Friday morning was a rough one for a pair of former prominent Cleveland Browns coaches.
Bill Belichick released a statement announcing North Carolina’s decision to move on from both offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens, and special teams coordinator Mike Priefer. They likely won’t be the only staff changes after the Tar Heels struggled their way to a 4-8 season in Belichick’s first season running the program.
North Carolina's offense was… brutal in 2025. It finished the year ranked 119th in the FBS in scoring and 129th in total offense, per an ESPN report. Priefer's group wasn't much better after UNC was embarrassed by archrival Duke on a fake field goal that led to a 32-25 win for the Blue Devils inside Kenan Memorial Stadium.
While certainly not surprising, as the Tar Heels also got blown out by teams like TCU, Central Florida, Clemson and N.C. State, and never captured a signature win, all Friday's news really does is remind Browns fans of some dark times in franchise history — times they can only hope don’t resurface in 2026 as ownership contemplates the future.
Freddie Kitchens’ short-lived Browns era still leaves a scar
Kitchens held several roles for the Browns towards the end of the Hue Jackson era. In 2018 alone, he was the running backs coach, associate head coach and, later in the year, interim offensive coordinator.
He was promoted to head coach prior to the 2019 season, after the Browns decided to move on from defensive coordinator and interim HC Gregg Williams. But Cleveland’s attempt to pull off a Dan Campbell type of hire — years before Campbell even landed in Detroit — did not go as hoped.
In fact, owner Jimmy Haslam didn’t even wait until Black Monday to dismiss Kitchens, as he was fired shortly after the Browns dropped a lifeless season finale against the 1-14 Cincinnati Bengals. Afterwards, The Athletic’s Jason Lloyd delivered the brutal truth of a crumbling Browns locker room under a coach who was in well over his skis.
“As the season circled the drain these past few weeks, a handful of Browns players privately began shredding Kitchens. I don’t know if it was the majority who were unhappy with him or just a vocal minority. I do know that I’ve been doing this a long time, and I haven’t heard players speak about a coach the way some of these guys ripped Kitchens. Simply put, too many believed he didn’t know what he was doing.”
It all comes back to the Haslams, whose eye for leadership talent matched the team’s dismal win-loss record at the time. Since the owners fired Pat Shurmur at the conclusion of the 2012 season, the Browns rifled through five different head coaches in seven years before finally finding some stability under Kevin Stefanski, starting in 2020; the Browns went 28-83 overall during that stretch, from 2013-19.
Stefanski retained Priefer as his special teams coordinator when he took over as head coach, after they had previously worked together on Minnesota’s staff. He was somewhat surprisingly fired following the 2023 season, though, as the Browns eyed a potential upgrade in Bubba Ventrone; unfortunately, Cleveland’s 2025 special teams unit enters Week 15 as one of the worst in NFL history.
Browns fans are ready to move on from Stefanski, who after some early success with the team has slumped into a 6-24 rut over the past two seasons. At this point, it’s easy to feel their pain.
But those who remember the Rob Chudzinski, Mike Pettine, Hugh Jackson, Gregg Williams, Freddie Kitchens stretch of Browns football should be careful what they wish for. Stefanski might as well be Belichick compared to some of the leadership decisions this ownership group has made in the not-so-distant past.