Rumors: 3 New names in Cleveland Browns coaching search

Williams, Kitchens

In the re-heating the cold pizza department, Gregg Williams’ stock only goes up amongst the fans with each win he captures.

And although he looked poised to land an interview, he by no means has an inside track to the job.

Ian Rapoport said the veteran coach isn’t a front runner “or anything close” for the full-time gig.

Rapoport wrote what the local media in Cleveland have been talking about for a few weeks now, that Cleveland will cast a wide net in its coaching search.

The plan seems to be to pair someone with Mayfield for the next 10 years with the idea of forming the next great coach-quarterback tandem.

Williams, who’s in his 60s, has done a great job steadying the ship, but the way Rapoport writes it, he doesn’t appear to be in the team’s head coaching plans moving forward.

Don’t rule him out, though, because as of right now, he’s only concrete candidate that’s actually announced to be given an interview.

And plus, he’s got some kind of advocate in Berea, most likely with Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta. The analytics guru reportedly saw to it that Williams ascend to head coach after Hue’s firing, and not then offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who was also fired.

Kitchens name is also still out there, and Rapoport wrote about the assistant earring the right to be a coordinator somewhere in the NFL for the 2019 campaign.

A couple coordinators on this list though don’t have much more experience as coordinators as Kitchens. For example, Flores is in his first year in charge of the Patriots defense.

Perhaps the Browns’ go the route the Rams went with Sean McVay. They liked him as a head coach, but knew he probably wasn’t ready when they were looking at him for the gig before the 2017 season.

They opted to give him the job aways, instead of facing the risk of losing him and it worked out.