Browns have interest for RB coach Duce Staley; would they interview Deshaun Watson’s ex OC?
|The Browns face competition for Duce Staley, the former Panthers running backs coach whom they interviewed this week.
Staley, 48, would take over for Stump Mitchell, who was dismissed on Wednesday, along with the Browns’ offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt and tight ends coach T.C. McCartney.
Staley spent the day interviewing with the Browns at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus in Berea, and a league source told Cleveland.com that they want to make him an offer. However, the Jets intend to follow suit, according to a source.
In Cleveland, Staley would take over a running game that finished 12th in the NFL this season after losing four-time Pro Bowl running back Nick Chubb to a season-ending knee injury in Week 2. In Chubb’s absence, the Browns carried the ball by committee, with Jerome Ford leading the way with 813 yards (4.0 average) and four touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt coming in second with 411 yards (3.0 average) and a team-high nine running scores. Pierre Strong Jr. finished third on the squad with 291 yards (4.6 average) and one touchdown.
However, the running game faltered in the 45-14 wild card round defeat to the Texans, gaining 56 yards on 20 carries for a 2.8-yard average against the league’s sixth-best run defense.
Staley, a third-round pick by the Eagles out of South Carolina in 1997, won a Super Bowl as a player for the Steelers in 2005 and as running backs coach for the Eagles in 2017. Staley played five of his ten seasons in Philadelphia (2011-20) with Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, including on the Super Bowl-winning club that upset the Patriots 41-33 following the 2017 season.
He also worked as the Lions’ assistant head coach and running backs coach in 2021 and 2022, as well as the Panthers’ assistant head coach and running backs coach in 2023. In November, the Panthers dismissed Staley, head coach Frank Reich, and quarterbacks coach Josh McCown after going 1-10. Their offensive ended last in the NFL, with the run game ranking 20th.
With Chubb coming off multiple knee surgeries, the Browns could be searching for aid in the room, as well as new ideas at the position following five seasons with Mitchell.
Will the Browns interview Deshaun Watson’s former Texans OC Tim Kelly?