Browns hire Kirby Wilson to lead running game
January 20, 2016The Rebound: Cavs-Nets, Behind the Box Score
January 21, 2016Hue Jackson filled out his cabinet Wednesday. Ray Horton, who was the Browns defensive coordinator in 2013, will return to that same post in 2016. Veteran offensive coach Al Saunders, who was offensive coordinator under Hue Jackson in Oakland, will be a senior assistant. Former Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton will be quarterbacks and associate head coach. Offensive line coach Hal Hunter was with Hamilton in Indianapolis and will join him in Cleveland.
Ray Horton is likely the most familiar name to Browns fans. He was hired in January 2013 to serve as defensive coordinator under then-head coach Rob Chudzinski. After the 2013 Browns went 4-12, Horton was fired as part of the Great Purge that also saw Chudzinski and, later, GM Mike Lombardi relieved of duties.
Horton’s Browns were mediocre defensively, but they did well in some areas. They allowed 25 points per game, 23rd best in the league, but ranked ninth in the league in yards allowed. Though no one player had more than 5.5 sacks, they had 40 as a team — for comparison, 37 was league average this season. It was a unit that struggled on third downs and late in games, but it was still 30 points stingier than the 2015 Browns.
He spent the last two years as defensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans. Like the 2013 Browns, the 2015 Titans finished better in the rankings of yardage than points — 12th in the former, 27th in the latter. Their sack output was similar to the 2013 Browns as well. They had 39 total sacks, but no player had more than seven.
[See Also: Browns hire Kirby Wilson to lead running game]
Al Saunders was Hue Jackson’s offensive coordinator in 2011, when both were with the Oakland Raiders. Jackson was fired in 2011, but Saunders stuck around as an offensive assistant until 2014; he spent last year as an offensive assistant in Miami. The man is 68 years old, and he has experience.
Saunders has 45 years of football coaching experience. He started as an assistant at USC in 1970. On his way to the Browns he coached at five colleges and for eight NFL teams. He was an NFL head coach for three years (San Diego Chargers, 1986-88) and from 1989 to 1998 he held dual titles of receivers coach and assistant head coach with the Kansas City Chiefs. He has been called an offensive coordinator, offensive consultant, and senior offensive assistant since 2001. He was on the coaching staffs of the Air Coryell Chargers, the Martyball Chiefs, and the Greatest Show on Turf Rams.
Again, the man has experience.
Alfonza “Pep” Hamilton is the baby of the bunch at 41 years old. He coordinated the offense of Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts for the past three years. He was at Stanford — also with Andrew Luck — for the three years before that. Hamilton played quarterback for Howard from 1993-96, and started as a graduate assistant at the school immediately after.
The Colts offense was pretty bad in 2015 (28th in yards, 24th in points), but Luck only played seven games. It was average in 2013 (15th in yards, 14th in points), but Luck was a rookie. 2014 was Luck and Hamilton’s best. The Colts ranked third in both yards and points, and first in passing yards and touchdowns. The Browns certainly don’t have an Andrew Luck, but maybe they’ll take another Pac-12 quarterback in Jared Goff.
Hal Hunter has been in coaching since 1977. He was an assistant offensive line coach in Indianapolis from 2013-15, having spent seven years with the Chargers before that. He spent nearly 30 years coaching in college. He started at California University of Pennsylvania in 1977, and by 1995 he was at LSU. He has a perfect winning percentage as a head coach in the SEC — he coached LSU for one game after Garry DiNardo was fired in 1999.
All in all, these hires, and that of Kirby Wilson as running game coordinator, seem to have been well received by the greater football commentariat. Each has plenty of experience in his field, and most have coached notable units. Hue’s crew is starting to come together.
16 Comments
Hey WFNY guys and gals, do me a favor. If the Browns have a press conference planned soon to announce their new coaching hires, Ray Horton is there, and one of you were able to get in, ask Ray if he has learned anything new to help improve the defense on 3rd down and red zone situations please? Thanks!!
I’ll say it: I am underwhelmed.
What did you expect? And I don’t mean this sarcastically.
hey , at least his staff is a group of knowledgeable veterans & not a bunch of first-time , snot-nosed up-and-comers … maybe we should see how they do first & then judge.
I have said it before, but am no longer going to get emotional about coaching/manager hires. Anyone that I think is good ends up not being good (well I guess that has been all coaches the last 20 years)
Seconded. Are there better options out there? I really can’t think of a single one.
I’m fine with all of these except for Horton. I did not like what I saw from him the last go round, and nothing I’ve read about his work in Tennessee since inspires any confidence. Plus this decision means we stick to the 3-4, which I continue to believe is a fundamental mistake given our personnel, and we’ve been making that mistake for years now. Horton as DC is cause for significantly more concern than Hue calling his own plays.
That’s how I feel about the coaches in general. Hue was hired? I give 0 effs. Show me a team at or above .500 and we can talk.
It’s a fair question. I agree that these guys are solid vet coaches who have had SOME succes in the right situations. So its tough to really do better than this, and I understand the thinking involved in the hirs.
But, for me, I have a slight preference for younger guys that are high-talent coordinators but less experienced. Flip was a great example of this. Patricia in NE is a good example – Belichick elevated him out of nowhere and he has performed. It seems like the best coordinators in the league tend to be younger guys that have talent and get a chance to shine.
Hue has hired exclusively experience guys. Would have liked to see a younger guy in the mix. Maybe Pep is that guy. We’ll see.
very well …
hi B-BO … get ray horton some real talent first & then let’s see what he’s made of … it appears his 3-4 scheme is a hybrid & will be a cover 2 with some 4-5-2 alignments.
he wants big guys that can run & little guys that can hit … some of our current players do not fit this profile.
I am still waiting on the most important hire – the talent evaluator/ pro personnel guy/ GM. Picking the talent is the single most important job. Let’s hope they hit a home run with this hire.
Good players make good coaches. Until this franchise gets a front office capable of drafting and signing ACTUAL GOOD PLAYERS getting one’s dander up about coaches is a fruitless exercise.
Honestly, I have no idea if Rob Chudzinski or Mike Pettine are good or bad head coaches. They both had crap to work with. (I’m pretty sure Pat Shurmur is bad, though.)
I would agree on Chud. He got a raw deal and who knows. I’m pretty convinced that Pettine was a bad choice. He was one of the reasons we had personnel problems (Gilbert pick), his defense was absolutely terrible, and a large part of this was his DC. Team played soft and game management ranged from barely good to horrible.
He might say, stop passing the ball and sometimes. The d was on the field so much his last go around… everything needs to be better… not just one out of a hundred
I agree that Chud got screwed a bit. I would have liked to see him get 2 seasons to see what happens. I’m not sure you can evaluate a head coach and staff in 1 season, especially a first year HC.
On Justin Gilbert, a question I’ve asked myself many times, Why is he not the one returning punts and kickoffs? The guy was a STUD as a returner in college. Maybe he could provide some of the spark we seem to lack sometimes.