Cleveland Browns: Bullet dodged with Mike McCarthy
The Cleveland Browns have a new head coach in Freddie Kitchens, but it’s become pretty obvious that he wasn’t their first choice, but they may be blessed he’s who they got.
The Cleveland Browns have seemingly found their guy at the head coaching position. Early Wednesday afternoon, John Dorsey and the Browns announced that former running backs coach and interim offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens would be their head coach going forward.
And yet, it’s becoming more and more obvious that Kitchens was not the Browns’ first choice at the outset of their coaching search. Rather, he was a condition of employment for other candidates that the Browns were interviewing for the job.
According to Browns beat reporter Daryl Ruiter and radio personality Les Levine, Kitchens was the reason the Browns stayed away from former Green Bay Packers coach Mike McCarthy.
.@LesLevine just reported on @923TheFan #Browns wanted to hire Mike McCarthy as head coach with stipulation Freddie Kitchens remain with team as OC, McCarthy declined.
— Daryl Ruiter (@RuiterWrongFAN) January 9, 2019
McCarthy was fired from Green Bay following a disappointing 20-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals were quite easily the worst team in the league in 2018, and this was the final straw in McCarthy’s long road to being fired from Green Bay.
The McCarthy-to-Cleveland connections were pretty obvious from the start. Despite being the exact opposite of a fan favorite among the Dawg Pound, McCarthy and Browns general manager John Dorsey worked together in Green Bay. It makes sense that Dorsey would at least want to bring McCarthy in for an interview.
In fact, the Browns had apparently contacted McCarthy for an interview. But, he was quickly pushed back. Kitchens himself interviewed for the position on Monday, and was hired on early Wednesday afternoon. Kitchens was a condition of employment for Browns candidates, or at least McCarthy, and they may have dodged a bullet.
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If it’s true that McCarthy wanted near-ultimate power for the Browns, then his denial of the Cleveland job may have saved them from themselves. The Browns instead went with a younger, hungry, first-time head coach, and tried to get ahead of the curve on getting the “next big thing.” The Cleveland Browns may have actually dodged a bullet, and it’s all due to Mike McCarthy’s hunger for power on the offensive side.