Cleveland Browns: Will more than one first-year head coach get fired?

Despite leading the AFC North through the first month of the year, Freddie Kitchens will be scrutinized all year leading the Cleveland Browns. Is he safe?

The Cleveland Browns are one of several teams that are using a first-time head coach this season. While Freddie Kitchens has his team at 2-2 and atop the AFC North through four weeks, he has been under great scrutiny since being named head coach. Could he or any other first-year head coach go one-and-done in 2019?

On this week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Josh Hill, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, take a look at if it is possible for more than one first-year head coach to be fired this season (48:03).

“I’m out on that. I’m not even sure one is getting fired,” said Schwartz. On the contrary, Verderame is in on this. He believes that Kliff Kingsbury of the Arizona Cardinals and Zac Taylor of the Cincinnati Bengals are safe because those are obvious rebuilding situations.

However, he does see a pathway where Kitchens could be one-and-done. “If the Browns go 7-9 or something and they’re a disaster and the offense is bitching at the end of this thing, I wouldn’t be shocked. It wouldn’t be the first time the Browns are one-and-done with a head coach.”

Verderame would add that if the Miami Dolphins go 0-16 under Brian Flores, that could be in play, too. But the other team he thinks could go one-and-done with their head coach is the Denver Broncos with Vic Fangio.

“If they are completely off the rails, and they are well on their way to doing that out in Denver, and they go 2-14, I wouldn’t be shocked if they look at the situation and go, ‘look, we need a quarterback.’ I don’t care that they took Drew Lock in the second round. If they could take Tua [Tagovailoa] or [Justin] Herbert, they have to do it.”

To be fair, firing a head coach after one season is very rare, but it does happen. The Cardinals did it last year with new Browns defensive coordinator Steve Wilks. Cleveland will probably win too many games this season for them to part ways with Kitchens, as they are in contention to win its division for the first time in 30 years. If the Browns make the playoffs, no question he stays.

Here are a few other topics that were discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

• Good Morning, Football‘s and The NFL Today‘s Nate Burleson says he hopes Jalen Ramsey “gets over it” and stays with the Jacksonville Jaguars (25:40).
• Does Dwayne Haskins save Jay Gruden’s job with the Washington Redskins (43:15)?
• The Detroit Lions are indeed a real playoff contender (44:50).
• Was Vontaze Burfict’s suspension overkill (50:35)?

All this and more!

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