5:23pm: Kitchens clarified his comments on Monday, as Cabot writes in a full-length piece. Kitchens said, “I care about my job. I only care, though, about getting better today. That’s what I was trying to illustrate is I’m only focused on today on getting this football team to play the best of their ability today and to increase those chances of us getting to that point on Sunday of playing the best that we can on Sunday. Everybody here is focused on that.”
4:42pm: Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens once again found himself in the headlines for the wrong reason last night. Following his team’s loss to the Cardinals, Kitchens was asked about his future with Cleveland, and Kitchens said, “I don’t care about my future as Browns coach” (Twitter link via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com).
Surely Kitchens does, in fact, care about his job as the Browns’ head coach, and it’s likely his comments were simply made out of frustration after a bad loss and in the wake of persistent speculation about his future. But it’s obviously a bad look, and emblematic of the tone deaf manner in which Kitchens has operated throughout much of this season, his first as an HC.
Just yesterday, we heard that the Browns were inclined to retain Kitchens for the 2020 season barring a “horrific collapse or circumstance to end the season.” But the defeat at the hands of 3-9-1 Arizona — which included a brief sideline argument with receiver Jarvis Landry –coupled with the post-game comments, could be the foundation of a “horrific collapse or circumstance.”
Making matters worse, Browns running back Kareem Hunt admitted that some of his teammates gave less than maximum effort during some of the Arizona game, as Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal writes. That admission could end up being much more damaging for Kitchens’ chances of sticking around than Kitchens’ own comments.
The Browns, 6-8, now have a less than 1% chance of making the postseason, per FiveThirtyEight.
well i wouldn’t care if he goes…but im also not a Browns fan
What’s the guy supposed to say when the media asks him the same stupid questions every chance they can? If talking to the media wasn’t a requirement no one would do it.
I agree, hence the caveat that he made the comment out of frustration. But he’s still a HC, and his lack of polish and tact doesn’t work when the team is underperforming.
Some coaches are better as position coaches with less responsibilities. Kitchens is not a viable HC and has proved it this year.
Hue Jackson comes to mind.
But this is what the browns get by hiring a coach with no experience. They need some stability they should go after Jason Garrett.
Cowboys to the Browns: talk about falling out of the sky. What a turbulent descent? Who could go from living in Dallas to living in Cleveland?
Um maybe something like “ I hope I’m here next year”.
To be fair, if you have to say “I hope I’m here next year”, you probably aren’t going to be there next year lol.
Idk why they hired this guy in the first place
Because Jeff Dining Rooms declined
Because I was too busy to take the job.
For what it’s worth, that quote was taken out of context. In the full quote, he added that he doesn’t care about his future because the only thing he’s worried about is coming back and working to make the Browns better.
I’m not defending Freddie (I’m a Browns fan and I want him fired too), but that isn’t the full quote and people are acting like it’s the only thing he said.
Mary Kay is notorious for clickbait, and not tweeting his entire quote is exactly something she would do.
“I don’t care” seems to sum up the Browns performance this season perfectly.
I mean he knows he’s basically gone anyway. No point in fighting a losing battle and its not like he’s going to beg for his job in front of the media. To me, I interpreted his statement as saying he’s more worried about next week then what’s going to happen in the offseason/next year.
Its not his fault outrageous expectations were placed on him. I mean the team basically only added OBJ during the offseason and somehow went from “lets just get a win” during the 2018 season to “playoffs or bust” this season. But clearly the Browns ownership know what they’re doing since they haven’t had a winning season since 2007.
The browns finished 2018 with a 7-8-1 record and with the addition of OBJ, Vernon, Richardson etc why is the playoffs an outrageous expectation?
True. To be more concise, the expectation seemed to be a division title which seemed a bit high regardless of their 2018 record. Despite those additions, their offensive line was still a huge weakness for them going into the season and has arguably been one of the primary reasons for their struggles this year. Not saying that Kitchens is the answer at head coach, but constantly changing the coaching staff and front office is also not how you build a winning team.
He seems more interested in defending his wardrobe than his job.
Pittsburgh started it.
Your a rookie HC and your expected to defeat 4 teams (Baltimore, New England, San Francisco and Seattle) that could quite possibly be playing in conference championship games. On top of that you have a cancer like Kareem Hunt throwing teammates under the bus while OBJ does his prima donna act. Who could honesty blame Kitchens for feeling the deck was stacked against him?
Everyone in the division had to play the same schedule… just more lame excuses. Blown out by the Cardinals is embarrassing
Yep. Pitiful.
Getting blown out is embarassing, but to be fair its not like the Cardinals have been pushovers this year.
The Rams have had an epic collapse this season and were just humiliated by a lame duck coach yet nobody is suggesting they need to make a HC change.
Besides Hunt calling out teammates for not playing hard yesterday, when did he throw teammates under the bus? Legit question since I couldn’t find anything else. If that’s what you’re referring to, I don’t see how that’s throwing teammates under the bus. I mean everyone should be out there trying to win and giving it their all. If you have guys taking plays off, then they deserve to be called out.
You need to get rid of any player who starts calling out his teammates for lack of effort in front of the media.
If its true, then what’s the issue? OBJ and Landry have been complaining all year about lack of touches and have been supposedly telling other teams to come trade for them, but that’s not an issue? If Hunt has to go the media to call out his teammates, its clear that telling them straight up isn’t working either.
He shouldn’t care he SUCKS
Rude
I wonder if the Browns just experimented with no Head Coach next game and let the players just play, if they’d perform better?
I think so. Freddie needs to head off to continue his career at Golden Corral.
Browns need to bring in Urban Meyers
They will probably end up with Oscar Mayer.
Smart is under-rated. He also suffers from foot in mouth disease.
Also, are we just going to ignore that Mayfield is just as much at fault for this season as Kitchens. The o-line hasn’t helped at all this year, but Mayfield has been wildly inconsistent and downright terrible at times this year. I mean let’s not forget that Kitchens got the job primarily because Baker wanted him back. Firing Kitchens isn’t going to magically fix the problems that Landry and OBJ have with the team.