CLEVELAND — First-year Cleveland Browns coach Kevin Stefanski is helping in the search for a new general manager, scouting players eligible for the 2020 NFL Draft, evaluating tape of his team from last year and filling out a coaching staff, all while being on the job for less than two weeks.
In building the coaching staff, Stefanski reportedly has made several changes, but at the Greater Cleveland Sports Awards Wednesday night, he announced the retention of three coaches from the 2019 season, special teams coordinator Mike Priefer, assistant special teams coach Doug Colman and run game coordinator/running backs coach Stump Mitchell.
“I’m committed to adding the right people to our building,” Stefanski said in a media scrum at the awards ceremony. “That remains to be seen, but we’re definitely looking at all avenues as we try to put a really good staff together.”
The reason Stefanski retained Mitchell was because of his work with running back Nick Chubb during the 2019 season.
Chubb had a breakout season and nearly led the entire NFL in rushing, as he ran for 1,494 yards, the fourth-most ever in a single season by a Browns player. For his efforts, Chubb was selected as a starter for the 2020 Pro Bowl.
The Browns made the rare decision to keep a rookie punter and first-year kicker in the same special teams room when training camp broke in August, but despite struggles with consistency at points during the season, both Jamie Gillan and Austin Seibert were named to the 2019 Pro Football Writers Association (PFWA) All-Rookie Team earlier this month.
After a standout career at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Gillan earned his way onto the Browns’ 53-man roster as an undrafted free agent and unseated a Pro Bowl-caliber punter, Britton Colquitt, along the way by improving on his holding and producing well throughout the offseason program, training camp and in preseason games.
Gillan finished his first NFL season with 63 punts for 2,913 yards, an average of 46.2 yards per kick, with only five touchbacks and 28 landing inside the opponents’ 20-yard line. Gillan had a long punt of 71 yards.
During the 2019 season, Gillan was sixth in the AFC in punting average, tied for fifth in net average (41.6 yards per punt) and tied for seventh in the conference in punts landing inside the opponents’ 20-yard line.
Gillan was honored with the AFC Special Teams Player of the Month Award for September and AFC Special Teams Player of the Week for his efforts in Week 2, when he landed five punts inside the 20-yard line in a 23-3 win at the New York Jets.
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Seibert was selected in the fifth round of the 2019 NFL Draft after playing his college ball at the University of Oklahoma, and despite inconsistencies during the offseason program, training camp and the preseason, he won the job over second-year incumbent Greg Joseph.
During the regular season, Seibert converted all 15 of his field goal attempts under 40 yards and held a nine-of-12 mark between 40 and 49 yards. On attempts of at least 50 yards, Seibert went one for two.
Overall, Seibert converted 25 of his 29 field goal attempts (86.2 percent) and 30 of his 35 extra point tries (85.7 percent) to go along with 30 touchbacks on 75 kickoffs with one punt on a fake that travelled 37 yards and landed inside the 20-yard line.