Browns fire Hue Jackson, Todd Haley; Gregg Williams is interim coach for Chiefs game
Things were moving fast in Cleveland on Monday. Chiefs coach Andy Reid was expressing regret for a fellow coach as the Browns’ Hue Jackson lost his job earlier in the day. Kansas City visits Cleveland for a noon game Sunday.
“I hate seeing that it happened, Reid said. “It’s a tough business.”
Teams that change coaches in midseason don’t often alter their approach, Reid said, because they have too much invested in the season.
“And they didn’t change the offensive or defensive coordinator,” Reid said.
Reid was then informed that Browns offensive coordinator Todd Haley, the former Chiefs head coach, also was out.
“Stick with the process,” Reid said.
It was Reid’s way of saying what occurred in Cleveland on Monday won’t alter the Chiefs’ plans or intentions for Sunday’s game.
“We do what we do, that’s the most important thing,” Reid said. “I don’t think they’re going to change much. There might be a wrinkle here or there but you can’t turn the whole terminology, the whole thing.”
The Browns interim coach is Gregg Williams, the defensive coordinator who is from Excelsior Springs and coached Belton High School, and running backs coach Freddie Kitchens will be the offensive coordinator.
Williams has head coaching experience. He went 17-31 with the Buffalo Bills from 2001-03.
Jackson was fired after Sunday’s loss at Pittsburgh dropped his Cleveland record to 3-36-1. The Browns take a 2-5-1 record into the Chiefs’ game, and they ended a 19-game winless streak earlier this year, including the NFL’s second 0-16 season.
But Jackson and Haley, hired this year after spending five seasons on the Steelers’ staff, never seemed to get along and the Browns are trying to develop quarterback Baker Mayfield, the overall top selection in last spring’s draft.
Mayfield didn’t play in the Browns’ first two games but he replaced Tyrod Taylor against the New York Jets on Sept. 20 and led Cleveland to its streak-breaking victory. He has been the starter since then.
“The message today is that we’re not going to put up with any internal discord,” Browns owner Jimmy Haslam said at a news conference on Monday.
The coaching drama pushed to the background Sunday’s quarterback matchup that pits Mayfield, who walked on at Texas Tech before transferring to Oklahoma, against Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes started his Tech career after Mayfield transferred and rewrote the school’s passing record book, while Mayfield won the Heisman Trophy with the Sooners.
The Chiefs went through an interim coach season in 2011. Haley was fired after starting 5-8 and was replaced by Romeo Crennel. Reid was hired in 2013 and the organization has been a model of consistency, on its way to a sixth straight winning season and fifth playoff appearance with the Chiefs owning the AFC’s best record at 7-1.
Blair Kerkhoff
Blair Kerkhoff covers the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals and college sports for The Star.
This story was originally published October 29, 2018 at 11:30 AM with the headline "Browns fire Hue Jackson, Todd Haley; Gregg Williams is interim coach for Chiefs game."