It's not good when your quarterback's mustache is getting better reviews than his passing game. | Source: Christian Petersen / Getty Images / AFP
Jarvis Landry and Freddie Kitchens gave more tabloid fodder for a Cleveland Browns squad that resembles a daytime soap more than an NFL team.
With a 38-24 loss to the Arizona Cardinals Sunday, it became official. Once again, the Cleveland Browns will miss the NFL postseason. For many fans, that is going to mean the season was a failure.
Many of those same people would characterize this season as a “dumpster fire.” Fair? From a football perspective—not really. They didn’t come close to living up to expectations, but those expectations were insanely high and never really attainable.
But from a personnel stance—absolutely. The Browns have a head coach in over his head, both on the field and away from it. Their superstar wide receiver, Odell Beckham Jr., is still all about the drama—just like he was in New York.
As for their star quarterback and preseason MVP-candidate, Baker Mayfield, he struggles to control his temper, and his facial hair got better reviews than his on-the-field performance. Oh—and let’s not forget about Myles Garrett.
In case all of that wasn’t enough, Freddie Kitchens and Jarvis Landry added a little more fuel to a Cleveland Browns season that’s featured more drama than a daytime soap opera.
With how the season has gone for the Browns, it is apparent that Freddie Kitchens is not ready to be a head coach in the NFL. He made that fact even more painfully clear when he said after Sunday’s loss that he doesn’t care about his job.
Was it true when he said it? Probably not. But common sense should have told him that statement was a bad idea.
It was not surprising when he tried to walk that comment back during his Monday press availability:
Does the statement hold any actual importance? No. But he shouldn’t have needed a day to come up with something different to say. Proclaiming that you don’t care about your job is never smart, regardless of the context.
The not-so-good part of the day for Jarvis Landry came early in the fourth quarter when he and Freddie Kitchens appeared to have a little spat on the sideline:
Both later brushed the incident off as no big deal; Landry said he was just imploring Kitchens to get him more involved. But, then Landry allegedly did something worse after the game.
According to one reporter, Landry and several other players were telling members of the Cardinals to try to trade for them in the offseason.
Is it true? We’ll never know unless Landry or one of the other players comes forward. The overwhelming response on Twitter, however, was negative.
Why leave one bad team for another, anyway? At least when Odell Beckham Jr. supposedly asked someone to trade for him, it was the 49ers.
It will be interesting to see what the Browns front office decides to do following the end of the season. Kitchens wasn’t impressive, but do they really want to start over—again? If they can get a big-name guy to come in, maybe, but otherwise it may be better to give things another season.
If Kareem Hunt is right, it sounds like the team needs to do a little soul searching:
He also made it sound like a few egos may be getting in the way. Whatever the issue is, something will need to change if next season is going to be any better than this one.
This article was edited by Josiah Wilmoth.
Last modified: January 22, 2020 11:40 PM UTC