BEREA, Ohio — Former Cleveland Browns offensive line coach Bob Wylie had some strongly-worded answers to questions about who was responsible for the team’s second-half turnaround in 2018 when he appeared on The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio last week.
Following Monday’s practice, Browns coach Freddie Kitchens responded to Wylie’s comments.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kitchens said. “Bob doesn’t wear orange and brown anymore. I had the opportunity to hire Bob. I didn’t want to.
“I went to the hospital to see Bob every week he was in the hospital. I Facetimed Bob before every game, before we went out as a staff just so he would continue to feel a part of it. At what point does Bob realize that it was the players, and not the coaches, that turned it around?”
During the interview, Wylie stated the belief that Ken Zampese, and not Kitchens, was responsible for quarterback Baker Mayfield’s success over the second half of the 2018 season, as well as the opinion that Kitchens got the head coaching position because he has the favor of the starting signal-caller.
Also, Wylie expressed the belief that interim coach Gregg Williams was too strong of a personality for general manager John Dorsey to hire on a permanent, full-time basis.
“I know Bob Wylie to be a good person, and out of respect for his family, I won’t get into any of that because he’s a father, he’s a husband, he’s a granddad,” Kitchens said. “I would just say this about that whole situation. Bob knows what happened. Bob knows what was going on, and when he was here, he knew everything about it.
“That was last year. Listen, Bob wasn’t under contract. He forgot to tell everybody that. He wasn’t under contract. He’d been talking about retiring forever. Sometimes, when a person says something, they have to be made to feel relevant. Bob’s a good person, and I don’t want to lose sight of that. I have too much respect for him.”
At 2-5-1 following a 33-18 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on October 28 and in the middle of an unprecedented midseason coaching staff upheaval, the 2018 Browns looked to be anything but a team capable of the greatest year-to-year turnaround in franchise history.
But a 5-3 record over the second half of the season and a three-game winning streak in December secured the Browns’ greatest turnaround in team history, as they finished plus-7.5 in victories over last year’s winless campaign.
Also, with a 26-18 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals at FirstEnergy Stadium on December 23, the Browns finished off their first regular-season sweep of an AFC North Division opponent since 2002.
“Whoever you want to give the credit to, whoever wants it can get it, but I know this, I know where the credit needs to be,” Kitchens said. “It needs to be on the players because they made a decision to do it, not Bob, not me, not anybody. Bob didn’t go out and plan a down, the players did.”
Then, Kitchens went on to say he does not care if any credit or more blame comes his way and expects Browns matters to be handled internally from here on out.
“The days of inside information and the days of unnamed sources have ended,” Kitchens said. “You’re not going to get information like that, ever, from anybody, and if I ever see it, they’re fired immediately. That’s the way we’re running this organization. I can take it. John Dorsey can take it. We won’t crack, I promise you.”