Freddie Kitchens thrown into fire as Giants OC against team that fired him
FILE - In this Dec. 22, 2019, file photo, then-Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens walks on the field during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the Baltimore Ravens in Cleveland. Freddie Kitchens was fired after one stormy season as Browns coach. On Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020, he'll get at shot at some personal payback. Kitchens will call plays for New York on Sunday night against Cleveland after Giants offensive coordinator Jason Garrett tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday. (AP Photo/David Richard, File) Credit: AP/David Richard
Had things worked out the way Freddie Kitchens envisioned, he’d be the guy standing on the Browns’ sideline in Sunday night’s prime-time matchup against the Giants at MetLife Stadium.
The coach with the swagger and the quick wit to match, Kitchens was convinced he was the right guy to lift the Browns out of decades of disappointment and dysfunction. He didn’t think he’d be the latest example of all that has gone wrong since Cleveland got its football team back in 1999 – this after three years of suspended animation following Art Modell absconding with the franchise to Baltimore.
Kitchens was tabbed as the Browns’ head coach in 2019, thanks in large part to helping Baker Mayfield show promising signs of progress during his rookie season in 2018. With Kitchens serving as offensive coordinator and Mayfield, the first overall pick, playing well once he was given the job, general manager John Dorsey gave Kitchens the chance to run his own show amid plenty of great expectations both within the organization and from a good portion of the football public.
But what started out with optimism turned into yet another debacle in keeping with the reign of error that has been all too familiar for a fan base with a deeply rooted attachment to its team that makes the misery that much worse. The Browns never lived up to expectation, and Kitchens presided over an underachieving, undisciplined team that will be best remembered for that hideous late-game scene against the Steelers in which Myles Garrett hit Mason Rudolph with his own helmet.
Kitchens and Dorsey were both fired, and the Browns began anew.
Again.
Only this time, Kevin Stefanski is doing with the franchise what Kitchens had hoped to do. Cleveland came into Sunday night’s game with a 9-4 record and legitimate playoff aspirations. Kitchens began putting his career back together again by returning to his roots as the Giants’ tight ends coach. And as fate would have it, there was an even bigger role for the game against his former team.
After offensive coordinator Jason Garrett was diagnosed on Thursday with COVID-19, coach Joe Judge turned to Kitchens, with whom he’d worked at Mississippi State when the two were assistants, to fill in as the Giants’ play-caller. Making things even more challenging for the 46-year-old Kitchens: Colt McCoy, a third-round pick of the Browns in 2010, got the start over injured starter Daniel Jones.
"That’s kind of ironic," Kitchens said about drawing the Browns as his first assignment in Garrett’s absence. "But really, it’s the next game. It’s truly the next game."
Hardly.
Kitchens surely had an extra edge figuring out how to solve the defense he’d seen every day as the Browns’ running backs coach-turned-offensive-coordinator in 2018 and head coach last season. It’s only human nature. But Kitchens hoped to keep his emotions in check and do what he could to help his new team against his old one.
"I kind of just try to do the best I can for the team, for our staff, for our players, and try to be the best of my ability and put players in position to make plays," he said.
Kitchens does have a sharp mind as far as game planning, and it was his intuitive handling of Mayfield as a rookie that put him in position to get the nod as head coach last year. But Mayfield regressed in 2019, in part because the Browns’ offensive line problems left the quarterback a sitting duck in far too many games. Stefanski has had the luxury of working with a rebuilt line, and his alliance with Mayfield has so far been exceptional. That’s no surprise to those who know Stefanski as one of the brightest young offensive minds in the game.
"The biggest thing that Baker is doing a great job of is protecting the football, and that’s where it starts at that position," Kitchens said.
The coach is obviously more concerned with his own quarterback situation, and Kitchens hoped to get the most out of a challenging situation – at quarterback and at offensive coordinator.
He’ll be back to a lesser role once Garrett returns as soon as next week. But in a league where opportunity presents itself in unique ways – perhaps none more unique than what he faced Sunday night – Kitchens knows he can dictate the terms of his future by taking advantage of his circumstances.
Matching wits against his old team provided a hopeful step in the right direction.
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
