens likely gets kicked to the curb.

Why doesn't anybody ask Baker Mayfield himself how he feels about that?

4: Baker Mayfield isn't a project.  He's already pretty good.  He doesn't need to be "mentored" or nursed along like Sam Bradford or Josh Allen.

After what we have seen, both under Todd Haley and Freddie Kitchens, I'm kinda stunned that Dan and others still think of him as a "toddler".

5: One of Dan's candidates is John DeFelipo, who was the OC here under Mike Pettine.  

Dan is right that the stats don't accurately reflect what a great job he did here, and what he did for the Eagles speaks for itself.

The thing is, Freddie Kitchens is the new "Flip".  He's creative, adapts to his players, etc.  

In other words, we may already have a DeFelipo here, don't you see?

The screaming you hear is coming from their logic.  Dan and others think that hiring Flip and dumping Freddie would be better for baby Mayfield than just leaving Kitchens in charge of a known offensive system!

No knock on Flip, by the way.  He's a brain.  It's just that so far, so is Kitchens.  Flip went from here to the Eagles and won a Superbowl.  What if the Browns had retained him?

Talk about stuck on stupid: Go ahead and fire Freddie Kitchens.  See what happens again.

Okay okay, for the moment I obviously lean towards maintaining the status quo (note: I can't see why Gregg Williams would want to replace Kitchens, since he's not mentally impaired).

But I'm impressed by most of these candidates, and how the rest of the season plays out is what matters most.  We'll see.

I'm not sure Josh McDaniels is all that.  The Lord Insideous coaching tree has been hit-and-miss in re Head Coaches, and really Tom Brady runs that offense.

Joe Thomas weighed in on Mayfield vs Darnold, and also how the youth and inexperience on this team has been a big part of it's losses in 2018.

Joe didn't say anything I haven't said repeatedly, but maybe you'll listen to him.

There is no comparison between Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield.  We'll need to wait three years to really judge this quarterback class, but for the moment, Baker Mayfield makes the rest of them look like busts.

And he's actually overcome more than the rest of them have already.  None of them had to deal with Todd Haley!

More Randy Gurzi!  In this excellent article, Randy documents and analyzes John Dorsey's many moves, including "admitting mistakes" (trading Carlos Hyde).

Dorsey is the real deal.

Dan Justik discusses how Freddie Kitchens is making Todd Haley look bad, and he's right.

If you read this Blog, you won't find anything new here, but like with Joe Thomas, I like to back myself up with other guys who are sentient.

Most people are fine with the Josh Gordon trade.  I guess I am now too.  Josh has been productive for the Pats, but has only caught a little over half his targets.

He doesn't look like the lethal weapon he was in 2013, and you have to know that Tom Brady is maxing him out.

Josh's "floor" is well above average, and he is missed here.  But it looks to me like the buzzed Josh was better than the sober Josh.

Josh Gordon is a good guy, and I wish him luck.

...okbye






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