CLEVELAND -- Freddie Kitchens sat at a podium inside the club level of FirstEnergy Stadium with his familiar two days growth of facial hair, an ill-fitting brown suit with an orange tie and a khaki Cleveland Browns dad hat.
“Just so you guys know, John was supposed to wear his hat today too,” Kitchens said afterward, referring to Browns general manager John Dorsey.
To say that Kitchens looked less than presidential would be an understatement. And yet there the 44-year-old Gadsden, Alabama, native sat, having just been introduced as the 17th head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
In some ways, his introductory press conference was conventional -- Dorsey introduced Kitchens, who proceeded to command the room with answers that doubled as future slogans for Cleveland's bustling t-shirt economy. But given both his track record -- or lack thereof -- and general demeanor, it would be tough to call anything about the Browns hiring of Kitchens is traditional.
So how did we get here?
At this point, you probably already know Kitchens' path to the podium he occupied on Monday.
After years -- 11 to be exact -- as a position coach in the NFL (and seven at the college level before that), the former Alabama quarterback arrived in Cleveland last January as the running backs coach on new offensive coordinator Todd Haley's staff. But while Carlos Hyde and (especially) Nick Chubb enjoyed success under Kitchens' direction, his big break didn't come until late-October when head coach Hue Jackson and Haley were fired.
With defensive coordinator Gregg Williams promoted to interim head coach, Kitchens was given the role of offensive coordinator. At that point, the little-known assistant was far from Dorsey's radar when it came to hiring Jackson's full-time replacement.
“No, he wasn’t," Dorsey admitted. "But that does not mean that he is not a qualified coach."
It didn't take long for him to prove as much.
As the Browns proceeded to amass a 5-3 record following their midseason firings, Kitchens' candidacy didn't only begin, it seemingly grew stronger with each passing week. And while Dorsey couldn't identify the exact point in the season in which Kitchens became a part of the discussion, it's a safe bet it came during the stretch in which Cleveland won five of the six games prior to its season-ending Week 17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
"We sat and met on a regular basis for nine weeks, the committee did," Dorsey said. "We wanted to lay out the format, the structure, the planning process and then go identify certain quality candidates that were going to match up with those.
"What was wonderful was that he had his full display of his resume was at work there for eight weeks," Dorsey said. "So you had to pay attention to that as well."
Although Dorsey downplayed the role that Baker Mayfield in Kitchens' hiring, it would also be naive to think the Browns didn't consider their rookie quarterback's development when choosing their head coach. In eight games under Kitchens' tutelage, the former No. 1 pick emerged as one of the top quarterbacks in football, completing 69.8 percent of his passes for 2,254 yards and 19 touchdowns.
That the Browns would want to continue to pair Mayfield with an offensive mind like Kitchens' in today's age of football was perhaps academic. And while Dorsey didn't say as much, one could surmise that such thinking ruled out the possibility of retaining Williams, who will reportedly join Adam Gase's New York Jets staff as defensive coordinator.
"What we were looking for is the future of the organization moving forward," Dorsey said when asked about Williams' candidacy. "All we constantly came back on – ‘what is the future good of the organization?’"
The answer to that question may not have been the obvious one. But so long as Dorsey found the correct one, that's all anyone will remember.