Browns’ Freddie Kitchens Gets Dogged By Former OL Coach Bob Wylie Over His Coaching Credentials

Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens gets dogged by former OL coach Bob Wylie

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Bob Wylie may be best remembered for being the charismatic offensive line coach of the Cleveland Browns during last summer’s season of Hard Knocks — where he discussed everything from his hatred of stretching to a bunch of other random things — but he doesn’t seem to be too happy with how things ended since he was relieved of his duties after first-year head coach Freddie Kitchens took over the team. Need proof? Just look at what Wylie recently had to say about Kitchens’ coaching credentials.

Appearing on The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio, Bob Wylie didn’t hold back from criticizing both Kitchens and the entire Browns organization, going as far as saying that quarterbacks coach Ken Zampese was the one who was really behind the offensive juggernaut the Browns became after firing Hue Jackson halfway through last season. Take a look at Wylie’s comments below, per Cleveland.com.

“Baker (Mayfield) likes Freddie. There’s a good relationship there even though (former Browns QB coach) Kenny Zampese did all the coaching there. Baker likes Freddie, so that had to (factor) into the decision.

“(But) Freddie didn’t have any coordinator experience or head coaching experience.”

Wylie indicated that the Browns offensive assistants that got fired after Kitchens got the job felt he left them out in the cold after they helped him go 5-3 the second half of the season and produce one of the most prolific offenses in the NFL.

“(It was like) ‘thank you guys, you guys did a great job. Thanks for helping me get the interview, okay? but I’m going to take this job and you guys are going to become collateral damage, that’s what will happen,”’ Wylie said.

Bob Wylie seems more than just a little salty about how his tenure with the Browns ended, especially since he feels like he was one of the reasons Freddie Kitchens was even being considered for the head coaching job. The former OL coach added that former interim head coach Gregg Williams should’ve been given a chance to keep leading the team, but that the team’s general manager, John Dorsey, just didn’t want him in that role.

Wylie also argued that interim coach Gregg Williams didn’t get the head coaching job because Dorsey didn’t want him.

“That shocked me because Gregg Williams turned the team around. In the second half of the season, that’s his work that got it to where it is. My own personal feeling is Gregg was too strong a candidate for the seat,’’ Wylie said. “I don’t think Dorsey wanted to go head-to-head with Gregg like he had to do with Andy Reid in Kansas City, so he kind of filtered Gregg out of the picture and he kept the search going.”

The NFL’s an unforgiving place, and, as a seasoned vet within coaching circles, Bob Wylie knows that there’s no such thing as job security. Hell, he even found out about being fired by the Browns from his daughter while the coach was in the hospital rehabbing a serious ankle and knee injury.

“My daughter called me and said, ‘Hey, dad, you just got fired today,’’ Wylie said. “That’s the first time I head about it. I was laying in hospital bed. They packed up my office and they put my office in storage because I was still in the hospital. So that’s how it all kind of went down. That stuff happens in the National Football League.”

With such high expectations for the Browns this season after acquiring Odell Beckham Jr. and Kareem Hunt, among others, this offseason, the team — and Freddie Kitchens, in particular — have the chance to prove Bob Wylie wrong. We’ll have to see if the longtime beleaguered franchise can make the guy bite his tongue when all is said and done.

(H/T Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Nick Dimengo avatar
Nick's a Sr. Editor for BroBible, mainly relying on his Sports Encyclopedia-like mind to write about things. He's also the co-host of the BroBible podcast "We Run This," and can be seen sweating his ass off while frequently running 10+ miles around Seattle.