Dawgs By Nature
He was shocked to be let go after the 2023 season.
Stump Mitchell was the Browns’ running backs coach from 2019 to 2023, but was fired before the 2024 season as the team overhauled their offensive coaching staff (and now have overhauled it again, heading into the 2025 season). Mitchell joined The Hanford Dixon Show this past week for an interview, where he talked about a variety of topics from his time with the team.
Mitchell was asked if he was shocked about being let go after the team’s magical playoff season with Joe Flacco. He said that he understands the business of overhauling coaching staffs, but he also thought his running backs had performed well, so he was shocked that Kevin Stefanski let him go. At the same time, he talked about understanding that he takes responsibility when his players make mistakes, referencing a dropped screen pass against the Atlanta Falcons that could have been a touchdown, and a holding call against the Detroit Lions that negated a big third down conversion.
What plays were Mitchell talking about? For the Falcons game, you have to go back to the 2022 season when Jacoby Brissett was under center for the Browns. There was this attempted screen pass at the end of the first half in which RB Kareem Hunt was wide open, but pressure forced an inaccurate deliver from the quarterback. I wouldn’t necessarily chalk this up to something that was the running back’s fault. Cleveland settled for a field goal, but ended up losing that game 20-17.
For the Lions’ reference, we had to go back to 2021, a game that Cleveland won 13-10. I couldn’t find any reference to the play that Mitchell talked about, so maybe his memory was a little fuzzy on that one.
Mitchell also talked about the fact that he wanted to get the most out of Hunt compared to his previous running backs coaches, but he didn’t feel he was able to get the most out of him. The translation to that seems to be that Mitchell felt Hunt was extremely talented, but he couldn’t find the best way to unleash that talent as a coach on gameday.
He also described a teaching moment with RB Pierre Strong, telling him about how the perception might be that he is getting bowled over by a defender, but that’s his job when the circumstance comes up, and that he was proud to see him take to that teaching:
Mitchell also praised RB Nick Chubb on his recovery and performance last season. You can watch his full interview here.
As of this moment, Duce Staley remains the Browns’ running backs coach after joining the staff in 2024, Chubb is set to be a free agent this offseason, and Kareem Hunt is competing for an AFC Championship later today with the Kansas City Chiefs.
