Freddie Kitchens spent eight games calling the offensive plays for the Browns in 2018 and the team’s 5-3 record in those games helped vault him into the head coaching job, so his answer to a question about whether he’ll continue calling plays probably didn’t come as a great surprise.
Kitchens said that he will continue to call plays after moving up to the top job and talked about how offensive coordinator Todd Monken fits into the team he’s trying to build in Cleveland.
“I didn’t want to hire someone and just give them the title of offensive coordinator,” Kitchens said. “I wanted an offensive coordinator that just wasn’t going to call plays. And saying that, let me tell you about Todd Monken. He made the decision based on people. Our decisions here are going to be made on people. What type of person that is, what type of person are you going to be surrounded with? And Todd made the decision based on people. He had other opportunities and he came in and made the decision for what he’s going to be surrounded with and the environment that will be created moving forward.”
Monken has experience calling plays and found his way onto head coaching interview lists this offseason. Should the Browns do well in 2019, the fact that Monken wasn’t calling the plays probably won’t stop him from being a candidate again next year and in the future.