Cleveland Browns: Former coach suggests Gregg Williams intimidated John Dorsey

Bob Wylie has been rather critical of Cleveland Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens and now takes a shot at John Dorsey for not keeping Gregg Williams as the head coach

At this point, it’s starting to sound like a case of sour grapes for Bob Wylie. The former Cleveland Browns offensive line coach suddenly resurfaced and has been taking shots at his former team since doing so. First, he appeared on the ESPN morning show ‘Get Up!’ and said that he had concerns about Freddie Kitchens as the head coach.

Wylie went on from there and said the Browns would finish third in the division behind the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens. On Saturday, he was back at it again as he hit the airwaves on The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio and doubled-down on his comments.

After claiming Kitchens had little to do with the offensive turnaround — Wylie said quarterback coach Ken Zampese was the real brains behind the offense — he took aim at the general manager. Wylie said that Dorsey made the wrong hire as he passed over Gregg Williams, the interim coach during their 5-3 second half.

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Most interestingly, Wylie seemed to suggest that Dorsey was influenced by his past working relationship with Andy Reid while the two were in Kansas City. The former O-line coach hinted at Dorsey being intimidated by the thought of going head-to-head with the boisterous Williams.

"“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 on the show via Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com. “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.”"

From there Wylie got into what was probably the underlying reason for his harsh assessments. The veteran coach expressed frustration that Kitchens didn’t retain the majority of the staff when he took over. He claimed they helped Kitchens get his interview but then turned them all into “collateral damage.”

Being fair, it probably was frustrating for Wylie and many of the other coaches who were not retained by Kitchens. However, it also made plenty of sense.

Those coaches were under Hue Jackson’s staff and then later Gregg Williams when he took over. Had Williams stayed on board, he very likely may have kept many of the same people. As for Kitchens, he rose from running backs coach to interim offensive coordinator and finally head coach.

He never really had position coaches as that’s exactly what he was at this time last season. For him, it makes sense that he would want to hire his own staff rather than simply keep the guys who were part of the previous coaches crew.

Wylie, who said his daughter had to tell him he was fired while in the hospital, has been a coach since 1980 and should understand that’s what was going on when Kitchens made the moves he did. He doesn’t have to like it, but he should at least know that it wasn’t personal.