We are Free!! Jason Garrett will no longer be calling the plays or be on the sideline for anymore Giant games.I do not want to get my hopes up too much as Freddie Kitchens was the Head Coach for the Browns in their very underwhelming 2019 season. Kitchens was however promoted to interim Offensive Coordinator for half of the 2018 season where Baker Mayfield arguably played his best stretch of Football.
Kitchens is an aggressive play-caller and not afraid to attack the defense. We will be seeing more play calls that will be putting the defense in positions to make decisions. Not just more read options and RPOs, but also slant-flat patterns where a receiver will run a slant and a tight end or running back will run into the flat leaving the defender covering that zone to decide who will be open.
Kitchens does only have 4 days before playing Philadelphia, so I do not expect to see an entirely new offense trotted out there on Sunday. I do imagine there are many of his and Russ Callaways Concepts in the playbook that we just very rarely see because Garrett is so stuck in his system. I have talked before about how the first drive seems to look significantly better for this offense and how that is potentially in large part due to the coaches putting their heads together to script the drive. From my seat, Garrett had little persuasion around the first drive and did what he wanted for the most part the remainder of the game.
What I do expect to see a big difference in is the play calling on third downs and in the Red Zone. We will not be seeing roll outs that cut the field in half on 4th and 1s. I expect to see more shots taken down the field; specifically in the 30-40 yard line going in range or the “Strike Zone” that Peyton and Eli called it on the ManningCast. I predict Kenny Golladay becoming a vocal point of the passing game and getting athletes like John Ross and Kadarius Toney to catch the ball in stride to make a play, similar to how OBJ used to catch those slants in stride.
I did say yesterday that I do not believe Kitchens is the OC for the future. But the more I think about it, the more I think I am wrong. The more I read about things that have happened behind the scenes, the more I think Garrett was hired because of the Maras and the firing took so long because of the Maras. Kitchens did well while only OC in Cleveland and he did well before the season got away. Cleveland Fired their Head Coach and promoted him which is a very odd position to be in. It could have also been a case similar to Pat Shurmur where he was a horrible head coach, lost the locker room and the players gave up.
I am happy this move was made, I do not expect to see the scheme change too much. I do expect to see better play calling and a bit more wrinkles in the offense. If the offense does well for the remainder of the season, which they easily could with a lot of weak defenses, it will look very good for Joe Judge. The way judge went about this was also very strategic and clever. He kept saying “It is our job to put the players in a position to make plays, and we haven’t done that.” He kept turning the struggles onto the coaches and said they have to do better. If he still has the locker room and they can string together a few wins in the second half, put up points and play competitive football down the stretch it will look good for Judge and give me a better feeling for the future. Which I am so tired of saying, but there needs to be something to look forward to and right now there just isn’t.
A Fan With A Mic 