When John Dorsey began his tenure at Kansas City, the head coach was already in place. Same with the Browns.
But technically, he's already hired his first coach. Dorsey tagged Gregg Williams as interim coach two weeks back after the Browns parted ways with coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley. In the two weeks since, the Browns have looked competent and competitive. In other words, they don't look like a team that shuffled up its coaching staff at the midpoint of the season.
"Over the last two weeks, I think that Gregg (Williams) has done a real nice job in terms of having this team focused on the task at hand, which is winning," Dorsey said. "He has put some discipline in there. He has reduced the number of penalties, which I think is good. I think he has done a really nice job."
Nice enough to earn an interview for the job permanently, but as Dorsey said above, Williams' job for the next six weeks is much more important than a prospective job at the end of that period.
Williams is tasked with to guiding his players through the rest of the season alongside offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens, a first-time NFL play-caller. Williams has assigned extra responsibilities to his son, linebackers coach Blake Williams, too. As Dorsey said yesterday on 92.3 The Fan's "Bull & Fox" show, "he's coaching coaches, too."
Regardless of whether Williams ends up earning the job full time, his role in the interim has been and will continue to be vital. He's lifted the Browns out of a deep rut, upped the competitiveness in practice -- a difference Dorsey has noticed since Williams took over -- and the Browns' young players are growing.
Dorsey's been impressed with the efforts of Kitchens and Blake Williams, too. Williams deserves credit for a lot of the improvements and stability in a time of turmoil. And if the Browns can turn Sunday's win against Atlanta into a string of victories, that will be exactly what Dorsey and the Browns envisioned when they made sweeping changes at the halfway mark.
But what Dorsey said in response to a question about Kitchens applies to everyone.
"Let's see what happens," he said, "as we continue to play six more games of football."
