New Cleveland Browns coach Mike Pettine put together a staff that he hopes will help him resurrect the moribund franchise.
Pettine was hired last month after the Browns dismissed coach Rob Chudzinski. The Browns finished 4-12 in Chudzinski’s one season. It has now been 11 years since the team last made the playoffs.
The first-year coach finalized his staff on Thursday with an official announcement from the team. At the top of the list are offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and defensive coordinator Jim O’Neil.
“Kyle Shanahan is one of the best offensive minds in football,” Pettine said. “When I’ve been on the defensive side and have had conversations with people about how I wanted to build an offense, usually when we went against, Houston or Washington, it’s going to be a style similar to that. It’s aggressive, very creative, but at the same time very fundamentally sound. It challenges a defense.
“Kyle had a great interview. What came out in that is that he’s firm, he’s fair, but you can tell that he’s very demanding. When I talked about wanting to have a coaching staff that was going to set high standards and give players a high level of what to shoot for, that I knew that I was hiring a guy that was going to hold those players accountable and to those standards.”
O’Neil and Pettine are familiar with one another. They were on the Buffalo Bills’ staff together and O’Neil played for Pettine’s father in high school.
“Jim is a tenacious coach. Again, smart, he’s tough, he’s creative and he and I have done it together,” Pettine said. “He’s been at my side for the last five years when I was a coordinator. … Just like Kyle, he’s going to set high standards. He’s going to be firm. He’s going to be fair. I think that the players are going to instantly respect the guys that w’’ve hired as well as the rest of the coaching staff.”
Pettine named George DeLeone assistant offensive line coach, Chris DiSanto assistant strength and conditioning coach, Richard Hightower offensive quality control coach, Dowell Loggains quarterbacks coach, Derik Keyes assistant strength and conditioning coach, Mike McDaniel wide receivers coach, Andy Moeller offensive line coach, Wilbert Montgomery running backs coach, Paul Ricci strength and conditioning coach, Tony Tuioti defensive quality control coach and Anthony Weaver defensive line coach.
Also on the staff are Chris Tabor (special teams) and assistants Brian Angelichio (tight ends), Bobby Babich (assistant secondary), Chuck Driesbach (linebackers), Brian Fleury (assistant linebackers), Jeff Hafley (secondary) and Shawn Mennenga (assistant special teams).
Shanahan worked for his father, Mike, in Washington until the head coach was let go after the 2013 season.
“This is my first time getting a chance to work for a defensive coach and I’m kind of excited with that,” Shanahan said. “I’ve always been with an offensive guy, and to be with a good defensive staff, I think that defense is one of the most important things to winning games and I’m really looking forward to it.”
One of the big questions facing Shanahan will be the quartrback situation and whether the Browns will draft a quarterback after ending the 2013 season with Jason Campbell, Brandon Weeden and injured Brian Hoyer.
“I’ve started one rookie before so that’s my experience with that,” Shanahan said. “When we brought Robert (Griffin III) in, I thought the challenges of that was, any time you bring a rookie in and you start him right away, you’ve got to find out what they do good. You have to make sure that you put them in a situation to be successful. Don’t ask too much of them.”
DeLeone is a veteran coach of 41 seasons, including the last three at Connecticut where he served as offensive coordinator from 2011-12 and associate head coach/offensive line in 2013. On the professional level, he was the San Diego Chargers offensive line coach (1997) and the tight ends coach for the Miami Dolphins (2008-10).
DiSanto first joined the Browns as assistant strength and conditioning coach in 2013. DiSanto spent the 2012 season in the same position at the University of California. He served four seasons (2008-11) as assistant strength and conditioning coach with the Oakland Raiders.
Hightower, who spent the past four seasons with the Washington Redskins, owns eight years of coaching experience, including seven in the NFL. After spending two years (2010-11) as the Redskins’ assistant special teams coach, Hightower acquired additional duties assisting the defensive backs in 2012.
Loggains spent the past eight years (2006-13) with the Tennessee Titans. He served as the offensive coordinator in 2013 and during the final five games in 2012. Loggains was the Titans quarterbacks coach from 2010-12.
Keyes first joined the Browns as assistant strength and conditioning coach in 2013. He spent the 2012 season in the same capacity with the Houston Texans.
McDaniel spent the past three seasons with the Washington Redskins, first as an offensive assistant (2011-12) before serving last season as wide receivers coach.
Moeller spent the past six seasons (2008-13) with the Baltimore Ravens. He was an assistant offensive coach for three years before spending the past three as offensive line coach.
Montgomery spent the past six seasons (2008-13) as the Baltimore Ravens running backs coach. During his time in Baltimore, the Ravens made five playoff appearances, captured two division titles and won Super Bowl XLVII.
Ricci spent the past two seasons (2012-13) as an assistant strength and conditioning coach with the New York Jets.
Tuioti spent the past six seasons at Hawaii. He served as the team’s linebackers coach (2012-13), defensive tackles coach (2010-11) and director of player personnel (2008-09).
Weaver spent last season as the defensive line coach with the Buffalo Bills. Prior to Buffalo, he spent the 2012 season as the assistant defensive line coach with the New York Jets.