CLEVELAND — “There is no I in team.”
And certainly, there will not be within the Cleveland Browns’ locker room under the direction of new head coach Freddie Kitchens, who was introduced as the franchise’s 17th full-time on-field leader at the 7Up City Club at FirstEnergy Stadium Monday.
“Some of these things I am using from the interview, because I truly believe it,” Kitchens said. “The letter ‘I’ is a letter. It is not a word. When it is used as a word, you have problems. That is the No. 1 thing that you will not ever hear. It is ‘we,’ ‘us’ and ‘our,’ because we are all going to take ownership in this thing.
“You know what? It is going to make it that much more special when we get to the top. Two is one and one is none. We are going to have a lot of twos. We are all going to be together. Coaching staff, I know (GM) John (Dorsey) and I are looking forward to working together. John’s staff, Paul’s (DePodesta) staff, everybody is going to be together. Ultimately, at the end of the day, we all want the same thing. Now, get there in the same direction.”
With Kitchens at the helm of the offense, the Browns finished the second half of the 2018 season with a 5-3 record, which gave the team a 7-8-1 mark for the whole year, their best finish since their 10-6 showing in 2007.
Under Kitchens’ direction, quarterback Baker Mayfield completed 180 of his 263 attempts (68.4 percent) for 2,254 yards and 19 touchdowns against eight interceptions. Mayfield averaged 281.75 yards and 2.375 touchdowns per game with Kitchens calling the plays.
First-year rusher Nick Chubb finished the 2018 season, one in which he was seldom used in the first seven games, with 996 yards and eight touchdowns on 192 carries. Chubb had 11 20-yard runs, four 40-yard bursts and 47 first-down conversions.
Chubb rushed for 788 of his 996 yards and five of his eight touchdowns on 140 carries with Kitchens calling the plays.
“They made a decision,” Kitchens said. “That is what I asked them. With our coaches, this is not just me now. We had coaches that were vested in this, too. Everybody came together and they made the decision that they wanted to be better than what they were. That is what happened. It was not my stamp.”
Kitchens has proven the “We over me” mentality several times since taking the head coach job, as he has built his first coaching staff with experienced coordinators in Steve Wilks (defense), Todd Monken (offense) and Mike Priefer (special teams).
Not one to shy away from answering questions, Kitchens believes the better the men in the room, the higher the chances of winning.
“I like guys that strive to be great and I think that Steve does that,” Kitchens said. “I also like guys that strive to have an environment of learning and strive to have an environment of listening, being together and being a part of a team.
“I can’t tell you how many staffs I have been on that were not like that. It was all a bunch of individuals and individuals are not going to win. I said it earlier, two is one and one is none, and I live by that. The letter ‘I’ is I. It is not a ‘we.’ It is not a word. ‘I’ is not a word, so I like people like that. I like surrounding myself with people like that and Steve is like that.”
