New York Giants head coach Joe Judge didn’t want Freddie Kitchens to take time off after the Cleveland Browns fired him.
This past December, Freddie Kitchens fell victim to a one-and-done tenure as the Cleveland Browns head coach. After his promotion prior to the 2019 season, Kitchens and the Browns finished 6-10 and missed the postseason. This promoted the organization to not even wait until “Black Monday” to fire him. They instead parted ways with Kitchens the night of their Week 17 defeat.
Nonetheless, Kitchens has found a new job since then. The New York Giants and head coach Joe Judge recently hired him to be their tight ends coach. Judge and Kitchens have a prior connection to one another, and according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, the former really wanted the latter on his staff.
From Super Bowl Live: Former #Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens is back, joining the #Giants and old friend Joe Judge as TE coach. pic.twitter.com/UCQFAY2fxZ
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 27, 2020
“From what I understand, Kitchens was strongly leaning towards taking a year off, taking a breath and rebooting his career after everything that happened in Cleveland this year — but he and Joe Judge are very good friends,” Rapoport said. “Joe was adamant that Kitchens join him on his staff.”
In 2004, Judge was playing in his senior season at Mississippi State University, the same year Kitchens was the tight ends coach for the Bulldogs. During the following campaign, Judge became a graduate assistant at MSU while Kitchens started coaching the running backs.
Big Blue will be the third NFL team that’s employed Kitchens as a tight ends coach. He previously served in that role for the Dallas Cowboys in 2006 and the Arizona Cardinals from 2007-12.
